THE WAIPORI RIVER QUESTION.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXV, Issue 4253, 29 June 1895, Page 3

THE WAIPORI RIVER QUESTION.

We understand that Mr C. C. Rawlins intends proceeding to Wellington next week for v the purpose of taking steps to bring about a settlement of the Waipori difficulty. He intends to interview Ministers and endeavor to convince them of the practicability of a scheme which he is certain will, if adopted, at once-put an end to the trouble and obviate all further litigation on the question. The matter, he considers, has up to the present been merely played with ; the right means have not been taken to enable the Government to adopt a definite line of action and finally dispose of the question. Armed with his scheme, Mr Rawlins feels confident he will be successful in stimulating the Government into effective action, and that before his return from Wellington he will have so arranged matters that a very little time will see the question settled and amicable relations between the miners .and farmers once more established. Let us hope so. And whether Mr Rawlins does or does not succeed, and there is ample room for doubt, he cannot, at all events, do wov^p or be farther from success than the corobinod agencies that have been employed with the same purpose for the last year and more. Possibly when Mr Rawlins returns, he may, if he ticcomplishes nothing more, have, at ieast, learned that the Government are merely juggling with the question and have no intention of doing anything that will identify them with the miners or compel them to vacate the neutral position they have up to the present succeeded in occupying. Those who have had snch opportunities of knowing the mind of the Government cannot be ignorant of this fact, and it is, therefore, inconceivable why they should continue to remain a figure in the long-drawn-out and tiresome farce. The telegraphic messages and correspondence that have passed on the subject are droll enough to be put between the covers of a comic paper, if only they were appropriately illustrated. It is singular that any intelligent man, with the smallest sense of the ridiculous or the slightest understanding of what was due to himself personally and to his position, could continue to be played on and trifled with and mnde the depositary of confidences and promises which were clearly never intended to bs fulfilled and were, indeed, many of them, falsified before they were spoken. And all this without a word of public expostulation or remonstrance. Such gentleness, such uncomplaining,long-suff ering submission as all this indicates a spirit of subservienca infinitely more humiliating than any allegations of dumb doggism which are repelled with such a superfluity of heat. We have not forgotten Mr Seddon's amusing assurance in the House that "the whole thing could be settled, Sir, in ten minutes," nor the comedy in which he was subsequently the central figure in Dunedin and in which the members for Tuapeka and Taieri appeared in minor but amusing parts. Both incidents were worthy of the pencil of the comic artist. We shall be interested to know whether Mr Rawlins's visit to Wellington will furnish the Premier with an opportunity for another display of the playful side of his character on the question of the Waipori river difficulty.