THE New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1895. THE COURSE OP MISREPRESENTATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2642, 17 October 1895, Page 2

THE New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.)

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1895. THE COURSE OP MISREPRESENTATION.

(T«b which are incorporated the Wellington Independent, established 18i5, and the New Zealander.

Wb are invited to bslwvs that Ministers are corrupt because some af them B*o connected in some capacity or another with public companies. In support we are told (Ist) that it is improper for a Minister to hsa his Ministerial position to benefit his private fortune, and (2nd) :that Lord Salisbury in forming his present Ministry insisted that they should withdraw from all connection wild* joint stock companies. As to the first, no Minister of tko present Government has over used his Ministerial position to benefit his private fortunes, and no one has .over contended that any Minister has any right to do so. The statement that any Minister has been appointed to any position in connection with a public company because he is a Minister is a Blander, As te the second argument, founded on Lord Salisbury’s alleged behaviour, where is the proof that his condition has been complied with ? In August last the Investors’ Review published a list of the following directorships held by the members of the Ministry:— The Marquis of Salisbury (Prime Minister), University Life Assurance fioflioty. The Puke of Devonshire (Lord President .of the Council). Barrow Hematite Steed Company* Fcrmoy and Lismore Railway Company.; Furfia?* g«J,way Company; jlaval Construction and 4-teWteht.? Company. Lord Ualsbury (Lord Chancellor), Korfch (CoiWffU Railway Company. yiseotmt Cross .(Lord Privy Seal), Manchester; Sheffield upd Lincolnshire Railway Company; Wigan Junction Railway Compajay. Sir Matthew White Ridley .(Mdhte .Secretary), Borth British and Mercantile jCfi* eurahee Company; Borth Eastern Railway Company; Forth Bridge Railway Company (fix orjicio). . ' The Right Mon G- T- Ritchie (President of .the Board of jFrade), Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation* shaw, dlaviU and Albion Company .(chaUnfai?) ,• Union Bank of London (governor). The Eight Hon Sir M. Hicks-Beach (Chancellor at the Exchequer), County of Gloucester Bank; Economic pile Assurance Society. The Right Hon Joseph Chamberlain (Secretary of State for the Colonies), Andros Fibre Company. Lord George Hamilton (Secretary of State for India), Pelican Life Insurance Company. Lord Balfour of Burleigh (Secretary for

Scotland), Bank of Scotland .(deputygovernor) ; National Bank of Scotland ; National Telephone Company (vice-presi-dent) ; San Paulo (Brazilian) Railway Company. The Eight Hon A. Akers-Douglas (First Commissioner of Works), Exchange and Hop Warehouses; Lambeth Waterworks Company; London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company; Shortlands andNunhead Railway Company. Mr Walter Long- (President of the Board of Agriculture), Bath Brewery Company ; East London Waterworks Company table Life Assurance Society; Great Western Railway Company. The Hon George Curzon (Under-Secre-tary for Foreign Affairs), Clerical, Medical and General Lite Assurance Society. The Hon W. St. John Brodriok (Undersecretary to the War Office), African Direct Telegraph Company; Brazilian Submarine Telegraph Company; Globe, Telegraph and Trust Company; Guarantee Society; Paris Banking Company and the Alliance Bank; Rook Life Assurance Society. Mr Gerald Balfour (Chief Secretary for Ireland), Aluminium Company (chairman); Leeds Daily News Company; London and Northern Assets Corporation ; London and Northern Debenture Corporation; Page and Overton’s Brewery Company (trustee for debenture holders); St. James’ and Pall Mall Electric Light Company; West India and Panama Telegraph Company. Tho Right Hon Sir John Gorst (VicePresident Committee of Council), British Empire Mutual Assurance Company; New Zealand Shipping Company (chairman of London Board). Mr Austen Chamberlain (Civil Lord of the Admiralty), Bank of Africa; Union Marine Insurance Company. Mr W. Ellison Macartney (Secretary to the Admiralty), American Exploration and Development Company; Clogher Valley Railway Company. . Mr Joseph Powell-Williams (Financial Secretary War Office), Midland Railway Carriage and Wagon Company; Scottish Union and National Insurance Company. Sydney Herbert, now Earl of Pembroke (Lord Steward), Santa Fe Land Company. The Earl of Lathom (Lord Chamberlain), New Oxley (Canada) Ranche Company ; Peter Walker and Son, Warrington and Burton (trustee for debenture-holders); , Savoy Hotel Company. The Earl of Onslow (Under-Secretary for India), the New Pinos Altos Company. Mr William Hayes Fisher (Junior Lord of the Treasury), Westminster Electric Supply Corporation; Westminster Trust Company. Lord Stanley (Junior Lord of the Treasury), Alliance Assurance Company. Sir Richard Webster (Attorney-General), Law Debenture Corporation ; Law Life Assurance Society. Mr Andrew Graham Murray (SolicitorGeneral for Scotland), Bank of Scotland; Standard Life Assurance Company. Here is a total of 26 members of the Ministry holding directorships, and in some instances leading positions in 63 companies, described as some good, others bad, others indifferent. The former Salisbury administration was far more heavily companied; and the last Gladstone administration had a very large proportion of guinea pigs, chairmen, presidents and the rest. * In face of this, to no further back on the list of English Ministries, it is just a little absurd to pretend that the presence of Ministers on directories of joint stock companies is so unusual a thing as to savour of corruption. The foundation of a charge of systematic corruption on that basis is an amusing instance of inexcusable ignorance. The writer simply does not know what he is talking about. It is some consolation that he admits that Ministers’ salaries are “ Utterly insufficient.” He will perhaps admit that honourable work of all kinds has always been permitted to Ministers of the State in this and every other country. He may even come to see that it would be very improper to ask a man to give up all sources of income, and all occupation, for tho sake of an office the tenure of which is always insecure and generally brief. Mr McKenzie has just as much right to accept a position for which ho is fit as Sir Robert Stout had to accept briefs when he was Premier; as Captain Russell had to retain his directorship of a company; as Sir Frederick Whitaker had to attend to his outside work. But we need not multiply instances. Every Minister’s right to make money honestly by private work has always been recognised. It is absurd to pretend that the members of the present Government do wrong by exercising that right.

UNPRECEDENTED. No Minister in New Zealand, wo are told, has until now ever allowed “ his official title to bo paraded on tho prospectus of a private company.” If a man has an official title, nothing is more certain than that a private company will display it in its business advertisements, nothing is more usual; and nothing is more beyond the control of the possessor of the title. Is the suggestion that no Minister has ever allowed this to be done in New Zealand correct P Let us see. We have before us the prospectus of the New Zealand Land and Loan Company, Limited, issued in 1878. Capital, £1, 000,000; 100,000 shares to be placed in New Zealand, 1,000,000 to be reserved for tho United Kingdom, &c., &e. “ Provisional directors—Tho Hon W. H. Reynolds, of Dunedin, M.L.C., of New Zealand ; the Hon John Martin, of Wellington, M-E.C., of Now Zealand ; the ifon John Ballanoe, Colonial Treasurer, of New Zealand; the Hon Robert Stout, Attorney-General, of New Zealand; James Allen, Esq., of Dunedin ; C. Julius Toxward. Esq., surveyor, Wellington; Thomas Whyte Young. Esq., merchant, Wellington; Robert Greenfield, Esq., merchant, Wellington.” Here we have two Legislative Councillors and two Ministers of tho Crown, all with, to use tho language of the' Post, their " official titles paraded.” The sanjo thing we fancy can be seen on the prospectus of another company of those days, the >' Agricultural Company,” to wit; and search would, we make no doubt, bring many more instances to light if any one were curious enough to devote time to the matter. In this particular case we are quoting, the solicitors of the Company on the prospectus were, we observe, Messrs Sioywright apd Stout. It was quite legitimate for the AttorneyGeneral to be a director, with f ‘ official title paraded,” and to bo also a member of the firm doing the Company’s business : a remarkably large and profitable business it would have been had the sanguine wonderfully promising document —realised expectations- Advances to settlers. acquisition of properties wholesale, rapid turn-oyer of moneys, large profits and quick returns, a small proportion only of tho capital to be called up, a huge and increasing busiaess^Heayens! it makes one’s mouth water to read the glowing periods. Whatever else there was or was not in this rose-coloured prophecy, there was in it the germ of a great idea; the idea of the acquisition of vast principalities of Maori estate, for those who could afford to pay for tho accommodation so prodigally offered. And of that idea, if we remember aright, a great deal indeed was heard, and, indeed, something made, in the years that followed. Public opinion was convulsed. Parliamentary business disorganised, reams of leading articles were written, and there was every element of sensational discussion. The thing even boiled over into the London market. We say nothing in, condemnation. Buts what becomes of tho suggestion tijafc no Minister’s official title was ever “ paraded “ in tho prospectus of a private comply before tp-day ? What of the dmWit statomopt il|hat tfre “parade ” is a sign of gigantic corruption on' the worst AWririPW linos? What of tho clamorous demand that Ministers must confine themselves to their salaries —in. those days we are talking of they were 50 per cent, higher—and confine themselves to their public work ? They simply come to this; that they might pass in a lunatic asylum; but in tho practical world they ©acijot even iipposeupon children.