The New Zealand Herald. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, SEP. 26, 1866.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 895, 26 September 1866, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, SEP. 26, 1866.

SPECTEMUK AGENDp. " Give every man thine ear, but few thy voipe : Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. This above all,—To thine own self be trna And it must follow, as the nißlit the day, Thou canst uot thon be false to any man."

It is one tiling to bring grave accusations against a public ollieer — another thing altogether to substantiate them ; and this the Southern Cross has proved in the intemperate attack of yesterday upon the character oi' the Government Agent employed in conducting the cases in. the Compensatior Court. Wo do not know under what pressure our contemporary is writing, but we dc know that ho is scattering broadcast; accusations, which lie ought to know are as uttorlj baseless, as his arguments are destitute o: force and logic, his statements of fact. We bcliovo that the Government has acted ii perfect good faith in this matter. It is not true that the cmjuii-'y has becj: unreasonably protracted, or that the commission could, with benolit to the country have been closed a month ago. It is not true that au expert iu such cases would have settled the matter more quickly, if by ar " expert" we are to understand a professional lawyer. It is not true that the Go vernment enquiry is partial or oae-sidedj aud it is equally untrue to assert that the province stands very much in danger o: paying away more in salaries and expenses than they (the province avc suppose) wil deduct i'rom the awards of claimants. Every due diligence has been exercised iu the getting up the several eases that have already come before the Court, even to the extent of seriously interfering with the health of the Government Agent; The evi deuce necessary to expose extortionati claims is most difficult to procure iu sucl cases, and requires an intelligence and per severance far more than is ordinarily pos sessed by " experts," as our contemporary calls them, and the Government, in thei: appointment of agent, made, from all wo car gather, a wise and very satisfactory selection \Ve do not hesitate to say that there is no a lawyer in Auckland who would have done as much work for the Governmeni in the same space of time as ha; been performed by the Government Agen in this very matter, or with the same sue cess, and certainly not at as low a cost t< the province. Our contemporary state: that the prorince is iu danger of having tc pay more in salaries and expenses than the reduction made in the amount of the award; will meet. Ho knows, when he makes thi statement, that it is utterly groundless that the sum already saved to the provinci is over £10,000 ; that the salary paid to. tin Government Agent does not much exceed •: per cent, on the amount saved; and tha the sum of three guineas per day, paid ti Captain Bcckham when sitting, would not iu all, raise the cost to more than y pe cent, on the amount saved to the proviiic by the' investigation. Neither is it tru that the Government plan of enquiry i partial and one-sided. The Superinten dent has provided that the claimants shal have equal liberty, as has the to employ an agent, of, if ai " expert." The only argument worthy c notice in the remarks made by the Cross i in reference to the public inconveniena caused by taking Mr. Beckham away from hi ordinary duties in the Hesident Magistrate' Court. The duties of that Court are usiiail over by one o'clock of the day, except oi special occasions, and as the duties of th Court are specially and handsomely paid foi we certainly wbuiu suggest that they migh bo undertaken when" the +>" s J c^eut Hagii trate'e Court lias risen, even thougu lire traeted into au evening's sitting. r AVe come, however, at the latter portioi of the article to the most inexcusable par of it, that directly accusing the Goyernmeu Agent of bribery in the cases in which, to sav, expense to the province and unnecessary ex. pense and annoyance to the claimants, h< has, in cases where no intent to defraud thi Government was intended, co.me. to .arrange ments with the claimants out of Court, "i was by direct instructions from the Govern ment that he did eo, aoid : we cannot see thai

the Government is: open to censure for giv> 1 ing such instructions to their agent. The very nature of the transaction is a guarantee of the honesty of the agent. He could not have been guilty of the conduct imputed to him by th 6 Cross, without in. one case or another some one person with whom he had been guilty of collusion coining forward to denounce him. A man in his position, doing what the Cross so rashly accuses the Grovefnmeut Agent of doing, must, in. pursuing such a course, have fallen before this into a trap purposely laid; for him. Hats any such charge been made ? It has not; and in the absence of such charge the language of the Cross of yesterday is reprehensible in the extreme. It is a factious opposition against the Provincial Government; As we said before, we do not know under what pressure our cotemporary ie Writing; certainly not from, any desire to serve the public interests and; to hold the scales of justice equally. A free press is a blessing, but a man constrained to write against common sense, against fact, and against judgment and equity, is a most deplorable object.