The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1907.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2008, 18 February 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1907.

The reply of the lion. Mr. Carroll to the Chamber of Commerce on Friday upon the treo requests placed before him was just the reply to bo expected under the circumstances, and differed very little from Ministerial replies generally when the subject matter to bo replied to affects some department of State not under the immediate control of the Minister who has to vouchsafe the reply. That is to say, the Minister who is replying is always sure that the other Minister will give "careful attention” to the matter; but there is never the slightest indication given as to how long a time the consideration of the matter will occupy, or what may be the final result of that careful attention. In regard to the Hangaroa-Waikaremoana track Mr. Carroll has promised to try to get a vote placed upon the Estimates for that work ,and that is something to feel thankful for if he succeeds; but we have vivid recollections of votes placed upon the Estimates for other pressing works in this district that have never been spent, and that, we can safely say, it was never the intention of the Government to spend in the allotted life of those votes, sind if that is so in the case of our j'aliway extension work, for instance, it may be asked when will •.the vote on the trans-Hangaroa track (if it should find a place upon next year’s Estimates) ho likely to be spent? It is the old game of “taihca,” and wc will believe tlie sincerity of the Government to push on the- work when we learn that tlio men are actually upon the spot, to do the work. There is a rote of £20,000 on the Estimates now to he spent upon the Te Karaka-Motu railway extension, and how much of it has been spent? If some members of the Chamber had not had their heads and hearts so full of adulation for the Minister in the making of Council appointments which no one else has gioivn wildly excited about, they might have asked him that question, and if he could have given tlio figures they would have been in a position to make interesting comparisons and to gauge tbe value and utility of the prospect'vo vote on tbe Estimates. Past experience makes one naturally sceptical in these matters unless personal adoration for tbe Minister and his colleagues overshadows the larger considerations. When the Minister and his colleagues begin to show a lively interest in this district and convince its inhabitants by deeds and not words that they are anxious* to accord it fair play in the matter ;;f public expenditure and in the prosecution of necessary public works, when they make some sincere attempt to open up the count) y for settlement and to develop its resources as they are doing in other favored spots: and when they have ceased to squander public money in other directions that could be better spent in the way above indicated, not cnly will those inhabitants be ready to bestow upon them a due measure of adulation, but we might he willing ourselves to praise their noble deeds with unfeigned sincerity. But before that can be accorded, tlio pardonable scepticism bom of past ‘in/ayals must be removed by hetf*r treatment than the district has hitherto had at their hands. This is not a personal matter, or on in which the personnel of the Government influences a single expression. It is one on which the well are of the district as a whole is very largely dependent, and it is fiu? therefore fj.Wl,

which personal considerations ought properly to ho excluded except so far ns tho individual action ol the member for tho district is com er nod In regard to him wo liavo tho right to ask has lie dono all that ho could or might have done had ho exercised a little more energy in keeping his colleagues up to tho mark and impressing upon them the claims and necessities of tho district? II the people of the district are satisfied with the efforts of a mombor of the Cabinet, who is credited with more than ordinary influence, and which, have resulted in tho employment of loss than a dozen nun upon a work fc-r which £20.000 Inis been voted to he spent in one year, all that we can. say is that they arc very easily satisfied; but wo happen to know that they are not •utlslicil, and .vet when they have tho chance of tolling our member so, and of giving him n straight hint that such treatment to tile district is not what is expected of him, somo of them content themselves by showering adulation upon him for helping to get certain persons appointed to the Legislative Council, whom very few desired to see appointed Anyway, Legislative Councillors do not ns a rule make roads or railways, nor have they the power even in the Chamber itself to alter or increase a money vote, so what good they are to the district no one can see except those who aro looking for an excuse to praise tho Ministry. The right of anyone to do t-l at individually is not questioned ; but when it is done in a semi-repre-sentative and public capacity, and ill such a way as to leave the impression that eveiyonc is satisfied with tho representative’s work as a whole, we have the right to point out the error and to protest against mis re presentation of public feeling in that way. To even hint that the people of the distiict can be. satisfied with the progress of tho Te ICarakaMotu railway works is not justifiable as long as the whole amount voted by Parliament to be oxponded upon that work is unexpended, for if the total vote were spent it is little enough in all ’conscience.