A PLAIN PROTEST.

Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 521, 18 May 1880, Page 2

A PLAIN PROTEST.

Shall the Waimatc Plains be “settled ” or not ? A suggestion may bo offered which will tend to remove some unnecessary difficulties now impeding the way to a practical arrangement. Lot a public meeting be held in Carlyle, and one in Hawcra, to have the Commissioners’ Report discussed, explained, corrected, or blown to nothing, according as the meetings may determine. This question needs discussing in a practical spirit, and it needs explaining in the light of local facts and personal experiences. Why should wc whoso future depends so much on a settlement of the Plains, remain silent as if wo know nothing and cared less ? Can the public of this district he content to allow that Report of two Commissioners to go before Parliament as a divine revelation for the correct solution of the Plains question ? Arc those lands to h c locked up in Maori occupation for 25 years more, because two Commissioners of prejudiced views choose to recommend this course, contrary to local history, and for reasons which arc hard to understand, but some of which the local public know to be groundless assumptions? This question can bo discussed without accusing the Commissioners of interested motives in the direction of private laud jobbing. Charges of that kind spoil a good case. We can afford to let these two Commissioners have all the credit of immaculate judges. We simply charge them with assuming as facts things, promises, and transactions which arc notoriously untrue. We charge them with doing this innocently, but ignorantly, and with a perverse leaning towards usurping tribes whose title is Maori moonshine. Wc charge them with perversely, and very mischievously, raising expectations among Native chiefs which may cost the country millions of pounds or thousands of lives to satisfy. Wc charge them with doing this in defiance of all political prudence, and in

flagrant violation of their precise instructions. They were to inquire and report, but they were not to report until Parliament met ; and they wore not to assume the role of political dictators by taking the Native question into their own hands, and committing the country to a particular form of settlement before Parliament has met, or lias considered, or iias approved that plan. This kind of sharp practice is a political outrage. Gail it ivJiafc you wit/, its tendency is subversive of all principle of Parliamentary Government ; and these two highhanded Commissioners ought to bo taught a lesson once for all. It is time the public in Ibis district bad a say in this question. So far as onr information goes, they arc watching in silent disgust this incredible mismanagement ol a critical question. But silence is apt. to be. taken as consent. Don’t let it be so in this case, but speak out. Do it promptly, determinedly, moderately, ami upon the lines of strict truth. REFORMING AND MEDDLING.

A vat*hr purporting to be a memorial for reconstituting the Harbor Board is being handed around for signature. We arc informed that some settlers have signed it, and were surprised to learn afterwards that the Board’s constitution is not what they had been told. If a change bo necessary, why cannot that change be brought about in a regular and proper manner ? Who arc the promoters of this memorial, and what do they want? Let public business bo done in a public manner. We are all interested in having the Harbor Board constituted in the best possible way. There can be no difference on that head. But what is the best constitution ? This memorial says the Board ought to bo elective, and that its members should not be nominated. The Board is elective. There, are 7 members : 3 arc elected by ratepayers in the Ridings, 2 are elected by the County Council, who arc elected by ratepayers; L is elected by the Carlyle Town Board, who are elected by ratepayers ; and 1 is appointed by the Government to watch general interests. The Harbor Board is constituted under a general statute regulating all the harbors, and the principle of election was deliberately adopted by Parliament. It cannot bo altered without a special Act of Parliament, and there is no peculiar reason for making the Patea Harbor Board different from other Harbor Boards. Settlers ought to have been informed of these facts, by the promoters of that memorial, before being asked to sign such a document. If the promoters did not understand the Board’s position, why meddle ignorantly ? Settlers who have signed in ignorance would act like men of sense in countermanding their signatures. To meddle ignorantly, and claim this ignorance as a merit, is a 1 mistaken form of usefulness.