The Wanganui Chronicle AND RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1902. THE TANGARAKAU.

Wanganui Chronicle, 31 January 1902, Page 2

The Wanganui Chronicle AND RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1902. THE TANGARAKAU.

Tjie troubled waters of the Tangarakau disturbed the calm serenity of the River Trust on Wednesday afternoon. The Tangarakau at the best is a troublesome stream, but on Wednesday the wicked "little ■water" got fairly "on the loose." The poor Board had a bad time. It was dashed against a nasty snag in the shape of a forbidden repoit, braised and battered in an atteinp't to get safely through innumerable points of order, and finally tortured in the turbulent and somewhat muddy rapid of an unedifying discussion. If the wretched little tributary had been unwarrantably dammed, or even if it had been "locked" up without) good and sufficient reason, there might have been some excuse for its temper. But there was no such excuse. Tangarakau misbehaved for the sole and simple reason that it didn't like its. photograph. It'wanted a picture, and the party with the camera turned out' a faithful likeness! Hitherto the Tangarakau has been "taken in a pose of frills and floods, but this time it was caught in, all its naked ugliness in a setting of seething shallows. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity! Oil, Tangarakau, but> for your friend the Chairman and your old love the Mayor your reputation would indeed be gone. They did their best to hide the ugly photograph from the public gaze. They wrapped it in the forbidden report and persuaded the Member to try and knock it to pieces on the jagged ends of deadly points of order. He, too, did his best, but he failed to destroy the negative —and the portrait was, alas, given to the cynical public. But, to be serious, what need was there for the Chairman, to try and t)loek the report which Messrs Bassett, Cnningham, and WiHaras .desired to present? The Tangarakau, upon which many hundreds of pounds have been spent, is either a workable tributary or an unnavigable creek. MessYs Bassett, Ouningham, and Williams^raffer a careful personal inspection made by them jn the capacity of members of the River Trust—have- come to the conclusion, no doubt with regret, that the Tangarakau is incapable of being made a useful feeder for the river trade. The most they can hope for, so they say, is a canoe passage, stud even that hope is not expressed with any degree of confidence. This means, in their opinion, that much n[ the money already spent has been wasted and that it would be unwise to continue expenditure on a. wor,k from which no benefit-, or practically no benefit, can be expected. Xo save time tiie tliree members desired to express their joint .opinion in the form of a report, :i desire which had at least the merit of common sense to recommend il>- But the Chairman would have none of it. They had not been "authorised" to make a report, mid he positively declined to recognise their precioiw document. If the trio had been duly appointed a committee, if by resolution properly minuted they had ibeen instructed or requested to visit the Tangamkuu, and if the Chairman, as an ex oflicio member of the committee and an acknowledged expert in all matters pertaining to fire and water, had had the drafting of the report, everything would have been in order. The probability is, however, judging by past experience, that had -all these formalities been observed the committee would have been appointed and the visit made ni, a time when the Tangarakau was in flood. That- iss just what the new members of the Trust did n/>t want, and they accordingly made their visit, vridi /he approval, if nob with the "authority," of thu Triisl. nfc a time when the river was low. They did „„(, g(> as experts, as Mr Halrick «i\v lit (<> satirically suggest, but as laymen possessed of an ordinary amount of common sense and the usual powers of observation. And yet, because they did not happen to wear the approved rosette of frayed and musty red tape, the Chairman saw fit t« subject them to the indignity of an official snub. People will! be inclined to regard as funny, not to say j u .sfc a little ridiculous, tlm patronising assertion of Mr T. I). Cummins that "if Mi-, Bassett had come to the meeting and asked permission to make a statement he could have done

so." Mr Bassett, as a member of the Trust, was perfectly entitled to make a statement without the' gracious permission of Mr Cummins, notwithstanding the latter's farcical suggestion to the contrary. By-the-by, we do not remember to have previously noticed on the part of Mr Cummins such a punctillious regard for red tape formalities, either on the Trust or elsewhere. If we mistake not, he has proved himself quite prepared, on occasion, to act without authority. There is a story current concerning yn amusing little incident at the recent Caledonian games which bears this out, but that is by the way. Probably it ia the newness of the red-tape affection that has caused all the trouble, for there is no doubt that in his %#xtraordinaiy attempt to be consistently formal he got himself considerably "out of order" and permitted himself to do and say things which were decidedly inconsistent and illogical. A little examinashows that if the report which Messrs Bassett. Cuningham, and Williams desired to submit was informal, the attitude of other members of the Trust was infinitely more so. In the first place, if these three gentlemen had no right to make a report, their visit to and inspection of the tributary was of no service to the Board and was not entitled to official recognition: yet the Chairman accompanied the three members for the greater part of their journey, and supported a motion for the payment of expenses incurred in connection with the trip. This was surely inconsistent, and all the more so if, as stated by Mr Hatrick, "the work done on the Tangarakau is outside the Trust's jurisdiction." Assuming that this last statement is correct —although the assumption necessitates the drawing of an exceedingly fine distinction —one would have thought that if the work was really being ■done for the Government, and not for the Trust, Mr Cummins, as the Government nominee on the Trust, would have been anxious to learn all that was to be learnt in the interests of those whom he represents. Further, still assuming that the work is "eutside the jurisdiction of the Trust," the Chairman stands confessed to having, as a matter of courtesy to the Government, permitted the services of the Trust's staff and the use of the Trust's plant to be diverted from their legitimate work. This, providing the work on the Tangarakau was likely to be of service to the country, may have been a commendable proceeding, but it can scarcely be said to be in accordance with that rigid observance of red-tape formality which characterised the Chairman's action at Wednesday's meeting. However, the forbidden report is out, and having read it, the bewildered taxpayers are no doubt wondering why it was that the Chairman declined to receive it. All the answer they will get will be neatly tied np with red tape, and will be to the effect that the report was "not in order." Meanwhile people will draw their own. conclusions.