THE FERRIES AND THE GOVERNMENT.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 6, 9 February 1867, Page 3

THE FERRIES AND THE GOVERNMENT.

Whex nominee legislation was the order of the day, and Sir George Grey was the Governor of the colony, no wreck could take place at the heads, no Maori could poison his wife with strychnine, no fatal accident could occur at a river, that was not either ascribed to the presence of His Excellency or to the absence of free institutions. The hon. member for East Wairarapa, will probably remember the very spicy article which appeared in the Opposition papers of those days in which it was suggested that the salaries of the Resident Magistrates of Wellington and Waikanae might be with propriety devoted, to the establishment of ferries. If the salaries of those worthies were as large under the “ despotism of Sir George Grey ” as they have become under “ Free Institutions,” the sum now annually devoted to the maintenance of efficient ferries ought to be something considerable. On turning, however, to last year’s Estimates we find that the beggarly sum of £4OO was all that was put down for this purpose, which we may observe in passing affords another illustration of the difference which is found to exist between preaching and practice. But because we find £4OO placed on the Estimates for “Perries, bells, &c.,” it by no means follows that that sum has been devoted to these objects. In the preceding session we find it reported that in answer to some remarks from Mr Bunny, the Prov. Sec. stated “ that the Executive would advise His Honor the Superintendent to place on the Estimates a sum sufficient to establish two ferries on the Ruamahanga riverwe gather also from the report of Mr Baird that a sum was voted during that sesion for'the building of a punt at the Waihenga ferry; and we learn likewise from the same report that he had not up to that time taken any steps in the matter. A short time ago an account appeared in one of the Wellington papers of an accident which had occurred at the Waihenga ferry which was near resulting in the death of four persons, which accident, it was alleged, would not have happenned had there been a punt at that ferry. It is to be regretted that the writer did not mention the names of the persons whose lives were so near being sacrificed through the neglect of the Executive to carry out the votes of the Council, as, taking the lives of two clergymen and a coroner to boot, to be equal in value to Sidney Smith’s worn-out Bishop, probably the Government would at once have ordered a punt for that ferry. Their names were not mentioned, a punt was not ordered, and the valuable lives of settlers in this distinct, who have occasion

to cross the Ruamahanga, are in daily danger of being lost through Executive neglect and indifference. Probably the fatal accident which we recorded last week would not have been prevented had the Government carried out the wishes of the Council, but it does not therefore afford them an excuse for their conduct.

Possibly, “ the funds at the disposal of the Government are at present at a very low ebb.” We quote the excuse of the present Provincial Secretary for not pushing forward a road which would open some 50,000 acres of land for sale by the Government, and for settlement by an industrious population. But the money required to place the ferries in this district in an effective state would not be more than has been sunk in less justifiable objects, and, moreover, it, and indeed a much larger sum, is due to the district from the Provincial Treasury. If a return was published showing the amount which had been contributed by the Wairarapa, and the amount expended in the district, with which it could he failly charged, such a document would establish beyond all cavil or question that no district in New Zealand has been so ill-used as this, and no district more neglected. The next session of the Council ought not to be allowed to close until our representatives had made arrangements, either by loan or otherwise to secure to the district a refund of the money which has been taken from it and expended elsewhere. The excuse of want of money, if made by the Government, will be as lame a one as that of want of time advanced by Mr Baird. The lives of valuable settlers ought no longer to be placed in jeopardy on any such pretences. Unless steps are at once taken to place a punt at the Waihenga ferry, we will take the trouble to obtain a list of the lives lost in the Ruamahung" *jrcr since tree institutions were granted to the colony and the Ferries’ Act was passed by the Provincial Council. Something more was expected from our reformed and reforming Executive than an exhibition of that quality which constitutes the pavement of a certain place to which the souls of bad men are consigned, and we entreat them to show that they are worthy of the name they have assumed and of the expectations which were formed of them.