The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, January 19, 1889. A FRIENDLY COUNSELLOR.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 249, 19 January 1889, Page 2

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

Saturday, January 19, 1889. A FRIENDLY COUNSELLOR.

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

The languid don’t-caredness of the people of this district, in regard to any matter where the public interest is concerned, has become so painfully evident that even outsiders who would in ordinary circumstances perhaps be incited to jealousy by our prospects, have instead taken pity on us and offer us counsel which a high spirited people might reject as insulting taunts, but which in our meekness we may well accept with full acknowledgment of the good intention which prompted it. If we cannot help ourselves, why should we in our “ humiliating ” pride object to be helped by others ? Our native lands are governed by those who seem to care as little to what results their mis-government leads as those who are thus misgoverned seem themselves to care ; our waste lands are mis-governed —well a contemporary can tell us a little about that: our education matters are presided over by men who know much less about the place and its necessities than we do of their mismanagement. Yet it is all patiently submitted to — what is everyone’s business, it has been said, is nobody’s, and so things go on in the old, old way. Then let us (metaphorically speaking, of course) embrace a Napier contemporary for the kindly interest it has taken in the affairs of this district. As an illustration of the matter to which we most directly refer, we quote in full the following article from the Hawke’s Bay Herald :— We suggest to the Poverty Bay people that they ehould agitate for pm i to deal with their own waste lands Yesterday, when the monthly fares called “ Land Board " was being enacted here, a letter from the Cook County Council was read, the letter asking that a piece of land at Patutahi might be Bet apart as s grazing ground and a resting place for travelling stock. Thia piece of land is only a short distance from Gisborne, and it is very absurd that a request of the kind should have to be forwarded to Napier. In the drat place, the unnecessary body which meets in Napier under a sounding title have little or no knowledge of the district, and in the second they know less of the needs of Cook County with relation to this piece of land. This, indeed, was acknowledged by the Board by their action with regard to the letter, as it was decided to refer the matter to the local County Council. Tho Board acted sensibly in refusing to decide upon a matter as to the merits of which the members were completely in the dark, but their action only emphasised the absurdity of which we complain—that the Gisborne people should be compelled to apply to Napier to settle matters about which N*pi«r is neither informed nor Interested. Than, again, the Board decided to throw open lend for selection in another part of Poverty Bay, thus affording another Instance of the need for abolishing all the useless bodies known as land boards (which chiefly exist in order that small politicians may get little billets carrying " perks " with them) and with conferring upon county councils the power to deal with waste lands within their boundaries. This, of course, would have to be done under very strict rules drawn up by the Government, to prevent abuses, but with such rules to keep the councils straight they would be the best bodies to deal with waste lands. Take another instance. The Board decided to write to the Wairoa County Council in reference to a permission previously given to th* Council to cut some timber from a reserve in the Wairoa dietriot. Now, if Wairoa had to write for permission from outside, why ehould it not write straight to Wellington 1 But we contend that these things should be dealt with locally, as suggested abdvc, spd Idea they Would it least be dealt with by

people who knew something about the land. The Napier “Bard” consisted yesterday of the commissioner (who does all the real work there is to do), Mr R. Harding, a large sheepfarmer at Waipukurau, and Mr Hall, a small farm settler at Woodville. What in the world is the use of paying either of the two latter gentlemen to meet in Napier to decide what should be done with lands at Gisborne and Wairoa ? Land Boards are a relic of the days when we were loan mad and government struck, and could aff >rd to multiply paid bodies of little or no use. The sooner they are abolished, and their functions allotted to county councils, the better for all concerned.

What a happy state of things to be sure ! The whole of the waste lands of Cook County presided over by a Waipukurau squatter, a Woodville nobody-knows-who, and a “commissioner" who we take the liberty to suppose knows and cares as much about this district as we care or know about him, or as most Gisborne people know about Waipukurau or Woodville, or of their squatters and their other local dignitaries and “ cockatoos.” If the farce had not to be so dearly paid for, it might be laughed over as a really good joke, but as things go the prospect is too grim to be provocative of mirth. Why do the Government not shut up the County Council and Harbor Board and let these Waipukurau squatters and Woodville nobody-knows-who draw a fat screw and fix up things in Napier ? At any rate they seem to do business as well as most other things are done for which Poverty Bay has to depend upon outside assistance. To talk about the people of Poverty Bay getting up an agitation against the misgovernment which has been the blight of their district is to talk about a thing which is just about as likely to happen as the “ How not to do it ” policy is to be altered without agitation—neither of which is likely to happen. Those people are either too proud or too depressed with the failures of the past —perhaps a little influenced in both respects —to continue agitating for what they are justly entitled. Possibly there may come a time when no such awakening will be needed; possibly an outside appellant, and the idea of being governed by back country squatters and “cockatoos” of other districts, may shame the residents of this district into persistently- demanding what is just. Therefore, let us yet remain hopeful.