NOTE AND COMMENT.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3676, 28 February 1899, Page 4

NOTE AND COMMENT.

The Premier, as' head of the Govern-, ment, is to bo congratulated the upon his promptitude in marine announcing the steps that scandal., are to be taken for the restoration of public confidence in the efficiency of the examinations conducted by the Marino Department. So far as they go, the actions and intentions of the Government are admirable. The certificate wrongly granted to Captain Jones is to be cancelled, and one of the examiners whose laxity conduced to the fraud is' to be discharged from the public service. So far good; but the public will want to know what is ta be, done in the case of the other examiner and of the Minister of Marine. Captain Edwin, no doubt, partly vindicated his conscientiousness by leaving the room and refusing to bo a consenting party to part of the procedure; but he failed to take that stand and make that firm protest which a truly upright official would have felt impelled to do. As regards the Hon HallJoncs, his explanation raises a conflict of testimony between himserf and Mr Allport, the clerk who swore that he liad Ministerial authority to waive cer-

tain requirements in the case of Captain Jones. The Minister admits writing a rough note, unsigned and undated, on the outside of an envelope, but alleges that this was not an authority or direction to the officials of the department to allow Captain-Joifbs to go up for examination. Mr Allport, either in good faith accepted it as an authority, or ho exceeded instructions and must be held responsible for the consequences that have flowed from his action. This point can Amly be decided by the production of the message on the envelope. Even if it were proved that the Minister consented’' to’ waive sendee as a mate, there is no ground ’for’accusing Hip of connivance at the other nefarious practices by which tho certificate was obi tained.

The Premier, apparently accepting his ' colleague’s explanation as

ACTION OF MINISTERS.

sufficient, says nothing about an inquiry to up the points in dispute.

guch inquiry is necessary, since Mr Hall-Jones had not an opportunity of going into the witness - box and submitting himself to cross-examination. If, by the way,, the Minister had particularly desired to do so, surely the Croivii Prosecutor would have taken his evidence before entering a “nolle proft soqui.” TlieV Government ought, at once to order a full departmental investigation, to .anticipate tho inquiry which Parliament is sure otherwise to demand. The Hon Mr IJnll-Joncu would ‘do well, also, to take an early opportunity- of placing the -full iarts before the public by means, say, oi an address to his constituents. The Premier’s remarks on the subject of the Grand Jury may bo thoroughly sound; but they have, no bearing merits of tho case under consideration, as tho prosecutions did not fail on account of anything done or loft undone by the Wellington Grand .Jury. The expressed intention of the Government to import a marine examiner, from Britain looks at the first blush like an •, intimation that no reliance can bo placed upon the capacity or uprightness of nautical men. in these colonics. If that is tho idea underlying the resolution, ,it is an utterly unwarrantable one. It may prove, hovhni.’, that this is the Ministerial motho- of mi tailing a Complete reorganisation of the system ■' of marine examinations, with a view lx,dispensing with, the services, oi all who have in any way boon shown to be unmindful of the public interest and deficient'iri. a high sense of duty. ,In such case tho engagement of a thoroughly edmpetefat outsider may be tho best way to restore, public Confidence, while at the same time breaking the fall of men whose culpability is not so great'as to warrant their dismissal.’We trust that, with, the satisfactory clearing up of the various points stated, this discreditable incident null bo allowed to rest! It will not rest, however, so long as there is a possibility of making party capital out of it. Noticing our article on tho scandal in tho Marine Department, tho

: an j Timaru Herald” says : unjust “Wo have nothing to say critic. against those remarks, in, fact, wo heartily endorse'

them. The remarkable point is that the special organ of the • Ministry at the seat of government should have ventured :to express a strong opinion that a, member of that Ministry should be required to clear himself or resign.”. If our contemporary had been carefully watching. the policy of this j journal during the last year or so, it would not have fallen into the error of dtscribing the “Times” as the special organ of* the Ministry or as holding a “ usually servile demeanour” towards the Government. The demeanour of tbo Timaru paper may bo inferred from the fact that while it says it fails to grasp the nature of. the offence alleged' against the Minister of Marine, it “heartily endorses” the demand that lie should “clear himself or resign.” The “ Herald’s ” suggestion that “ the wires have been pulled ” by the Premier ;—in other words, that Mr Seddon lias been using the “Times”'to denounce Mr - Hall-Jones —is unworthy of any respectable paper, and is gratuitously insulting to the Premier (whose loyalty to his colleagues is almost carried to the extreme when it becomes a idee) and to a journal which, whatever its former at titudo may have been, it is now an independent and as free from Ministerial patronage or influence as any in the . colony. It may be that Franco has now tided

, THE OUTLOOK IN FEAKCE.

over a difficulty that threatened to overwhelm her. President Faure has been decently interred. M. Loubct has succeeded him

in peace. The army, the fear as well as the safety of France, has not given way to the intrigues of the anti-Dreyf tssite leaders, who have for their intimidation been lodged in gaol. Even the police, who were expected to be sympathetic and active in the anti-Semitic agitation, have kept the peace; atid r although not yet ■ out of danger—Franco -seldom is-—a crisis that might have led. to revolution and anarchy has been assuaged. But another trouble yet awaits unhappy Franco. While Great Britain has been extending to her the utmost sympathy- in her trying circumstances, she has been returning , that kindly interest by menacing British enterprise in. Egypt and Madagascar, raising needless questions about the Newfoundland fisheries, and even endeavouring by backstairs methods to obtain strategic positions, as in Hie Bandqrjissa incident, hi order to injure British influence and British trade. Great Britain has no quarrel with France, and does not want an acre of her territory. .Yet the conduct of France is calculated to incite the British people to resent with some force the worryings of the French, and to demand of the administrators of the Republic ikiat is the object of this series of provocations. Great Britain seeks nothing of France but what she is entitled to; but of the advantages she has gained in the spirit of enterprise and expansion throughout the world, Great Britain will concede nothing to the impudence or

cajolery of the French. And it is time that French statesmen should be made to understand this. Surely such incidents as those of Fashoda and Bandarjissa will teach them that Great 'Britain insists on the non-interference of Franco in the legitimate enterprises of the British nation.