SLOVENLY ADMINISTRATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16327, 25 August 1913, Page 6

SLOVENLY ADMINISTRATION.

• The Cook Islands aro to most -New Zealanders a terra incognita, a mere name in which they take little interest. Auckland is the only ono of the cities of the dominion that has any direct trade with the islands and even members of the House of Representatives have to he reminded that they aro responsible for their well-being. In the last Parliament, however, Mr R. A. Wright, who represented ono of the Wellington constituencies, seized every opportunity to attack tho Maid Government upon its administration of its trust and particularly emphasised its failure to put a stop to the brewing and consumption of “bush beer’ by the natives. “ Bush beer ” has quite a harmless sound, suggesting nothing more deleterious than some homo-made beverage, but, as the member for Christchurch North stated in tho House of Representatives last week, it is really a fiery spirit capable of effecting untold harm among the people who drink it. * Getting away from the beaten tracks into the bush recesses of the islands the natives manufacture this abominable stuff and indulge in drunken orgies which nearly always end in acts of violence and not infrequently in murder. Tho evil is so widespread that everyone concerned for tho welfare of the natives and for tho credit of the dominion realises that it ought to be suppressed whatever tho cost might be. But instead of the present Government improving the deplorable stato of affairs which Mr Wright so strongly and so properly condemned it seems to have allowed the administration in this respect to go from bad to. worse. At any rate, Mr Isitt’s deliberate charge to this effect, made apparently with full information on the subject, calls for something more than tho blunt, bald denial of Dr Pomare, the Minister nominally in charge of tho department that eon'trols the islands. The member for Christchurch North stated, among other things, that Dr Pomare was Minister in name only, that tho Cabinet ignored his opinion and dictated his action, that tho present Commissioner, Mr Nortlicroft, was appointed against the Minister’s wish, that an important report hv Judge Mac Cormack had been withhold from the House and that a high official hod been retired and nn-

other appointed in his place without tho Minister’s knowledge. Tho last was perhaps tho most serious accusation. The retiring officer was the sergeant of police, a. Mr Holmes, who had control of the native police and all responsibility in connection with tho efforts to suppress tho “bush beer ” evil. Mr Isitt stated that Mr Northcroft had appointed to succeed Sir Holmes an ox-policeman, whoso record was not of a nature to suggest any special fitn&sS for tho position, and that the outlook from every point of view was extremely discouraging. Dr Pomare, as we have already indicated, was anything but happy in the manner and matter of his reply. His resentment of the criticism, of tho department he was supposed to control found relief in a flood of invective so violent that he was twice called to order by the Speaker. A little later on in tho debate, when tho member for Nelson repeated and amplified the charges made by JVIr Isitt and challenged Dr Pomare to repeat his denial tho Minister remained silent. Probably tho truth is that he had no more to do with the appointment of the new officials and the administration of the department than lie had with the selection of the railway commissioner and the raising of the three million loan, hut the whole position is so utterly unsatisfactory that Parliament, irrespective of party, ought to insist upon the termination of this travesty on ministerial responsibility and upon tho Government taking immediate steps to remove the evils which persist as a result of its own culpable negligence.