The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1914. OFFICIALISM.

Waipa Post, Volume VIII, Issue 362, 30 October 1914, Page 2

The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1914. OFFICIALISM.

WHEN Mr J. A. Young, M.P., advised the Te Awamutu Town B >ard that he had been advised by the General Manager of the New Zealand Railways Department that any delay in the department’s acceptance of the permanent water supply at Te Awamutu “rests with the local authority,” he possibly did not know that the department’s attitude was from first to last the result of officialism run mad. The circumstances leading up to the dead-lock are too well-known to require the slightest mention again to-day, but if the General Manager of Railways, the Hon. Mr Herries, Mr Young, or the public of this or any other district, want proof of our statement that officialism has gone mad then let them inquire as to how the local railway staff has busied itself this morning. Here it is ; A tank of water has been brought from Porootarao and at the moment we make the statement railway men are constituted a bucket brigade, for the purpose of replenishing the supplies at the railway cottages. —If that be not an example of what officialism will do, then what is ? The absurdity of the whole thing. With a permanent water supply within a few chains of the cottages, offi-cialism-—to carry on its bluffing tactics prefers to rail a few hundred gallons of- water for forty-six miles and then have a staff of men for hours carrying the water from the railway siding to the official ridden cottages. Surely the peoples’ property an d labour can be used to better account than this. We hope that Mr Young will see to what extent officialism has been responsible for the deadlock so far. He knows, and stated to the local authority, that “at 9d. per 1,000 gallons the Department was getting a very reasonable deal, very possibly at a cost much less than the pumping charges.” Although he advises the acceptance by the local authority of the department’s offer of 7d. per 1,000 gallons, he recognises then, that the water to the Department is honestly worth the price originally asked. In view of this and to-day’s happenings, we hope that the matter will be properly ‘represented to Mr Young,w ho has already interested himself in the matter. It is for him to demand a proper explanation fiom the department and furnish it to the people who are witnessing this wholesale wastage. If ever a department of State lowered itself to ridicule then the railway department is doing so today. For our own part we will strongly oppose any attempt by the local authority to sacrifice that for which the town is paying dearly simply to meet the whim of hide-bound officialism. If the Hon. Mr Herries and the Government he represents allows officialism to continue to deprive the local authority of an honest income for honest value offering, and also to resort to tactics that put the country to such unnecessary and wasteful expense as is being incurred to-day, then it is for the people to exercise their sound judgment "in a few weeks’ time. We shall have more to say about this question later, and especially if the local authority shows the slightest indication of acting in accord with Mr Young’s advice —viz., “ The acceptance of the departments and officialisms terms.”