A discreditable Job.

Southland Times, Issue 5089, 19 November 1884, Page 3

A discreditable Job.

<»- The Evening Post, under the above heading has the following :— Almost immediately .liter Mr Macandrew'a motion in favor of having the p*rli luientary aebates prior to the esiablishmtnt of Hansard collected and repubiished had passed, it vras rumored in the lobbies that Sir Julia. Vo-'el intended to entrust the work to Mr" James Edward Fitzgerald, tiie Controller General. When Sir J. Vo b el was in office he was very fond ot throwing «sops to Cerberus" by giving the Controller General all sorts of nice little t-xra 4jba— such as drafting the Bills, etc.— by which several hundred per annum used to be added to the salary provided by law for that officer. The scandal was first denounced in the Press, and was subsequently fitopped by the House aeciding that the Controller-General, as a parliamentary officer, should not accept work Oi'pay at the hands of the Government. Sir Julius Yogel therefore on this ooc *ion found a difficulty in the way of entrusting Mr Fitzgerald with the carrying out of Mr Macandrew's proposals. Ihe T -asurer is a man of fertile resources, and if he caunot attain bis object in oue_ way ho usually devises another. Mr James Ei ward Fitzgerald is blessed with a numbor of sons, and accordingly we now find it announced that tha work of compiling the records of the debates during tb* first thirteen years of the Colony s parliamentary history has been entrusted to Mr Maurice Fitzgerald. We believe we bio not wrong in asserting that this young gentleman is a son of the Controller-Gen-Urai— that he is a mere youth without any literary or political experience, and that bis delicate heaUh has for some time precluded any active pursuite. Of course such an appointment is simply a sham. Mr Maurice Fitzgerald may act «> <m amanuensis to his father ; and he will do doubt sign the vouchers which the Ooa-troller-General will pass, but the selection, collation, and compilation of the , parliamentary debatea from IBo4to . 18b7 will be the work of Mr James Edward Fitzgerald. Now if Mr Fitzgerald would edit I volume of his own par hmontary speeches, or, if after the example of his fellow-cduntrjinan Mr Justin McCarthy, he would write a "History of his own times," embracing the period when he held a fore-most position in New Zealand politics, it would certainly prove & valuable one But it would bear its author* name, and'would not be mistaken by the future historian for an impartial State record ot the proceedings of Parliament during that period. Party .feeling a*ed to run high in the old days in this Colony, and the time since elapsed is not lo.ng enough to have extinguished all the old feelings or wiped away all bitterness. Mr Fitzgerald, brilliant orator though he was, did not pass unscathed through debate, or invariably win his case. Is it likely in compiling the debates he will go to much trouble to search for reports of speeches in which he was severely handled or successfully attacked? That is scai celyhkely. The work will no doubt faithfully record his own speeches, but will equal jusuce be done to his former opponents? Why saould their political reputation be now left to the generosity of an old opponent to be dealt with, and many of them are dead— jnany fiom New Zealand. But when the Colony undertakes the work of compiling a record of their past actions and utterances, surely it is but common iustice to their memory that the compilation should be above suspicion ot partiality or unfairness. It cannot be free from this suspicion when the compiler is one of -the actors in the scenes recorded. We do not savthat Mr Fitzgerald would wil.wgly K unfairly; he is far too chivalrous a mft n to do so-; but it is quite impossible that he can even now recall the scenes and analyse and dissect them with anything like a calm judicial spirit The work should have been entrusted to some capable and experienced pressman. Theie are many who would have been glad to undertake and able to do it well, and tor far less than the sum which it is said Mr « Maurice" Fitzgerald is to receive for it. Singularly enough, no vote for the purpose appears on the Supplementary Estimates. It will have to come out of-" Unauthorised Expenditure"; but, of course, the Con-troller-General is not likely to raise any objection. .