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Oamaru Mail, Volume X, Issue 4205, 5 September 1888, Page 2

The remit of last night's meeting to consider the Naseby toad and unemployed questions was in some respects satisfactory, though it leaves the realisation of communication with the interior as problematical as ever. But the discussion was, at times, unnecessarily warm. The references of several of the speakers to the Camara and Naseby .Road Committee and Mr Bislop were any* thing bat oompUmentary, and, indeed, were •ooh as would lead anyone who was unaware of the facts of the case to imagine that the Committee had usurped functions that pro* ' perly belonged to the public, that they had unduly indulged in unnecessary delay, that I

Its members were of the scam of the pmmunity, and that they would, if they had been afforded the opportunity, have lined their own pookets with the very funds that hadbeen set a. tiri to provide bread for distressed women and ohildren. Put in this way, the .allegation* and innuendoes made laat night will Appear to b» outrageous even to their authors, bnt they oonld have had no other meaning. Now, let na see what are the faeta of the oaae. The Committee was formed at a meeting called by advertisement, and which any'citizen was free to attend. There was *n'attempt last night to make much of the .clronmstance that it was held -in Mr Sumpter's office, bnt there is nothing whatever in that oVij action. . For.the purposes of the meeting Mr Sumpter'a office was a public room, kindly placed by Mr Sumpter at the disposal of Ihe.'publio free of charge—a consideration in theee times. This disposes.of the allegation that the Committee was seif-eleoted, and, if there was any exclusiveness in the Committee's constitution or operations, it was doe .to the olrcnmstanoe that there was to be found in the community only.a handful of citizens who realised what was their dnty and were prepared to perform it to the best of thieir ability. Mr Fleming, one of the speakers, who, at last night's meeting, libelled liie Committee, oonfeaaed that he had not troubled himself about the matter. If the Committee, therefore, committed faults because of their excluaiveness, it is possible that Mr Fleming and other citizens who neglected to accept the invitation to co-operate to carry out the objeot which the: Committee had in view stand eelf-acouaed of having occasioned the very evils that they reprobate. It is all very well for outsiders to say now, with all the bombastic assurance of oracles, that the Commit tee are everything that is bad, but it was their duty to prevent those evils by their co-operation, if they really be possessed .of the superior talents of which by implication they assume to be endowed. So much for the Committee—a body of men who, having given to. th? pub'io a large portion of their time, whilß*; their critic i were attending:.'selfishly to their own businesses, deserve the beat thanks of the community. Now, as to Mr Hislop. There Was never a more lamentable display of base ingratitude than that which was exhibited by the oritlcs of ■ Oamaru's representative last night. Despite all the absorbing oares of Parliamentary life, Mr Hislop'a interest was so keen*; in the unemployed and the road scheme that he day after day communicated with the " Committee and the County Council with a view to bring about a settlement as to the route and the immediate employment of the men ; and when we discovered that delay was occurring, which was aggravating the sufferings of the. 'unemployed, he considerately arranged that 1,100 should be placed at the disposal of the County Council for the immediate ■ relief of the men. That that money was not devoted to the objeot for which he intended it was not his fault, whoever may be to blame for the omission. No one could have done more than Mr Hislop has done in regard to this 'matter, and the attack that was made on him last hight was as cruel as it was nnjustifiable. • There was another point In connection with the meeting that demands attention. Mr Shrimaki disputed the right of the .unemployed to dictate to the Government as to how the money granted for their relief should he expended. Now, in the first place, it wa? the meeting that was called upon to express an opinion on this question, and the meeting was not re-, alrioted to the unemployed, but was open to all. It was, in fact, a gathering of oitfzens. In - the next place, the resolution dictated nothing—it merely suggested uid; the qiticsn?, as taxpayers had a perfeot right to advise the Government in a matter in which they were so vitally interested.: Mr Shrimski must have forgotten that he is a democrat, and that we do not live under the lash of a bureaoracy. There wers many features in last night's meeting, that ..engender regret that it was. eyer held. The clown-like assumption of radicalism and the sickening patronage of the working men by individuals who had never' previously done a hand's tarn for them, were almost as offensive as the charges and innuendoes that were levelled against the Committee and the Member, for Oamaru,