THE Thames Advertiser. THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1875.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VIII, Issue 2061, 3 June 1875, Page 2

THE Thames Advertiser. THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1875.

A few things of an uncomplimentary character might be said as to the proceedings of the Hospital Committee yesterday, but we will resist tho temptation, and only make one or .two remark?, for tho instruction of the Chairman and. the; majority of' the members, on how they ought to proceed in' the discharge of their duties All the contracts were accepted,: and the elections made openly, except that of surgeon, and when that carno on it was proposed that the'''election, should be by ballot. Now, wo say tliat tlio Hospital ■ Committee has. no right to vote by ballot. The Chairman was strongly in favour of- the vote by ballot, and said that the' ballot was the order of the day now. That may be, so far as the choosing of representatives is concerned, but not in the proceedings of representatives themselves. The subscribers choose the men who are to administer the affairs of tho Hospital, and the subscribers have a right to know how each man voted. If every vote on the Hospital Committee were to be kept dark, the subscribers could not know how.the'members had discharged their duty.' It is laid down by evory writer on representative government that under no circumstances caii any men elected vote secretly in the discharge .of their duties as; representatives. Of course, this is the merest common sense, and it is a pity that Mr Bowe, who professes to be well acquainted with the procedure of public bodies, and Mr Brown, who' is a member of the Provincial Council, should be in ignorance, and should not have common ssnse enough to see the untenableness of their position. And then the Chairman, after sanctioning an illegal procedure, allows candidates to be proposed and supported. Another extraordinary affair was, that the Chairman and the majority of the Committee refused to allow the'"secretary- to record the names voting in a division. Strictly speaking, the minutes ought to record the names of every division. Let us test it this way,. If the Secretary had put down in the minutes those who had voted :for and against the .ballot being used, would the Chairman at next ing have said tliat. he had done what he had no .right to do 1 And yet the Chairman gravely put it to the meeting whether the division should be properly ascertained (for it comes to that), and the majority decidecUthat it should not. The custom on the committee is, that important divisions should be recorded, and we have never known it. decided that the names should not be put on the minutes. The last committee did some things which we considered to be wrong, but they never descended to the ridiculous absurdity of the actions of this committee.' We cannot think that all the members of the Committee were so stupid as not to see what was right, but they kept their counsel to themselves. The Chairman said there was nothing against the use of the ballot in the rules. We are quite sure that thoae. who made the rules never imagined that any attempt 'would be made to introduce secret voting in the committee, and so did not provide for it. As to Mr Brown's argument that the members who happened to work-in the same mine would likely vote together, and that the ballot in some way would obviate that, it is really too absurd'*'to discuss. If men cannot vote according to their own conscience, or require the ballot as a protection, they ought not to be on the Committee at all. By tho crooked and sinister .proceedings of yesterday's meeting, the Committee have justified suspicion respecting the motives on which everything was done. We are quite sure also that any competent chairman, wishing to act rightly, would have ruled differently from Mr Howe. The Committee's action in reference to the vote to.the Secretary is quite of a piece with the rest of their action. They advertise for a Secretary at a certain salary, but mako a custom of voting a considerable addition. . •

In speaking of the Customs revenue of Auckland recently, Sir George Grey dwelt on the desirability of obtaining something from that source to keep the body aud soul of Provincialism together, but. in his calculations Sir George forgot to mention that some of that revenue should fairly bo credited to the provinces of Taranaki aud Hawko's Bay. The people in these, two provinces are largely supplied by goods from Auckland, which have paid duty at that port, and for which they have to pay. • The people of the Auck\ land province therefore do not contribute the amount of Customs taxation stated by Sir Geoi'go Gray, and his argument is not tenable. The present

capitation arrangement is much fairer to all the provinces , than the old system of distributing the consolidated fund. If the provinces were to revert to the old system, the provinces of Otago and .Canterbury would more largely benefit than the others, as they contribute more Customs revenue than the rest of the colony, including Auckland. ' What Sir George Grey really wauls we • cannot exactly understand. At one 'time he talks of the land fund being made colonialrevenue, and being distributed among the provinces, and at auother he hints at taking possession of the Customs revenue. What would be left to the colony to pay the enormous debts that have befcn contracted, we cannot conceive. The colony is now;so largely indebted that it cannot much longer afford to maintain the costly Provincial system, as the bulk of the annual revenue is now absorbed in paying the annual charges on loans, and maintaining the necessary departments. In the case of the Aucklaud province, there is no longer any necessity for keeping up a sham parliament, for there is nothing for the members to do but votesalaries, and lock after, their own liono-. rariums.