The Lyttelton Times. Saturday Dec. 23, 1854.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 224, 23 December 1854, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times.

Saturday Dec. 23, 1854.

Saturday, 23, The Provincial Council have formally resolved that Coloxei, Campbell is unfit to hold die office of Registrar. A year ago they passed resolutions expressive of their disappointment and astonishment that Sir George Grey should have ventured to piace a man in so responsible an office as that of Registration, simply because lie had proved himself incapable of holding the office of Crown Lands. The public has been complaining of Colonel Campbell's incapacity ever since he appeared in this Province. L'ideed, we should have been very fortunate if it were only incapacity that we had to Complain of. But large powers are more

mischievous for the time in imbecile hands when guided by a disposition to do mischief than even in those of an able wrong-doer. What a more sensible man would have feared to do in consideration of the consequences Colonel Campbell did recklessly and ignorantly. His career at Akaroa, so ludicrous and yet so painful, has inflicted an injury upon this Province which we shall not readily get over. But we do not wish now to enter upon the subject of Col. Campbell's offences as Commissioner of Crown Lands. Even Sir George Grey became afraid at last that he might be called to account for the freaks of his officer. So, on his departure for England, he bequeathed Col. Campbell as a legacy to the Province. The fears of the Council turned out but too well founded. I Complaints began to pour in from private individuals that they could not get their deeds out of the Registration Office : he refused to give the Provincial Government any information as to what was going on in his office, and declined to obej^ the orders of his superiors. It may be said that he was in reality ignorant of what every one else was aware of, that his office had been placed by law under the control of the Provincial authorities. But even this wretched excuse existed no longer after the General Government had distinctly declared that they would not interfere. Although there was no sum placed on the General Estimates for the expenses of his Department, j ret he persisted in believing, or pretending to believe, that the General Government would pa}' those expenses. The Provincial Government were compelled to stop his salary in consequence of his repeated refusals to obey their instructions. But so anxious were they to deal leniently with him, attributing, as they did, his actions more to folly than to any thing else, that Col. Campbell was informed that if he would make an official statement as to the completion of the deeds which he had registered, the arrear of his salary should be paid up. The reply was that the Registrar had requested the General Government to take legal proceedings against the Provincial authorities. Poor man, he reminds us of Miss Flyte who was always looking for a judgment, and expected to build a fortune upon it. With this remarkable difference, however, that poor Miss Flyte's craziness did not lead her to go to law with every one around her. One insane suit was enough for her. Colonel Campbell has a great many strings to his bow, although so unfortunate in his legal advisers. We observe, by the bye, that the hon. member for Lyttelton, who acted as Colonel Campbell's legal adviser during the election of Superintendent, and whose desertion the late Registrar complained of so pathetically, came forward again the other day not to defend his old client, but to try to get his case heard in England ! he proposes that in the mean time he should remain in his office and receive an increased salary of £300! we presume as a reward for his official services. What can be the object of the hon. member ?

Now as to the question of pensioning Colonel Campbell or of giving him a sum of money on his evacuation of office, we confess we cannot understand how any one can entertain it for a moment. If it could be done with any consistency, we should be very glad of it; for it is a melancholy thing to see an old man leaving office unprovided for. But the majority of the Council remembered that they were dealing with their constituents' money—not with their own. They must be just, and not carelessly charitable. Why !(o pension an officer who is dismissed for misbehaviour is to offer a direct premium to incompetence and insubordination : to make no difference between the well and ill deserving is to degrade our rewards for public service and to declare our incompetence of judging between rteht and

wrong. Such a course would be wrong in principle and madness if put into practice. The sympathy which always in these our enlightened days attends more readily^he punishment of the criminal than the xmme* rited misfortune of the well-deserving will no doubt be excited by Colonel Campbell's disgrace. .But the Government have but one course to pursue. They are the conservators of the public interest; they ought not to be led aside by the maudlin sentimentality which the interested affect, and which rules the weak. They must act for the public towards a public servant, as a master in private life would act towards a servant who had mismanaged his affairs, and then insulted and refused to obey him. We are very sorry that Colonel Campbell should, in his old age, have brought this disgrace upon himself; but we are convinced at the same time that it has been long deserved, and that a moderation and patience has been exercised on his behalf which amounted almost to a fault.

Since the above was in type we understand that the Government-have, in pursuance of the resolution of the Provincial Council, dismissed Colonel Campbell, and that Mr. Calvert has been appointed as his. successor.