The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1905. ABUSING MR. HALL-JONES.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12845, 1 December 1905, Page 4

The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1905. ABUSING MR. HALL-JONES.

Mr. Hull-Jones must have very queer r.o tions r,{ what constitutes abuse if he cmi sideis that the aiticle we published yes terday is to be included,- in that category. At his Smithfield meeting last evening he referred to our criticism of the wav in which votes from the Public Works Fund are secured, and not only lamented the abuse to which he says he is subjected, but also told us that" he was not going ■ to alter hia system in deference- to the; opinions of the "Timaru Herald." We! are sadly afraid that it is not much u*e< to preach, to Mr .Hall-Jones; our excel-1 lent exhortations fall on ears which, if not exactly deaf (the Minister at least rfoes us the honour of noticing and replying to our contentions), yet decline to accept our precepts as a guide in bis control of! the Public Works Department. We'can only say that in disregarding onr advice. Mr Hall-Jones is flouting the opinion which his" own distinguished leader expressed in his last Financial .Statement. When we said that the expenditute on roads and bridges should be. removed from Parliament and handed over to the local authorities, we were really advocating no very dreadful or .revolutionary proposal. Mi- Seddon •himself has advocated the very same thing, and advocated it no longer since than, his Budget of 1905, delivered on July 25tlr last. The only difference between Mr Seddon and ourselves is that we lock forward to. this ""consummation devoutly to l>e wished " a little earlier than the Premier anticipates.. Mr Seddon says ■"the millenbim will have arrived" when the change is made. We cannot quite fix the date of the millenium. but iu view

of the possibility of its tardy advent, we recommend the electors not to wait- for it before they take the roads and bridges out of the control of Parliament and put them under their ow,n local bodies. There is really no need to wait for the milkniuav before that can l>e done: a majority for the Opposition next Wednesday is all* that is required. We should also" like to add that Mr Hall-Jones is slightly in error in supposing that we wish to deprive anybody of rhe pleasure or the privilege of writing to him. We have absolutely not the slightest wish to reduce those thousand?, of letters which, as he said at the Levels en Tuesday evening, he is in the habit of lcceiving even* year. Ity till mews let every soul in the colony write to hiua if mi mindc-d. Provided every letter i« stamped, the huge volume of correspondence will be an excellent tiling for tiie postal revenue. Hut what we did o'ncci to was the placing of votes ni**-n tin? Public Works KsthnaiiS a; the vilkitation of private ftiends whose shrew dries*, etc.. the Minister has found reason t<* admire, instead of on the application of

the Iwal !x«iy concc-rocd. These tbrewd individuals could still wrae l<» Mr HaJl•Toncs to tb«jr hearts* content, thi-ugh perhaps they would Kc .sbi«wd enough to Mop witting to him if tbey found' that applications receiver! consideration only when they came (broach (he proper channel. I-ast night Mr Hall .Joijc* told hi* audience that if «ur d ■■ctrinc' w>m« adopted. helpless settlers jr. i«-m<vie district* who cannot interview their County Council wculd have no mean* of setting (bear lequimnenJ* attended to. WedaKiat that the p."nt«3 *y»tcm which will take a letter. *ay from Tycho Flat to Wellington, would lake the same letter to Timaru. or wherever (be oftkc of the County Council might }»e. I" would thcrcfote be just as ©a»y for the settler to communicate with hi* County Council 3.ii with the Minister for Public Work*, and then these • Ceuncil* alw»yi» have tht'ir engineers on She spr»t jo investigate and repot i upon applications for conveniences. In Any cam? Mr Hall-Jones cannot pretend that Mr Pringle bad any great diftictilty in communicating with the Levels County Council, toeing that unlil this little incident happened. Mr Pringle wa* a very useful member of the Council itself. A shrewd, hardbeaded man who answer* to Mr HalMones"* description <f Mr Pringle mart. have had wuie reason for going part- the Council of which he wa«t a member, to the Minister of Public Works other than the difficulty of communicating with lb© Council. It do** not require a first-cla** detective t<> gucs* what the reason might have been. In conclusion we desire to assure Mr HaliJones that we have no desire to stop anyone, rich or poor, from writing to him whenever *uch a course may commend itself as pleasant or expedient. " All we say i*. with particular reference to the ca*e of the Levels County, that -w.ben the Council's applications arc pigeon-holed or otherwise disregarded, it look* peculiar to .see votes granted on the private application of members of the Council, and it look* more peculiar still, after Parliament ha* sanctioned the grant, to have the Minister going round the district swearing that (be vote won't l>e expended unless subsequent investigation show* that the original grant of tbe vo»e was a just and proper thing. In the debate on the Public Works Statement. Mr Hall-Jones told the House that the Public Works Kstitnatcs had been framed on the reports of the public officer*. No doubt this Mount Tltnible vote—tbe irony of fate must have been responsible for the coincidence in the name—was merely (he exception which proves Mr Hall-dones** general rule.