The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1894.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 6069, 1 October 1894, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1894.

We notice that a controversy has taken place in the Christchurch papei-B, on the subject of the Harbour and Education Reserves Bill, of which we gave a full abßtraot in our leading columns on Friday last, accompanying it with a few comments suggested by a very carei ful consideration of the Bcope of the measure. One of our Ohristchurcb , contemporaries takes the same view as j we took, namely, that if the Bill were , to pass, all the reserves, in question i wonld be liable to be handed over : by Order in Council to the manage- • menb of the Land Board, and would I be chargeable with " thirdß " and • "fourths," according to classification, and to other administrative charges. Another of our Ohristchurch contem- . poraries insists that the Bill is intended j to apply only to unimproved reserves or to Buch as might with advantage be roaded and cut up for smaller settle- » ment. We see no reason to call back a single word which we have written on the snbjecfe. It is true that the Bill , does not directly take away the management of their reserves from Harbour Boards and educational bodies.. The gazetting of an Order in Council in • regard to any one of the reserves is permissory, not mandatory. The words of the Bill are:—"The Governor may from time to time by Order in f. Council," etc. But if the Governor in f Council be so minded he (that is practically the Ministry of the day) may issue such an Order in regard to any lands now or hereafter reserved as an f endowment for any harbour or for educational purposes. There is positively no limitation —net a word to denote that the measure is to apply only to unimproved reserves, or reserves which might with advantage be roaded and cut up for closer settlement. Why should Harbour Boards and educational . bodies be thus placed at the mercy of the Government? There is no reason for supposing that in any case management by a Land Board would be superior to management by the present authorities. But if the » Minister of Lands believes that in any 1 particular case there has been conspihj cuous mismanagement, let him intro- , duce special legislation with a view to setting matters right. Then, no doubt the Bill would be referred to the Waste Lands Committee, or a Special Committee, and the trustees or other authority would have an opportunity of being heard in their defence. But that would not suit the Minister of Lands. He wishes to be placed in a position in which he could without trouble intervene in every no matter what the management may have been. . He may at the present moment have certain runs in his mind as spots in regard to which he would first set the new law in motion; in fact, we believe that he has. But the trustees of those runs are men of high standing and good bnsiness capacity, and have [ done excellently with the property — better, we are sure, than the Land Board would have done. Bat the Minister would not stop at that point. By and by he wonld meddle with every Harbour Board and educational reserve in the country. The trusts concerned ought not to leave a stone unturned in order to defeat this Bill. Unquestionably it is a measure of spoliation, as the Harbour Boards and educational bodies will find to their cost if Mr McKenzie succeeds in his attempt. ' < i i ' ' ' ; '