Wanganui Chronicle AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17 1880.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 9284, 17 December 1880, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17 1880.

BY-AND-DY when Wanganui is getting a share; of the .excitement of a general .electionfor the Hquse of Representatives, Mr John .Ballance will seek to make much political capital out of his conduct with. regard to the proposed works, at the entrance of the river. Indeed we suppose it ,is no libel to assume that when he was doing his best to induce the Harbour Board'tb commence those works at once,he was in reality getting through a little bit of electioneering. He; was - , attempting, something "which could be worked up very prettily, so as to tickle-, the ears of the ..unthinking and more gullible.,, portion of':' the, constituency.' This was. a dodge which might not improbably operate, to his advantage whether the Harbour Board allowed him to lead' them "by. the nose, or whether they objected 'to his dictation and preferred] to think for themselves and act on their own convictions." Had Mr.Jßamber's resolution' 'to proceed at once^— which, if we. mistake not, Mr Ballance had a hand hi concocting: — been carried, the Chairman would have doubtless been prepared to claim a large Bhare of, -the credit. He would have done his utmost to . press , forward the preliminaries.. Tenders would have been called for,; a contract let, arid employment thus found, forborne of 'the redundant labour ; of '. the district. li'is very probable th'at'the Harbour Board's, real financial position would not haye been revealed before the writs for the/next Parliament. had been returned. Everything would apparently have"' been x progressing swimmingly. The borrowed 'money would have be|en circulating freely.. Engineers' reports would have, spoken hopefully of! a greriter.depth' of water to be attained?" in the" 'sweet by'-and'-by ; " a number; of voters would f have been earning good wages'; arid they and many more would have been very carefully tutored in the belief that .these .blessings— the,, bread 'and' butter, of "the present, ariii the' greater depth' of water in the futurewere owing, to the.gb 7 ahead spmt'arid firiari6ial ability of the Chairman of the Harbourßoard. With all hisfaults— and he has them in vast quantities — we never heard Mr Ballance accused of modesty j or reticence except when speaking of an opponent, and we are sure that through various channels he would have had it duly brought home to the: electors that he had been the saltation of Wanganui, and that it was through his exertions that the people might expect before long to see snips of the Great Eastern class moored to the Wanganui wharf/ It would all have helped him at the hustings and on the day of polling, and his ■ turn would thus have been' handsomely served: When ' the day of reckoning arrived, and it became apparent that the Harbour Board had not cut the. coat according to the cloth, he would' have found, or atleast would have endeavoured to find/ some way of fixing the blariie of failure on his colleagues, or ' tho . engiriee'rs, 'or the contractors, ■ or - the weather, or the bar; or Mr W. H. Watt, or the conservatives, or the money in'arket. And for aught we bow he might have succeeded in fooling into further belief of his merits those who he has; so often humbugged successfully in tiiae's 1 past. But the Harbour Board, very much to his surprise and disgust, cKose to think for themselves, and decided that, whatever might be done at a future day, the time hadnot yet arrived for undertaking the extensive works at the mouth of the river. The means in hand Idid not appear to them sufficient, and ; the work did not strike thorn as being required whilst the flats continued to be quite as, great an obstruction as ever;, and their removal threatened to be more', costly and to occupy a much longer tune than was formerly supposed. The resolution was therefore lost, and 'Mr iowe'samendmentearried. Still, though the Chairman had. failed in his attempt at" reckless and premature expenditure, there was no reason why. the failure should not, be made ,' to serve , as ' an 1 ' 'electioneering dodge very, nearly as -(veil as' the , most complete success. .. Q?he junior member, it must be borne in mind, ardently longs to be senior member. He wishes, that is, not only to secure his own return at the next election, but to lend the effectual assistance of his coat tails to some other sham liberal anxious to sacrifice himself for the country's good. It is a pity, Mr Ballance thinks, that Wanganui should be virtually disfranchised by having for one of; its representatives a person who has strayed so very far from the paths of political virtue as Mr Bryce — his dear and respected friend in private life, but never seen hi the same lobby as himself during ;the session. .To get a seat for himself and to oust his friend will require a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, and this Harbour works business is an indication that the political rope is already being manipulated. Having' -failed to- get the works at the heads proceeded with immediately, Mr Ballance will ask the electors to draw a comparison between himself and those who voted for delay. The cry will be that if he did not succeed, he at least did all in his power to make Wanganui a first-class port. He would liave done so if there had not been obstructionists opposed to him. The people must blame them, not him. This sort of dodge goes down well with those who will not be at the trouble of ascertaining the truth; and it is already being worked, and hereafter, will be yet more assiduously worked for the purpose of making Mr Ballance stand well with the electors. That astute gentleman knows well that there' is nothing like taking time by the forelock, and that it is a great thing on the hustings to be able to point back to' instances hi which the candidato has endeavoured to get money spent in the place. After the division on Tuesday last, he took the opportunity of making what he' called an explanation of his ; action -with regard to these proposed works. The explanation was another dodge. It was not really addressed, to the Board, but was a distorted version 1 of the facts intended for tho outside 1 public. It. was really an advertisement of Mr Ballanco's superior claims to pub- • lie regard. •• It -ought to have appeared in the papers as "Wanted the working mon of Wanganui to know what a fine pushing follow Mr John Ballance is, and not to forget it when election time conies round." But not content with his socalled explanation, a f uither attempt to deceive tho public was made in the . columns of the Herald on Tuesday night, when it was plainly stated that the Harbour Board had, " by a majority of five to three, decided to suspend all further improvement works for six months." This is a very large falsehood,a really grand one, quite a superlative article, and toldsinoothly and witha will. The Harbour Board simply declined to allow Mr John Ballance to repeat on a

small scale the financial blundering of which he was guilty whilst for its sins ' the colony had him for Colonial ..Treasurer ; and they did not choose to com- . Mit themselves to an unknown expenditure for the sake of increasing the junior -member's popularity. -■ -They fully intend to proceed, with the harbour improve-" ments as soon as the dredge and the other appliances are ready for work". Those who think the Board were wrong in', carrying Mr' - Lowe's " amendment ought to read carefully the letter signed " Progress," which appeared in our issue of Tuesday the 14th instant. The facts and arguments therein stated are unanswerable, and go very far to show that Mr John' Ballance is an unsafe guide in the expenditure of public InJonfey^f-whieh money, the people ought to remember, they have to pay for.