South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1883.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3159, 18 May 1883, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1883.

“ Can the Ethiopian change hia skin or the leopard his spots ” ? The Tinoaru Ethiopian, the South Canterbury leopard, can do so with facility. Anyone desiring to be amused may find something whereat to smile, in the leading columns of our morning contemporary yesterday. The“ Herald” takes the Ministry to task for having given the country no intimation of the policy with which they intend to meet the House. We take no exception to that, for our contemporary is only echoing what we ourselves have lately said. The reticence of the Government is most unstatesmanlike and reprehensible, and we should be glad to see it denounced in every journal in the colony. But when such a “ railing accusation ” appears in the “ Timaru " Herald,” can the reader re r frain from a sneer ? Some time ago the Government was, in the estimation of the “Herald,” atl that a Government ought to be. Major Atkinson was a heaven-born financier, Mr Whittaker a most estimable old gentleman—the whole Cabinet a collection of wise men, and the- measures introduced by them the product of wisdom and philanthropy. This was act the first. When Sir John Hall left the political arena, there loomed in the distance a phantom of a coalition, and tumultuous hopes arose in the bosom of a member of the “ Herald ” staff, who saw himself in fancy walking about Wellington with a portfolio snugly tucked under his arm. Thereupon the “ Herald” assumed a loftily didactic style, and prated of what Government ought to do, and was very severe indeed, almost unmerciful, in condemning the shortcomings of the Ministry, and treated the public to a series of dreary dissertations bn “ matters and things in general ” —very edifying, no doubt, but dull. The Minis-

try were given to understand that unless they mended their ways the “ Timaru Herald ” would, as the grimy blacksmith at Sheridan’s address to his constituents phrased it, “ remove its countenance from them.” This was act tiie second. After an interval, the Inangahua vacancy occurred, and the self-same member of our contemporary’s staff girded op his loins and hasted to the field of battle. The fight was tough, but the result did not surprise us—Shaw prevailed, and he is now the representative of the “ warm-hearted miners ” as the “ Herald ” termed them. Yesterday morning the “ Herald,” not having the opportunity of uttering a triumphant cock-a-doodle-doo over the defeat of Mr Shaw, came out with a scathing denunciation of the Ministry. Gratitude is well-defined as the hope of favors to coqie. There are no favors to be hoped for now from the Government, for the defeated one is not in the hunt and all the journal which supports him can do is to revile those on whom he was wont to fawn, 0 tempora ! 0 1 mores ! A telegram in this morning’s “ Herald ” records . the “ triumphal progress ” of Mr Wakefield after his defeat at Inangahua. “ All along the line of his route ” everybody seems to have become demented with enthusiasm. He held “ quite a levee at his hotel.” Mr Shaw is, of course, a very low fellow indeed, a publican’s man, &c., while Edward is the darling of the miners.. We have read the telegram, and—well—we thought we had swallowed an emetic.

The “ Lyttelton Times ” yesterday administered a sound and deserved castigation to the Railway Department. It appears that a plate-layer has been dismissed the service at the instance of a ganger, who had reported him for drunkenness. In addition to this,the department distributed placards along the line, setting forth the name, calling, and offence of the man, with the fact of his dismissal from the service. We should not have taken this matter up (our Christchurch contemporary having referred to it with much force), but that the departmental tyranny and secrecy are becoming just a little too marked in this colony, and it is quite time they were knocked on the head. The secrecy in which the railway department chooses to envelop itself is most discreditable, very annoying to the public, and altogether uncalled for. Still people choose to put up with it. and the Government seems to be sublimely indifferent to the long suffering public, so that we have come to the conclusion that things must just take their course. But when we hear of tyranny, we cannot contain our indignation. The dismissal of a man for drunkenness is perfectly legitimate. There ought to to be no drinking men employed on the railways. But having dismissed the man, the department was not justified in further following him. The issue of the placard was an act of unwarrantable persecution, and we have no hesitation in saying that the official who authorised it ought to be removed from his high office ; or, at least, that he ought to be removed from the charge of bodies of men. Good heavens 1 is the working man to be trodden into the earth in this colony, by the heel of an arbitrary department. Perhaps a few instances of such tyranny will wake up the working man, and cause him to go forward to record his vote at elections a little more zealously than he has been wont to do.

Regabding the lad Thomas Newell, we feel bound, in justice to the Resident Surgeon of the Hospital, to present the public with his statement of the case, which is, shortly, to this effect. The boy was brought in suffering from acute inflammation of the eyes, and was treated accordingly with the utmost care. No mention was made, at his admission, of his being of unsound mind, which only i disclosed itself afterwards. On leaving the Hospital for the Court on Tuesday morning he was still suffering from inflammation of the eyes, but every foreign substance had been removed therefrom. The supposition is that during the time between his removal from the Hospital and his entering the train he must have possessed himself of the wire which Dr Hacon removed on his arrival at the Asylum. It appears that the form of mania from which the poor lad suffers is suicidal, and his conduct in the Hospital left no doubt on the minds of those in charge of him that hq was likely to injure himself at any moment. Once, in the absence of the nurse from his ward, the boy burned himself at the fire, and on another occasion he stole into the kitchen and took a quantity of carbolic acid into his mouth from a bottle of solution. The Resident surgeon only then discovered that the lad was of unsound mind, and therefore no fit subject for the Hospital, This is the statement of the Resident Surgeon, who states emphatically that ' when the boy left the Hospital he had no foreign substance in his eye. We are happy to lay this before our readers. The case was one calling for explanation, and Doctor Hassell has been good enough to furnish us with the above statement.