THE COMMONWEALTH HIRES A HORSE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10960, 1 May 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE COMMONWEALTH HIRES A HORSE.

The Commonwealth Government Gazette is not issued as a comic publication, but that is just; where the humor of it usually comes .m (remarks tile Sydney Daily Telegraph!. /The March number Contains an item about the Governor-General, the Executive Council, a lin c maintenance man named: Gorman,. Mr Austin Chapman, a bike; and a horse, .which shows' that nothing can be funnier than Federal official* ism when it is m dead earnest. This-pro-clamation sets forth that m December last year a bicycle -used to convey mails between two remote places iri the wilds of West Australia got '.'out of ' repair." But the Ppstalf Department was not. going: to be beateri by a punctured tyre, and 60 to prevent the service from being interrupted negotiations' were opened up with one P. , J. Gorman for the hiring of a horse, and a bargain was struck at 10s for two days. Three months after this transaction the Gazette was able to announce over the signature of "Austin Chapman, Postmas-ter-General," that "liis Excellency the Go-vernor-General, by and with 1 the advice of the Federal _ Executive Council, had approved that m accordance with the provisions of ; section .79 (3) of the Commonwealth Public 'Service Act," the' hire of the horse ,be duly paid. What steps the Executive. Council took to make sure that the bicycle had really broken down, and that a horse had been supplied . by Mr Gormanfiri the manner specified, the pro-, clamatipri* does 'not state. Of course his Excellency, as" he f was acting on the advicef Of his cbnsti'tutional .'Ministers, ran no risk m tlie matter, and'if the horse was not worth his hire vice-royalty cannot be held accountable.;; But seeing, .that tlie Executive Council took three months to decide; whether it' should advise Lord NorthcoteHp- approve of the transaction, and /deemed it unsafe to allow any local authority to . settl© tlie matter, it ought to bo a fair assumption that Mr Deakin arid his colleagues 1 satisfied themselves that ( everything was all right before advising the representative of his Majesty to sanction "tile payriient of Gorman for his horse. If they did not, all the portentous and long-drawn-out circumlocution was mere official hocus-pocus to make the taxpayer .believe tliat the eyes of eight highly-salar'ed Cabinet Ministers were fixed upon this. 10s transaction, so that Gorman would have no chance of taking a point. If they did, the question is, Who looked after the larger concerns of the Commonwealth m the meantime? Also, if anyone else out m the wilds is asked to lend the postman a horse for a couple of days, will he. have to wait three months for his. money, until the - Executive Council. sitting m Melbourne satisfies itself that it may risk advising the Governor^General to issue- a proclamation m the Governmerit Gazette, authorising payment ? Or is the whole thing onlyj another way of preventing "parochialism" from, going "crazy," and thus interferingf V. ith the-de-sign of making Melbourne "the centre of the Federation?"