MEAN-SPIRITED REVENGE. WHALING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2085, 8 February 1894, Page 3

MEAN- SPIRITED REVENGE.

WHALING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

The Hon. W. H. Reynolds isapereon distinctly out of favour with the Government. It is only a few months since be was unceremoniously thrust from bis position as a member of the School Commissioners of Obago and Southland. He had served on that body for a number of years, and it is not too much to say that his assiduous attention to his duties and bis knowledge of the important interests he and bis colleagues administered entitled him to the thanks of the country. Bat he committed a serious indiscretion. He opposed the Minister for Lands in a totally unwarranted attack which the latter made on the management by the commissioners of the properties under their control, and so completely showed the Minister to be in the wrong, that such punishment as small minds are capable of inflicting was inevitable. It came in the shape of the unceremonious deposition of Mr Reynolds from his position as a School Commissioner, the first intimation he received of Mr M'Kbnzib's mean-spirited act being in the shape of a Wellington telegram in the Dunedin papers announcing the appointment of a strong supporter of the Government and a person presumably more likely to yield to the wishes of the Ministerial autocrat. Apparently Mr Reynolds's punishment has not been essfficient, and other members of the Ministry have shown themselves as ready to perpetrate an act of injustice as the Minister for Lands, and to do it in a similarly inconsiderate and indefensible manner. .Mr Reynolds has been a valued member of the High Schools Board almost since the creation of that body 16 years since. He has been characteristically attentive to his duties, and in recognition of bis services has been periodically reappoioted to the position. If the Government bad any pretext even to advance why they considered it inadvisable to reappoint him, it would have been the barest courtesy to have communicated with him. Bat instead of doing so they have treated him with contemptuous disrespect, the first intimation received by him that he was to be superseded beiDg a telegram which we published a few days since notifying the appointment of Mr J. R. Sinclair to the board. There is no business man in the land who would have treated his meanest servant of 16 years' standing with such an utter want of consideration, and no public body in existence but would have shown in a very different way their recognition of such services as Mr Reynolds has rendered to the colony. In the present instance the Government have had the grace to refrain from appointing a satellite of their own, no doubt believing that from this point of view at any rate they wonld escape adverse criticism. It is certainly a redeeming feature of their utterly indefensible methods that the appointment has been conferred on a gentleman who is likely to prove an exceedingly useful member of the board. Mr Sinclair has always taken a warm interest in our High Schools, and we are sure he will be cordially welcomed by his colleagues.

Looking at the success of (he whaling expedition into the Southern Ocean, south

of the Falkland?, would it not be worth while to test oar own southern waters? When Ross discovered the Southern Continent he sailed from Campbell Island, which is now part of New Zealand, going dua south through the ice pack. This route took him further south than any ship had previously been, and there he found himself in a calm sea full of life. .Since that date (1810) the whales and seals have disappeared from our seas, but there is no reason to suppose that they are wholly extinct/ The same thing is observed in the north, as ii testified by Naksen. The old sealing grounds being exhausted, the sealers a few years since pushed their way farther into the pack, and there found seals in plenty. They then found that at a point beyond the reach of ships there were plenty in reserve. These observations, together with the fact that the recent expedition to the southern ice gave good results, ought to prove encouraging. There is no place better situated than Dunedin for a starting point. A few years ago had the present data been made known a company would have equipped a vessel; at present we are afraid that enterprise is at a low ebb among us. As suoh an enterprise would be of national importance, and as it is almost certain that before many years the chance will be snatohed from us by foreigners, we really think that Government ought each summer to send the Hinemoa on a trial expedition to the edge of the ice. This would be reached in three or four days from Campbell Island, and by extending her total voyage by, say, a fortnight, a great deal of exploring might be done.