MINISTERIAL JOBBERY.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 376, 12 November 1889, Page 2

MINISTERIAL JOBBERY.

EVEN the Ministerial organ in Wellington has felt called upon to strongly denounce the Hume job. It says:—“There is nothing in the explanation but the baldest excuses. It is not New Zealand’s business to pay for the training of officers for the Imperial Government. Young men who aspire to commissions in the British army may either pay their own expenses or get their friends to do it for them. It seems to us that the appointment is effectually damned by the official explanation. It is to be hoped we have heard the last of it. If not, there will be a breeze when Parliament meets that will make the the (Ministerial ship • spring its luff.’ ” The mere fact that the Times has considered the job so monstrous as to be one that cannot possibly be ignored by it, is indeed strong conlemnation. This is what the leading Opposition journal has to say further upon the subject:—•** Mr Fergus has, apparently, realised the enormity of the job he has perpetrated in regard to Mr J. E. Hume’s appointment to a commission in the Defence Force. He has accordingly inspired a telegram which we have not the slightest hesitation in saying is utterly incorrect in its assertions, and simply calculated to mislead the public. Mr H, E. Hume cannot, underanv circumstances, qualify for a commission in the Imperial Army. He has long passed the age at vi’hich competition by examination is possible for such commissions. As to the question of pay, if Mr Hume receives the regular rate of pay for his rank, it is considerably in excess of the amount he was receiving as a clerk in the Police Court, and no secret h»9 been made here of the fact that ho secures a pecuniary advantage by the promotion; The explanation now put forward by Mr Fergus makes | matters worse than they were,”’ 1