MR. MAUDE'S CIRCULAR AND THE 'PRESS.'

Lyttelton Times, Volume XX, Issue 1111, 4 July 1863, Page 3

MR. MAUDE'S CIRCULAR AND THE 'PRESS.'

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LYTTELTON TIMES. Sik, — The remarks of the ' Press' upon Mr. Maude's circular ought hardly to be allowed to pass unanswered. lam in no way connected either with Mr. Maude or the Government, and any comments on the specious arguments based on false premises with which the editor of the ' Press' has thought fit to favor us with in his issues of to-day and yesterday may therefore be fairly considered unbiased and impartial.

Had a promise been conveyed in the document in question that all the suggestions and demands of the various districts would be acceded to by the Government unquestioned and undiscussed, the remarks of your contemporary might have been fairly set down as evincing a desire to place on record a protest against the dangerous precedent of an Executive abnegating its initiatory functions; but so far from this being the case I find that Mr. Maude lias carefully guarded himself against such a construction of his intentions in the concluding paragraph of his letter. I therefore can only see in the circular a laudable desire of ascertaining, the requirements of the various districts from the districts themselves (on the principle of the wearer knowing best where the shoe pinches), and of selecting from a mass of demands, which will no doubt be far in excess of the estimated revenue, those most immediately necessary both with regard to local requirements and provincial interests generally. One of the most attractive features of the colonies generally is the supposed absence of ultra-red-tapeism and circumlocution; but the ' Press' seems to wish to preclude the Government from obtaining direct information, simply because the means proposed to be adopted are an innovation on established routine. No doubt the Government is in a position to get a large amount of information, inaccessible to the general public, from its subordinate officers; but lam inclined to believe that such information would be found to be rather statistical and general than special, and referring either to works actually in progress or to those already completed, and that from no source could it obtain more reliable advice for its guidance in prospective operations than from those who, by property interests, have become practically acquainted with the local requirements of their respective districts.

I quite agree with the 'Press' that "constant grumbling without the proposal of specific remedies becomes tedious." It is a matter deeply to be regretted that the ' Press' party should have omitted to have seized the favorable oportunity afforded them by the resignation of our late Superintendent to have ceased their " constant grumbling" and to have given the public an opportunity of swallowing their " specific remedy."

It strikes me, Mr. Editor, that the " feebleness of the Government" was quite cast into the shade by the tenfold feebleness then displayed by the opposition.

Before concluding, I will observe that I consider some of the remarks in the articles alluded to truthful and noteworthy; for instance, the imprudence— to say the least of it—of the Council in voting amounts so much in excess of what could be actually expended. I characterise their conduct as something beyond imprudence. If 011110 other ground it was deserving of censure as tending to impress upon the outer world an erroneous idea of our importance and means, and to establish for ourselves a character for untruthful braggadocio. At the bottom of it was, I think, a desire on the part of the Council to shirk the trouble of a close examination, by handing over the responsibility in a lump to the Government, reserving to itself the far more easily performed function of grumbling at mismanagement. Your obedient servant, P. FITS. Christchurch, July 2, 1863.