The Lyttelton Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1883.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIX, Issue 6869, 6 March 1883, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1883.

Sib Wiixiah Jbryois has been speaking wholesome truth* to the people of Dunedin and Port Chalmers. As an expert who understands the construetbtt as well aa th* fortification of \ harbour works hi* advice ia likely to bo extremely valuable. In most instances an expert has, before he can express any definite views, to go through a quantity of data. In them an offhand i ! opinion is sure to be worthless. But the data are, in the oitae of the Danedin harbour, of the simplest. The plans for the deepening of the upper harbour do not contemplate a depth of more than 16ft for the channel at low water, while the bar at the entrance does not present a depth of more than from 18ft to 20ft. At the same time it is perfectly well understood by all tradera and men of average information, that largo ocean-going steamers and quick handling of cargoes ure destined to be the main features of fthe carrying trade of the future. It most be evident to any ordinary mind as soon as these considerations are place! before it, that the authorities of the Otago harbour have begun at the wrong end. It would have been witter for them to have first opened their harbour to the shipping of tho world, leaving the work of internal improvement till the entry of tbo shipping had been provided for. Tibat they followed an opposite course is not the only error the Otago Harbour Board has committed. Not content with putting the cart before the horse, they have used the wrong cart. Having tackled the upper channel first, thisy have elected to provide a obannel that will be of no use whatever to the ships of the not distant fatnre. AU this Sir William Jervow told them when he had finished his inspection of the harbouir a few days ago, and agaia when he repeated much of the same thing at Port Chalmers. It to for them, ho saia, to deepen the entrance and the channel to Port Chalmers, and *fte* miking a big dock, im>«« *hm ntm#r -tiarbonr to uostaritv.

havt, utter all, hem uttered to aata made willing by not tho most pmtmt experience. ... Whether a Oowwor is ttopngtr parson to apeak «F a . •% *«*f P*™ 0 qmattOß of thin Ma* will WtoWdy * debated, if wt publicly, f »«»»* In prjtat©. It will be urged in Hi* Excellency's favour thnt ifc is very kind of him to give the colonist* the benefit of bis great experience in these matters. To which it may h& replied that, if the Governor waa speaking not m the Queen's representative, bat only aa an engineer officer of eminence, ho has mistaken his duty, which was to wait till officially employed before expressing nny opinions. Between these criticisms, wide apart as they are, there ill not a pin to choose. A now Governor, on his arrival at a centra of populaliion, ia always taken to eoo th% lions. On suoh occasions ho is expected to say some* thing intelligent about the lionii. Of course, everybody interested would prefer him to speak of the lions as the very biggest and handsomest and most j perfect lions it has ever been Hie ExoeUeaoy's lot to see. But that very, preference implies the fullest latitude! of nnbiassed opinion as well as candour of statement. A man oonnot be put into a position in which nothing but praise is expected from him- Moreover, in this vexed question of the Dunedin Harbour works, unreserved approval of what has been done would have been condemnation of the opinions of a largo number of people. To please everybody was impossible, while somo expression of opinion was necesßßTy. Had the Governor not been an expert in harbour matters, the position would have been absolutely without difficulty. "Gentlemen, you appear to have spent a great deal of money. I know nothing at all about these walls and reclamations, but I admire your energy and enterprise very much. They are the virtues of the Anglo-Saxon race, to rule over a branch of which is at onoe my highest honour and moat supreme pleasure." With these few words his task would have ended. But Sir William Jervois is both Governor and engineer of experience. As Governor he was bound to speak, as Governor he could not ignore his own standing as an expert The best course was frankness, and he very wisely chose to frankly tell what he considered, on his professional reputation, to be the truth. He may be fairly congratulated upon the delicate careful mamier in which he successfully performed a difficult task. In politics such a course is closed to all Governors. They act with the advice of their responsible advisers, who come and go while the Governor goes on for a definite number of years. To* take a side is for him quite out of the question. Upon all political questions he is perforce dumb as to particulars. In a general way he can handle them, if he have the necessary discretion. For instance the reference which Sir William Jervois made to.t prog«»«rve; policy at the Mayor's banquet in Ohristehurch a fortnight ago, was a general reference discreetly made. But all general references to politics are, if not eschewed by all Governors, never frequent. As a compensation for the exclusion from politics, the field in which a Governor is only the representative of the Sovereign, he has the rest of the public field in which he is also the English gentleman who takes an interest in the things which interest all classes of society. In polities, too, whatever special knowledge a Governor may have acquired, either by technical training or wide experience of men and cities and books, or by well directed careful thought, will be at the service of his responsible adviseirß, the Cabinet. It is obvious, however, that the habit of free comment outside of politics, and the pleasure of private assistance in political counsel must be both tempered by the wisest discretion, especially in cases where the Queen's representative has a great thirst fax political information. Nothing » easier for a Governor to acquire than the reputation of interfering in politics, and nothing is, very properly, more jalouscd, as they say in Scotland. Having marked the freedom of comment to which Sir William Jervois, like a man of sense, leans, wo can only add that his popularity in South Australia is a sign that during his last Governorship he exercised suflicient discretion to keep that freedom within the obvious constitutional grounds. We trust he will be equally successful here.