THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1895. THE TREASURER'S TELEGRAMS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2884, 22 October 1895, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1895. THE TREASURER'S TELEGRAMS.

In the beginning of the present mouth Mr Earnshaw, Labor Member for Dunedin, made the meanest attack oh the Honorable Mr Ward that has ever been made on a Minister of the Crown. The subject has been a good deal discussed since, to Mr Ward's disadvantage, by the Conservative papers, but we think that any honest man will say there was very little in it. The report of it which was forwarded by the Press Agency was very meagre, and the comments made thereon by the political opponents of thd Government distorted the facts out of all reason. We have now the full report before us, and can say, as Mr Duthio put it, that there was very little in it. Mr Earnshaw's question implied that Mr Ward, who is PostmasterGeneral, was making use of the telegraph office to his own advantage, and asked whe'her the following instructions had been issued to the officers of the department : - " All telegrams, whether urgent, ordinary, | or delayed, to and from the Hon. Mr Ward iiis firm at Invercar»ill .ire to be given orece< lelu; " transmitted ...;., rdngly.— i \v. Gkay, ; > .s./-i/u;;." Now mark the language of this telogram. Precedence is to bo given to telegrams between Mr Ward and his firm at Invercanull. Is there anything very wrong in that i If the J. G. Company had been given precedence over then it would bo very wrong, because it would give the Ward Company an opportunity to got information earlier than others, but the precedence is limited to telegrams passing between the Honorable .vir War 1 aid his Manager at Invorcargill, aud could do nobody harm. For our own part wo cannot see that there could be nivy great wrong i • .Mr Ward possessing Mich a privilege. H< has very larg private interesi.h f>> look after, an., if in sacrificing his o \n well-being to the public good he insisted on ge ting the most cxpditious means of directing his private atTiirs, it is only what Parliament would have readily e no-dud to him. There was nothing in i heall'iir looked ;;t from the darkest aspect, but there was less in it when explained by Mr Ward. Ho emphatically denied ttiat he h.-d issued such an order. When Mr Hallanco di J, and he was invited to join the Ministry, ho found ;t necessary to make several inquiries of his mauugars i,i ."-iiiiitltland, with the view of ascertainjii!X wh"tlier ho could acce"t the position. On thai occasion he asked the head of i he d 'pari iu at. ui give precedence to his telegram- 1 , a.id 1.11 •. t iv;iii ii»c wily 111 no 'us claimed o v, as conceded any privilege, /t. will be seen that the instruction above imoted is dated the 28th April, LSOlt, ox-

actly the time when Mr Ballance died. This proves the truth of Mr Ward's statement. Tu the past it was the custom to give precedence to Ministers' private telegrams when Miuisteries were being formed, so there was nothing unußual in the thing. Previous Ministers did the same thing under similar circumstances, hi addition to this Mr Ward produced replies received from the officers in charge in Wellington and luvercargill, in which both stated that the J. G, Ward Company had no privileges which other compauies had not, and that the charge was unfounded. The Manager of the J. G. Ward Company at luvercargill never heard of such a thing., and, to crown all, Mr Ward was in the habit of paying d-.uble rates for urgent telegrams. .Now, if Mr Ward was in the habit of paying double rates for urgeut telegrams, does it not show that the insinuation contained in Mr Earushaw's question is groundless ? The instructions quoted above directs that precedence is to be given to " all telegrams, whether urgent, ordinary, or delayed " If this had been acted upon Mr Ward and his company would have sent all their telegrams "delayed" ; there would have been no necessity to make thorn " urgeut," but this was not done, and two shillings was paid for what could, if the instructions were used, be sent as quickly for sixpence. This proves the whole thing. The date of the instructions is the 28th of April, 1893, exacly the day on which Mr Seddon was forming his Ministry ; the officers of the department assert that Mr Ward h;»s had no extraordinary privilege since; Mr Ward's manager says he never knew that such an instruction existed; and Mr Ward's private secretary has been in the habit of paying double for urgeut telegramß. To the majority of the House the explanation was extremely satisfactory, with the exception of Mr Allen, who was not present and did not hear it. The part played by Mr Allen was as ridiculous a 3 folly could make it. He was absent when Mr Ward made his explanation, and did not hear what had been said, yet he had the unspeakable assurance to stand up and say that the explanation was not satisfactory, and his speech was telegraphed all over the colony.

There is a matter involved in the question of much greater importance than whether Mr Ward did or did not receive precedence for his telegrams. Some officer of the department has been guilty of perjury. Every officer of the department is sworn to secrecy, and in this instance the obligation has been violated by some one. It is a pity that he cannot be discovered and punished. The person who let out one secret would let out a dozen, and is not to be trusted. Any one's private business may be exposed by him, and consequently one cannot face the telegraph office now without fear of his business being exposed. This is a very serious matter, but when Mr Ward put it in that way, and called on Mr Earnshaw to give up the name, Sir Robert Stout laughed at the idea. This leads us to thiuk that Sir Eobert Stout is at the bottom of it all. He has evidently spies amougst the officers, who bring him information of which he very frequently makes use, but in this instance the thing was too low for him to Btoop, and so he handed it over to the political guttersnipe. One thing is certaiu. Mr Ward has come out of the affair without a suspicion of wrong. Even Mr Duthie, his bitterest political opponent, said there was nothing in the charge, as Mr Ward had ouly received the accommodation to which a Minister was justly entitled on a special occasion. Mr Earnshaw will no doubt have to give an account of his conduct to his constituents, and unless we are greatly mistaken he will find the task an unpleasant one.

PRESS TELEGRAMS. In the discussion on the charge brought by Mr Earnshaw against the Honorable Mr Ward it was suggested that the Government were supplying telegraphic news to Ministerial papers free of charge, x'liis is an outrageous lie. On the contrary, we have a grievance against the Govsrnmeut, and especially against Mr Ward, concerning the injustice to which we are subjected with regard to telegrains. We support the Government as loyally as anyone, and we believe that if they were supplying information by telegraph to any newspaper we should be favored as soon as anyone else. Instead of being favored, we have been treated very badly, and we are only waiting until the session is over to bring the matter under the notice of the PostmasterGeneral, and if he fails to do us justice we shall m;.ke the whole thing public. Meantime we may say that to send 300 words from Timaru to this paper would cost 12s Gd, but 300 words could be sent from Temuka to Timaru, or Dunedin, or luvercargill, or Auckland, for 3s ! Anyone will, we think, admit that this is outrageously nnfair and unjust, and it is disgraceful that small country papers should be so handicapped, while the larger papers are given cheaper telegrams. This Mr Ward must tackle immediately after the session, and if he does not extend to us the same privilege as is extended to the larger pipers the matter will be heard more of. Meantime we may say it is outrageously false to say that the Government gives cheap telegrams to their friends. They do not, nor do they give them anything else. We could point to several advertisements which are now appearing in the Conservative papers which wo do not get, and yet we hear so much about " The spoil to the victors !" No Government has ever been so much vilitiod, slandered, and belied as the present one, but despite the slouth-houudish ferocity of their critics, thoy are yot the cleanest-hauded Ministry New Zealand has yot seen.

THE ESTATES COMPANY,

We are informed on reliable authority that the Bank of New Zealand Estates Company huve decided to send their wool to be scoured at ChrUtcburch this year. This is a.iotlmr injustice to this district. YVooluur l -s have been erected in the neighborthe on the strength or getting this weol to scour, but t 1 wlll practically useless now, since it has <><-en uteiueo to send the wool to Christchureh, and a large number of hands will in couseq .enee have to take their stand amongst the unemployed iu the cominy cua-on. vV e r<;: let very much t'uat the manager nsi« occieee on t.ds course, but no doubt it is a part of the cheese-paring .•■ouomy wide l Mr Foster, the general manager, is i troiuob.g. Mr l-'o-f.-r is famous tor his -ma) ecoaomies, but wh-t lie '■', id save ny scno-.ng tiie wool to be .-toured in C.ristei'.U'v'n is more than we can u;i iersiami. (here is aii on the mums of some people that till.-? »'•■» -'" .»" 1 , t °' *'"' (lovL/uimiH, although it ja milicult to m'O whv that should be so. Tim Govern i:iea„ have aothin- whatsoever to do with it. I'bc land does not belong to I he Government; th ■ i: auager is not under the control of tae Government, ami could, if he wished to do so. t. !l tre Govern m nt. to ..iml th ir own aiisu.ess ;f they l.at d'tYred with him. Tim podium of th ; e:.l;:.!;e = i< tais : Tnev were separated froai die Ih.n •-<;' v ew Zal.iii by the Ai.t, reee tly ]>■• ■■ ■'■. "' uiiocr tee control of a lit aii-athm -0.r.1. 'i ids E'.arl h.i.> not b< en uppoiii •• ' v t i-o I'.-iv as we know, but even if it had it would be tiuitu mdcpt'E.tloai of tho ttovem-

rnent. Under any circumstances the Government have nothing whatsoever to do with it, and could not stop the removal of the wool to Christchurch in any way except by Mr Cadman putting- such a prohibitive price on carrying it by rail. That i the only way the Government could prevent it. Wo wish the Government had the power to stop it, for if they had we are sure they would not encourage such an injustice to be done to this district.

There is one thing the Government can do, and that is to compel the Realisation Board to sell the estate. We have every reason to believe that this will be done before loug, and that Mr Foster will have to exercise his skinflint talents somewhere else. But the Government have no more to do with the removal of: the wool to Christchurch than the man in the moon, and if they were to interfere they could only ask the manager as a favor not to do it. The manager might oblige the Government or he might not, and that is exactly the position.