A Quill fop Everyone.

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 953, 3 April 1897, Page 7

A Quill fop Everyone.

The policy of moderation and common senße has prevailed at the Harbour Board with regard to the trouble between Traffic Manager Burgess -and Captain Nearing. It has been decided to stay the Board's hand in the matter of the proposed prosecution, and to ask Captain Nearing for an explanation of his attitude. This is reasonable and sensible. It is also just, because it gives Captain Nearing an opportunity of placing his side of the case before the Board, and we have no hesitation in saying that his explanation will show that the Traffic Manager

was considerably to blame, and that the Board's system of traffic management is a tyrannical and unsystematic method, which is incompatible with good administration.

It is interesting to observe that Malcolm Niccol was intent upon maintaining the dignity of the Board at the expense of the rights of the individual by an overbearing and unjust policy towards Captain Nearing. He would compel Nearing to apologise. He would force the prosecution on. He would do a wrong in order to sustain the dignity of the Harbour Board. Now, this is characteristic of Malcolm Niccol and his administration wherever he has been in office. He is too anxious about the dignity of the Harbour Board and its officials. Indeed, he is responsible for the too-majestic and overpowering dignity which the Auckland Harbour Board officials assume on the slightest provocation ? Was it not he, as Chairman of the Board, who so autocratically ordered barricades to be erected on the wharf on the occasion of the memorable maritime strike, so as to keep common people off the

wharf even while bell-toppered citizens were allowed to go to and fro aa they pleased ? And, as it wai then, so it is always with Malcolm Niccol. The dignity of the Board ought to be maintained bat not exaggerated, and there can be no loss of dignity involved iv the simple and just policy of hearing both sides before arriving at a - decision such as the one in question, the effect of which - might be to degrade an estimable citizen. We are surprised at the thirst of Mr Entrican, a new member, for blood and dignity. He also would hear of nothing whatever but prosecution. It didn't matter whether Nearing was right or wrong. 'Crucify him V was his cry. And Nearing would have been crucified on the altar of dignity if it had not been for the moderation and fairness of others of the members. Mr Entrican is a young man in public life. Let him temper his impetuosity with reflection and moderation. He ia an ardent Christian. Let him in public life justify his Christian professions with Christian charity, which should never be vindictive, but ever forbearing and just.

There is a movement on foot to make the employees of the Union, Steamship ' Company sharers of profits pro rata with the other shareholders. Does this mean that they are also to become pro rata. sharers of the losses ?

In the sacred cause of Labour we are un • feignedly glad that a Southern paper has entered the lists to deny the mean insinuation of another Southern paper that the Hon. David Pinkerton, M.Li.U., is engaged as a brewer's traveller, whereon it founded the base suggestion that bis free railway pass would come in handy while the new lord was oat on his business rounds. The prevalence of these rumours, however, indicates what an eager demand there is by enterprising tradesmen for the services of our colonial made ' Honorables.'

An individual who wants the public to know him only as ' George ' is advertising for lodgings with a musical widow who has a spare room (balcony preferred), bat no other lodgers. George is evidently a cunning dog. Presumably the widow he is yearning for mast be on the summer side of forty, and in her company, with a convenient balcony for spooning purposes, and the charms of music to while away his leisure hours, George evidently means to spend a halcyon time. Strikes us, however, that George's little advertisement is a trifle too suggestive.

I"- The political woman in New Zealand is already-, beginning,, to be known by her k slatternliness and the neglected and dirty I appearance of her children. What- must her home be like ?

It looks aa if there was a double shuffle going on in the Auckland City Council on the electric tramway question. Councillor Hewson was right when he said they were well oat of one of the most disgraceful bargains they ever entered into. „ Bat some of the "councillors, chief amongst whom were Conncillorß Glover and Farrell, two former opponents of the gift of option to James Stewart, were not content to cry the bargain off. Perhaps it was their little joke, and they wanted to pnll the leg of the alleged .electrical syndicate, apd get a farewell kick oat of it before it collapsed into itß gravt . Councillor Kidd Btrnck the right nail on the head when he championed the Observer's opinion that the tramways ought to be owned by the Corporation. Maybe' we shall have the Bank of New Zealand and other powerful influences on the same Bide now. The B.N.Z. has got to work those tramways off somehow.

New and comprehensive telephone regulations are about to come into force. In the opinion of the Observer, the regulation most urgently needed is one to give subscribers speedier connection. It wears out a man's patience to be compelled to zing five or six times before he can get an answer.

Who is to blame the morbid taste of the common herd for crowding into a court to hear a felon condemned to death, seeing that among those who came in towards midnight to see Bosher sentenced at Wellington for the Petbne murders were the wife and daughter of the judge? Presumably to see how pa did his first job of the kind.

' Beavertown ' is now the accepted name in the South for Blenheim— a delicate allusion to its liability to4nundation, and the amphibious propensities which. that liability is cultivating on the part of the inhabitants. It is quite true that even the Blenheimite tradesman has to be ready to combat a flood at a moment's notice. The town is traversed by three rivers, and any heavy rain-fall or snow-melt in the back country causes one or other of these to overflow the banks. The consequence is, that all the tradespeople keep their perishable goods raised above the ordinary flood level, and whenever bad weather threatens, hoist them on to the counters. In the course of evolution, who knows what new powers nature may not develop in them to meet these altered conditions of life?

The Auckland City Council is worrying itself concerning the prevalence of naked gas lights outside business premises. The Obsebver would suggest that this matter should be referred to the local social purity women, who are uncompromising foes of anything naked in public places.

Labour member of the Legislature are not wholly useless. They make excellent cheap showmen, while the title of ' honourable ' goes a long way to give tone to the show.

Last week, complaint was made to us concerning the manner in which the bodies of paupers were interred at Waikomiti Cemetery, and the condition in which their graves were allowed to remain. We mentioned the case as represented to us, bnt it seemed so utterly incredible that we preferred to believe it was greatly exaggerated. We have now the assurance of the Rev. P." Larkins, Anglican clergyman, and of Mr Little, the well-known undertaker, that it is not only exaggerated, but quite nntrae. Both gentlemen have called upon ub quite independently of each other, and flatly contradict the leading statements of the person who made complaint to us. It is Mr Larkins's duty to conduct the obsequies at Waikomiti in connection with the funerals of all persons of the Anglican communion who may die at any of our charitable institutions. Aa a matter of fact, he officiates at three-fourths of the so-called paupers' funerals at Waikomiti. He has never witnessed such neglect or such revolting sights as our informant describes.

The coffin, he says, is always decently interred and the grave is always partially filled in before he leaves it, and the place where these poor dependents upon the public bounty have been laid to their eternal rest is no more swampy than other parts of the cemetery. Only on one occasion, and that was about three years ago, haa he ever detected any stench, and the corner of the cemetery where he noticed it is now no longer used for sepulture. Mr Little's evidence is quite as strong. As for the statement that coffin-lids have actually rotted off before the work of interment was completed, he says it would take years for the timber to rot. We are glad to be able to publish these assurances, and to dispel from the public mind the sense of uneasiness which the circulation of reports such as -we referred to last week wonld undoubtedly produce if allowed to pass unchallenged.