Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price 1d. MONDAY, JULY 12, 1886. Some Waiters Upon Providence.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1856, 12 July 1886, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. MONDAY, JULY 12, 1886. Some Waiters Upon Providence.

Bvebv successive Ministry in this oolooy have always had a number of needy and hungry parasites hanging on to them, trying to get hold of a lucrative appointment or even a temporary job of a pleasant and profitable kind. These sort of fellows sometimes " cadge ” individual Ministersi who are their personal friends to give them a trip to Great Britain as New Zealand Government immigration or emigration agents. Onr old friend George McCnllongh Reed, who some years back as Editor of the Auckland Evening Star, was one of the most independent and fearless writers in the colony, and assailed various Ministries with savage, invective, and withering denunciation, at length knuckled down to Sir George Grey—the then Premier—“ took the shilling,’’ and went home to England as a well paid emigration agent. And some other journalists have done the same thing, all for the sake of the good pay and pleasant times held out by the Government billet. The present Ministry have had some experience with these ■’ Waiters upon Providence ” and billet hunters. The story of how two or three of these gentry succeeded in “ working the oracle ” with Ministers, is very amusing, as told in some papers relating to emigration laid before Parliament a few days ago. First, Mr Colin Allan, of Dunedin, appears upon the scene. This gentleman wanted to take a trip to Great Britain, so he wrote to Mr Ballauca offering to try and get the Skye crofters to emigrate to this colony, provided he was paid a salary at the rate of £325 a year and an allowance for travelling expenses while engaged in the Island of Skye touting amongst the crofters. This was, on the whole a modest demand, as Mr Allan had already a billet in connection with immigration. The Government agreed to Mr Allan’s terms, and so he got a trip home at the expense of the colony and all other outlay paid. But we have not yet heard that Mr Allan has done any real service to the Government in the way of obtaining Skye crofters to settle in this colony, in return for the money which has probably by this time been paid to him. We fancy, therefore, that Mr Collin Allan has had a pleasant trip and a good round sum of money from the colony without doing anything in the shape of work for that liberal pay. The next “ Waiter upon Providence ” was Mr W. Courtney, of Taranaki. Ceurtney wanted to go to Great Britain and prowl about the country in company with a big magic lantern and a lot of views of New Zealand scenery, with which adjuncts he was prepared to deliver lectures on the colony and its advantages as a field for emigration, Courtney told Mr Ballance that his friend; in Taranaki would subscribe £250 to send him home for this purpose, provided the Government would give a subsidy of another £2»O. Mr Ballance agreed to these terms, but Courtney’s friends did not prove sufficiently liberal as they only subscribed £l2O. This being the case, Mr Courtney wrote to Mr Ballance: The amount raised to date has been only £l2B. Settlers here having sent me home once at their own expense feel Government might give the £250 without any further public aid, and 1 would now ask you to give it in twelve equal payments, two of which to be made in December, and then monthly on my having given eight lectures during the month.” But Mr Ballance was hard hearted and replied “ The Government cannot exceed the promised subsidy, if £l2B is all that has been contributed by your friends, a similar amount will be paid by the Government.” Mr Courtney went off to England on this understanding, and in due course turned up at the office of Sir F. D. Bell, the Agent General, in London. Courtney represented that he was to get £260 from the New Zealand Government, which statement was of course false. The Agent General found out presently that Courtney was only to get £l2B. However, Courtney by this time had spent all , the cash which had been given to him either by bis Taranaki friends or by the Government, so he appealed in piteous terms to Sir F, D. Bell, declaring that he was altogether destitute and must have some pecuniary relief. Sir F. Bell was soft hearted and advanced Courtney £SO, at the same time writing out to the Government in this colony and explaining how very hard up the poor devil had become. The end of the whole business was that the Government had decided to let Mr Courtney have cash up to the limit of the £250 originally spoken of. This is all we hear of Mr Courtney. He doesn’t appear to have gone about with the big magic lantern delivering lectures upon the colony and trying to get immigrants. We suppose that he “ chucked up ’’ all that sort of thing as unprofitable directly be bad made sure ot getting the £250 out of the colony. It appears to us that the present Government simp.y made Mr Ctuitney a present of £250 and that he did no service in return for the money. The whole thing was a gross bit of favoritism and jobbery on the part of the Government to reward a political parasite. As to the action of Courtney in taking money for work which be did not perform, we do not care to characterise it by its right name.

Mr Arthur Clayden, the next " Waiter upon Providence,” appears to have been the most sturdily impudent cadger of ;the whole lot, Clayden got a free railway pass to travel all over the colony; maps, plans, photographs of scenery, and so forth from the Government. Then be was also to get a saloon passage paid by the Government lor himself and wife to England, a2d authority to receive up to £2OO from the Agent General bukthis latter was afterwards increased to £3OO. Ofl these terms Clayden departed for England as an immigration agent, though what services he has performed to the colony in that line, at yet, we really do not know. But this fact is

certain. The emigrants who have arrived in I the colony during the past year or so have not come oat through the touting of Messrs I Allan, Courtney and Clayden, and we declare emphatically that the Government ,;in spending a considerable sum of money in sending those three hangers-on and “ waiters upon providence ” to Great Britain to act as lecturers and immigration agents, were guilty of gross jobbery and a monstrous misuse of the money of the overburdened taxpayer? of this colony.