THE AGENT-GENERAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1098, 14 December 1872, Page 1

THE AGENT-GENERAL.

The General Government are evidently desirous of getting rid ,of the present Agent-General. They are afraid, however, to recall him, lest his personal influence in the Colony should bring about their own retirement from office. But they are doing all they can to compel him to resign, by attacking his management of the Immigration scheme, through the Wellington Independent and other journals whose columns are at their disposal. In two articles recently published by the Independent, Dr Featherston's conduct as AgentGeneral is severely criticised. The Immigration scheme is pronounced a failure, owing to gross mismanagement on his part ; but not one word of censure is passed upon the Government, whose directions in the matter of Immigration the Agent-General is supposed to have been carrying out. That the material for the articles in question has been furnished by the Government, or by some member of it, we think there can be no doubt. The writer has had access to documents, and to unofficial correspondence between Dr Featherstojt and members of the Cabinet, which could only have been obtained from that quarter, and which could only have been placed at his disposal for the purpose of enabling him to write as he has written. Although we have all along contended that Dr Featherston does not possess the necessary qualifications to fit him for the office of Agent-General, yet he has not had a fair chance of fulfilling at home those duties connected with immigration with which he was charged. For the failure of that part of the colonizing scheme the members of Jhe Fox administration must take their share of blame ; and the Independent, in its too eager defence of the Government, reminds us of action taken" by Mr Fox and his colleagues without the concurrence of Dr Featherston, which, undoubtedly, has been partly the reason why a scant supply of immigrants has reached the Colony. This is what the Independent says : — ' The honest truth of the whole thing is that the immigration business is being disgracefully carried out, and that the Agent-General, although "not absolutely personally responsible, is to blame either for not having better subordinates or for not keeping them up to their work.' The Independent in that sentence unwittingly censures its patrons ; for if Dr Featherston's subordinates are incompetent, who is to blame ? Why, the Cabinet which forced him to accept the services of those emigration agents who, during the past year, have bean wandering about Great Britain, assisting to dam up that small though valuable stream of immigration, which, without any interference on the part of agents, would continue to flow to this Colony. Had Dr Featherston been left unfettered in his choice of subordinates, the Independent might long ere this with i-eason have opened the vessels of its wrath, have cast the entire blame of the failure of immigration upon his shoulder's, and have insisted upon his being relieved from Ms duties. The Agent-General appears to have had no real control over his lieutenants* In addressing him, they flaunt in every sentence their independence, and remind him in so many words that their tenure of office is as secure as his. As for.Dr Featherston, he does not seem to have placed much faith in his staff. On more than one occasion he has been obliged to make work for one of its members to keep him away from Westminster Chambers, as when Mr Friberg ' was sent to Sweden at the expense, of the Colony to I acquire a knowledge pf tho art

of preserving milk. - :Nor do their visits to London* appear to .have been regarded by the , Agent-General with feelings* 5 " of satisfaction. The Indepeh-, dent informs us that Mr Birch, on one . occasion, ' called upon the Agent-Ge-neral, but though hs made repeated calls, and ' absolutely wrote, .letters .requesting an interview, he neither saw ' the' Agent-General "nor received any answer from him.' The probability is ' that Mr Birch caught the Doctor peeping at him through the window blinds, and resented " the ' not at home ' by pitching into him in a private letter to one of the Ministry. It is very clear that' the Agent-General cannot get on ■with his subordinates, and junder any circumstances either, he or they must go. What we earnestly recommend is that' the whole of them be got rid of as soon as possible. But if the Agent-General is to retire from office, let the Government* adopt the Straightforward course of recalling him. Their present plan of baiting him ' through the columns of the Wellington

Independent and the Lyttelton Times

is contemptible in the last degree. Of this one thing, however, they may rest assured — that although they are stabbing him in the dark, he will have no difficulty in diviaing who his real assailants are.