THE MARINE SCANDAL.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXIX, Issue 9297, 13 March 1899, Page 2

THE MARINE SCANDAL.

The cancelling of the certificate granted to Captain Jones on fraudulent misrepresentations, and the dismissal of one of the Examiners of Masters and Mates from the public are partial fulfilments of the obligation laid upon the Government! to purge the Marine Department and to see that an incompetent person is not allowed to possess credentials that would enable him to be entrusted with the navigation of a coastal steamer. More, of course, remains to be done before the public, cjnfidence in the administration of that particular department of Government will be restored, and in discussing the matter the New Zealand limes says:- 'fThe Minister of Marine must satisfy the people by a public declaration that his hands aro absolutely clean, and that all the parties to blame in the matter have been dealt with, so far as it is in the power of the Government to do so. At present there is no evidence that all the guilty individuals- have been reaohed. There is, it is hinted, a 'true story' to be disclosed, aud two or three persons are uttering very free hints of what they know, and very dire threats of what they will do, if certain conditions are not complied with. These revelations are said to include a statement of' the full extent of the'responsibility of the Minister of Marine' In the public interest it is to be hoped that neither sordid con siderations nor baseless fears of consequrnces will hinder the full and true history of the affair being made public. We repeat tbat, if the officers of the Dep-irtment or the Minister himself should be proved to be implicated iu the disgraceful transaction, they should be peremptorily deak with. The old and barbarous practice of sacrificing a ' scapegoat' will not satisfy an enlightened democracy."