The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, October 13, 1888. "LIKE A LOT OF LITTLE BOYS.”

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 208, 13 October 1888, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Saturday, October 13, 1888. "LIKE A LOT OF LITTLE BOYS.”

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God's, and truth’s.

Thebe are many true things said in jest, and when some speakers hear an exact meaning applied to their words, the effect is not always just what was intended. At the last meeting of the Harbor Board Mr Chambers said that the Marine Department treated the Board like a lot of little boys. Well, taking the history of the particular subject under discussion at the time, many will be inclined to think that the Department was not far wrong in the treatment. We quite agree that the Department was acting in a questionable manner in not stating openly the person who had given the information, or perhaps in having listened to it at all. The only way we can understand it is that the complaint came from some person who was considered worth taking notice of, but Mr Chambers must not delude himself with the idea that every one opposed to the harbor is a street corner loafer. Any public representative should know that in thia country even the street corner loafer is entitled to hold bisown opinion and liberal-miuded men always like to hear other men express their opinions, no matter how wide the difference may bo, so long as there is no encroachment on the rights of others. But returning more directly to the subject, we cannot see what there is in the whole thing that such a fuss should be made about it. The cost of the report was certainly more than we anticipated, nor do we see that bo great an expense was necessary. The Harbormaster seems to have put the wh .le thing in a fewplain words : his report conveys the idea that the information sent to the Department may not have been very wide of the mark at the

time it was sent, the trouble being that only part of the truth had been told. The Engineer gives us very minute details of the depths of the river, but as against this we have the Harbormaster’s report, which refutes the information sent to the Marine Department, but he tells us “ to sound to-day will give no idea of the depth to morrow, owing to the constant clrmges.” It is generally admitted that freshets occurring during the course of certain gales always affect the river, and there may therefore at the time have been truth in the *' secret report ” —the fault appears to be that the writer took advantage of the unfavorable circumstances and also I omitted to give the whole facts. Possibly it I! was a visitor, who was not aware of the whois facts. No matter how that may be, it is little to the credit of seme pt the members of the Hoard that they should make so much out of so jimple a matter. We would gll like to , know the informant, just to satiate nqr

curiopity, hut after bearing the abuse employed by Messrs Chambers and Gannon, it is plain tber* verejm good reasons for the name being -withheld. Allowing that there was not shown that candor which we could Wish, we ask, What has been done to justify the assertions that the Board was being slandered, that the Government was treating it with discourtesy, *hat the Government had paid spies here to (Jfnnago the district, that certain ratepayers dsssryed being snubbed ? eta., etc. Members that san signd at the -table and talk such nonsense afford practical proof that adverse criticisms are not without good foundation, Rfr Gannon was very indignant about the ergeiise to which the Board had been put—by the way, wa dp not think that was necessary—but he apuaraptly quite forgets that i;p was the mover of the proposition which Ipd (P t)ie Board being dropped into considerable expense in making arrangements for the poll before the solicitpr’s opinion was to hand. At the last meeting he also wanted the Board to indulge in lithographed plans of the sections of the work completed and proposed, a suggestion which does not savor much of economy.