The Timaru Herald. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 1878.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2075, 26 June 1878, Page 3

The Timaru Herald. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 1878.

The date of the meeting' of Parliament has at last been fixed, and Ministers and Members now know that they have ODly a month to prepare for the work that is before them. It is impossible, of course, for anybody who is not behind the scenes, to know what preparations Ministers have made for the coining session ; but a careful observation of their movements throughout the recess, would certainly lead us to the

:- 1 conviction that those preparations must ejbe of the crudest character. It would r be amusing and interesting, though not perhaps very useful, to collite ail the promises made fiy the Ministry juvrra!!}' and collectively, towards the end ami since the close of last session ; and then to compare the list with the 'measures which they bring down m the ensuing one. Fortunately for them, the most profuse m his proiniai.-, ii" late Colonial Treasurer, is no longer of c their company j and, as he has quit'fd . the Legislature, they will not find it B difficult to ignore or repudiate his responsibilities. They have, however, plenty of their own to account for, and if they dispose of hilf of them to the satisfaction of those interested, thyv will be unquestionably ika most won* derful Government that ever occupied the Treasury Benches. The Ministerial programme, as authoritatively > announced bo far, does not contaiu any r great number of measures. There j are to he a Representation Bill, a Land t Tax Bill, a .Native Lands Bill, and a 3 Licensing Bill; but beyond those we are > not aware or auy reason to expect imp ortant Government measures. Those me P certainly quite sufficient to occupy the . attention of the Legislature for a considerable time, and to aftord ground for an almost endless variety of contests ; ' and it would be fortunate if the business of the season could be confined within the limits of their discussion. We fear though, that the recess has developed enough side questions, not ' connected with the main points of any . policy, to fill up months of time with- - out touching those subjects at all. In ■ the voluminous correspondence between | the Governor and the Secretaiy of State, , and the Governor and Ministers, we see . looming, a renewal of the Privilege . Question, which so uuprofitably pro- ■ longed the last session. The position ' taken up by Sir George Grey m re- . lation to the Land Bill, can hardly be passed by unnoticed by the House; and should it once come on the tapis, there is no knowing what complications it may givn rise to. The detention by , the Government of the Canterbury Land Fund, m defiance of the law , also, is almosl certain to be brought ■ forward m such a shape that the House ) will be compelled to express an ! opinion upon the principle m.- . volved, even though the mere money : at stake, may have found its way 10 its ■ rightful owners weeks before the session. We presume that the Finance ■ Committee will consider it their duty 1 to call the attention of the House to the maiter, especially m reference to the point of how the Comptroller and 1 Auditor General came to allow the law to be broken. Then there are a host [ of little questions likely to crop up, . which may easily be worked into prolific causes ofquHTel. We observe ' that the quashing of the prosecution of ' the prisoner Proudfoot at Dunedin has excited a good deal of strong feeling ■ there, and that every candidate for election is closely questioned as to his views concerning it, as if it were s generally expected to be dealt with m 1 one way or another by the House. Then there is the bill of costs m Regina v. Jones, and probably a question of disqualification m connection therewith. Mr Barton's triangular duello with the Judges, and his subsequent imprisonment, will also, we , may be sure, come m for a share of discussion with a view to a revival of the fray. How many more of such lesser * politics there maybe awaiting ventilation m the House, we cannot at this i moment say ; but those which we have enumerated are quite enough to keep i both sides m a state of ferment for many a long day. If we add to the Government Measures, and the "scandals " of the recess, the inevitable imbroglios connected with finnnce, we . recognise at once that there is plenty of • war material to last for three or four months. Should there be an organised ' Opposition strong enongh and vicious enough to try questions of In or Out, the wretched members may make up their mmd — Jiorrescirnun referentes ! — to spend Christmas at Wellington. * _ We are glad to hear that the Government have decided on a re-claseincation of the officers and men of the Colonial Constabulary, and we hope that they will carry it out fully and consistently, so as to give each member of the force, the standing to which his services en--1 title him. Nothing m Mr Bowen's administration, perhaps, disappointed those who expected great things of him more than his capricious and unjust treatment of the police force. If he had left] it exactly as he found it, divided into as many separate organisations as there had been Provincial ■ Governments, no one would have complained. Had he, m amalgamating ' all these organizations into one, dealt with them as if they had been a colonial force from the beginning, which would not have been difficult, no one 1 would have had cause for complaint either. But he did neither one thing nor the other. He colonialised the various provincial police establishments, but retained the various provincial ranks which he happened to find existing, without reference to actual seniority. This of course, established a perfectly new scale of seniority, and operated as injuriously to some officers as it did with undue advantage to others. Men, for example, who had been constables m Canterbury, but had ; become Inspectors m Westland, found themselves suddenly elevated over the . heads of those who had been their com- . manders when they entered the Canterbury force. The mere title was' - taken into consideration, and not the i rank which the individuals would have 3 held had they remained m the same r service. It will be readily understood i that a smart constable or-sergeant of ■ the Canterbury or Otago force, would t do very well for the head of the small ■ force m a Province like Westland or i Marlborough ; though inferior m rank and qualifications to the second-class 5 officers m Canterbury or Otago. Under i Mr Bowen's classification, however,

: t!i3 Injectors or Commissioners of j (iiiilje m the various provincial forces i b: h:ujji; ■■iiicers of the first-class m the ' fi.i!.ji)i:il force ; the sub-inspectors i !)■ c:i:nii setoiiii-class officers, keeping j their provincial standing as such; and ;so on throughout, tlie provincial and not the colonial seniority being madethe j basis of the new status. Anything i r.ioro unfair, or more directly subver- ' .-ive of aood feeling m the corps, it I would be impossible to conceive. Some ! of the particular instances of sudden i ups and downs, occasioned by this eccentric mode of classification, were extraordinary, and the only wonder is thai most of the oldest and best officers did not immediately resig-n. Many of them, we have reason to know, would have done so had they not been led to believfi that the classification was not final, and that a on a jnster basis would presently be made. Of course it never was made, and no satisfaction could ever be got from the lata Ministry on the subject. A return was moved for early last session, showing the true seniority of each police officer, as well as his new rank m the Bowenised Constabulary; and had it ever been obtained, the whole question would doubtless have been discussed on its merits. As it was, however, the motion, by one of those inexplicable accidents which sc often occur under the Standing Orders, got to the bottom of the Order Paper, and stuck there till the end of the session. The subject was an important one, involving as it did the consideration of a cause of grievous discontent • throughout the police of the colony, and the motion deserved a better fate. It will doubtless be renewed next session, if the occasion for it still exists. We hope, however, that that will not be the case, but that the Government will themselves take steps without delay to undo as f»r as possible the mischief which Mr Bowen did.