AN EXPENSIVE COMMISSION.

Otago Witness, Issue 1581, 11 March 1882, Page 22

AN EXPENSIVE COMMISSION.

We should like to know what the history | is of the Naval and Military and Local Forces Land Claims Commission. We observe that the' Chairman, Colonel Haultain, jls invitftig claimants to forward their claims, notifying the date of formal settings of the Corttmission; at Wellington and Auckland respectivelyj and generally opening the preliminaries of 1 air investigation into the grievances of the Naval and Military and Local Forces 'with redpect to land grants. The claimants if members of the local forces are to mention the number of months, if any, during which. they were actually engaged against the Queen's enemies. This giyea j us some slight clue to an understanding of the business. The Queen has not had aoy enemies in New Zealand since the year 1869, and we are not aware that the troops employed for some years before that were promised any land grants as a reward for! their services. We gather, therefore, ! that this Commission is appointed to inquire into the last remnants of the anoient claims which arose out of the long obsolete system existing,, •< some twenty years ago, during what may be oalled the military period of . the history ! of v the Colony. These claims) like the | ,old land' claims of the original settlers who bought or said they' bdugbjt front th6 l Natives before ,pf, thej 'Queen!s Government, have [(been,* constant Bource . of annoyance and expense to the Colony ever • since "they were first set > up ; .through a 'mistaken. system, arid generations 'of officials. '' have', investigated ', them, considered them, .re-, considered them, . re-investigated tHem, t and, on the whole done very well' out of them. ( We 'should like, just out .of curiosity,' to'get'an' exacU/accpunt of jail -sums that have .b^en. . spent -on Jthe investigation, consideration, ' and decision" of land claims,. froiipl l , |H tKe^ ( firs i t setfleraent.'bf Newse.ata»d ,untiLfttie\pre-. sent day; -We should like- also I ;' if it 'were possible, to 1 get a return .showing^ firstly' the? number o£, claimants'; $o,la,nd but kept' out 6f (^ ( thrpugh'i .official 1 .delay,' incompetency, or. injustice, together with an estimate of the losses' incurred by them in j prosecuting (l their claims;! and, secondly, the number of persons, having no iegai or rightful claim, who have got either land or compensation through importunity, and impudence, operating on the Stupidity or negligonce of the officials. We venture to say that, if this information could be procured, it would rather startle the public. It would not improbably show that a great , deal more has: been spent' or loßt in one way or ! another than all the land „ claimed was worth, and it would also show that the) system of investigation adopted has been about equally wasteful, inefficient, and demoralising. We have no means of judging r how'much this new Commission is likely to cost, but it cannot but be a substantial sum. The Commissioners are evidently not' going to desist from their labours in any indecent haste. They have already announced, sittings which will carry them on to the end of the present month, and after that they say due notice will be given of the times and places when and where other sittings will be held. ' In short, they have got hold of a good thing, and they mean to stick to it. That veteran Commissioner, Mr Henry Bunny, is one of their number ; and if any J man living knows how to make the most of a Commission he does. It will be I hard if he throws up this one so long as there is ail old soldier and an acre of available land left, to make up between them a claim 1 to be investigated. Surely all this costly business might have been avoided. It is a very noticeable feature in the present' Government that while they display a most earnest zeal for economy in Borne directions, and really effect very skilful and beneficial retrenchments, in others they allow themselves to be drawn into lavish extravagance for no conceivable purpose. The results of the celebrated Commissions the year before last ought to have taught them a pretty severe lesson on that point. The cost of those inquiries was something alarming. We do not say that they did not do good. On the contrary, we freely acknowledge that they rendered great service. But wo do say most emphatically that they might have rendered just as great service without sponding the people's money so shamelessly. The Railway*) Commission . c .«.(. £3830, of v.'hW.x !^?o 'A-u. ",i<JV •;>;. sij led oi v lii t'or.-uin" > " ol'o 1 ' J •!" d> H'x'ii^'fi. M'Lv. CiviJ kVjt/VN! ''t. i •■ 'If i •) II 11I 1 " I A'7'ss, out oJ' v l,i >b ,> Hiij/jJn imimij >Bii">t»v ' (a pf.rgoa (juilo unknown k> h'lin) dxuv? '

I £338. The Industries Commission cost 1 £602, though the Chairman and three others out of the six gave their services gratuitously. There Beems to be no rule {as to expenses on these occasions. Some j Commissioners draw £2 2s a day, others 1 1 Is, and others nothing at all. Then each Commission employs as many clerks, reporters, and so on, as it pleases — a shorthand writer at a high fee being considered an indispensable accessory. One Supreme Court Judge can ; , try a whole list of cases of the. utmost importance, and of great magnitude as to details of evidence, without any assistance of the kind. But it needs four or fiveßroyal Commissioners, aided by a secretary and a shorthand writer, to investigate a few old land claims which: ought not to' heed any investigation at all. We cannot but wonder that the ultra- economists < last session, who were for cutting down clerks' and messengers' salaries, and who put the couri-, try to an expense of thousands in vainly haggling over paltry little items in the Estimates, did not tackle this Royal Commission question. The truth is they did not all come into Court with clean hands. One of the most rabid among them, who went to incredible, lengths in attacking small votes, wa3 himself, '•a Eoyal Commissioner, and, though a meW* ber at the time, managed to draw £70 in spite of the Disqualification Act., We are sorry to see this system unnecessarily resorted to, as we think it is in this laud claims case, and we warn the Government that their reputation is likely to suffer in consequence.