The Wanganui Chronicle "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." SATURDAY, JULY .16, 1910. * "E. A. SMITH."

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12564, 16 July 1910, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." SATURDAY, JULY .16, 1910. * "E. A. SMITH."

Minikteeial -. apologists are naturally anxious to create the impression that

Sir Joseph Ward's statement in the

House on -Tuesday Inst concerning the "E. A. Smith" affair afforded a com-

pleto and . satisfactory explanation of

tha--matter. Those of the public who ! have taken, the trouble to make them-e-elves conversant with the facts of the caso are net likely to be so easily satisfied. Most people, we think, will agree with tlio "Ota.go Daily Times" that

whiles the; Prime Minister may have succeeded in dispelling a certain amount of

the mystery that ■enshrouded the relationship that existed between the High Commissioner's Office and the firm of

"E. A. Smith," the history he has given of tho business will not remove the 'impression that has bean created on tho public mind that the arrangement was,

despite the elaborate defence of it by Mr. W. P. Reeves, a disadvantageous ono for the Dominion during. - tho "boom" years of immigration, in that

Mr. "E. A. Smith" was favoured with tho control of a lucrative business that might perfectly well have be-en transacted in the, office of tlie High Commissioner—and that, in proof of this, has now been undertaken by the Pligh Commissioner. Nor will it convince the community that the arrangement was

not, in view of 'the identity of Mr. " E

A. Smith" in these later years with a son of Sir Walter Kennaway, until very recently the most responsible member of tho High Commissioner's staff, distinctly improper. Even the "Lyttslton Times," a. staunch supporter of the Government, whale making the most of the Prime Minister's statement, is forced to admit that "it is more than a little unsatsfaetory to learn that a, coinmer-

cal arrangement made in 1880 by the Government of that day was continued for over a, quarter of a century without

coming under review and without sue-

■ceeding Governments being clearly aware of the position. When Mr. E. A. Smith became shipping agent for the

New Zealand Government on commis-

sion there were no doubt good reasons for tho appointment, but it is evident

that for very many yeai-s Mr. Smith and

his successor in the business were given work that should have been done in the High Commissioner's Office. The only excuift) that can be offered for the fact that it was not done there is that no

Government had ben asked to change

tli'O system. This, suroly, is a, very poor ■excuse It ought not'to b9 necessary for any Government to have to be asked to terminate an arrangement which., ■oven when viewed in the best possible light, is seriously disadvantageous to the Stato. Ministers ought to have known what was going on, and the fact that they did not betokens ignorance for which they must certainly be held to bo blameworthy. The figures given by tho High Commissioner show that in tho three years (1906-1908) Mr. Kennaway received £9352 through the business placed in his way and monopolised in his hands by the repressntative. of tho Dominion in London, and if, as Sir

William Hall-Jones assumes, his office expanses amounted to £2000 per annum,

this left him a profit of £3352 in the period of three years. It is interesting, further, to observe that the amount actually pa.id to him by the High Commissioner's Office during these three years wan £3370. Yet Sir Joseph Ward, when ho discovered it was necessary scm-9 months ago to explain the circumstances under which the firm of "E. A. Smith" enjoyed this comfortable monopoly, declared explicitly that "no ■commission or payment of any kind has been made by the High Commissioner's Office on behalf of the Government to either 'E. A. Smith' or any other firm connected with the shipping of goods or passengers to New Zealand." Our Dunedin contemporary consequently regards the case as now presented as be-

ing very much -worse than was originally supposed. It says:—'" Not only had the High Commissioner neglected to obtain for the Dominion the benefit of the paj--ments which the shipping companies were- prepared to make and which, it is now ascertained, they are willing to grant to liis office in respect of the passagas of immigrants, but lie paid to the foi-tunato Mr. KennaAvay, out of the funds of the Dominion, substantial su.ms for performing work which no other shipping agent was privileged to .touch. Mr. Re&ves, it seems, never seriously considered the advisability of his office undertaking work of this kind, which Mould have fallen quite fegitimate'ly Wiithin the scops of its operations. He "even weakly and irrelevantly suggests that if he had proposed to xm'dartake it ho would have laid hiffiself op an to the charge of indulging his bsnt for State Socialism.. Really, however, it is an astounding admission of the practice of unbusinesslike methods that has been disclosed."