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MR HARGREAVES has got his claim for
the balance of the £5000 originally
voted to him for the discovery of gold
again before the Assembly, and it has
been, very decidedly disallowed. His
claim is for £2619, be having; received
in ,1855 the sum of £238i,, besides
£lO,OOO from the Government of New
South Wales. There is no doubt about
the facts that£sooo were voted, to Mr
Hargreaves, and that he did not get half
of it, through a financial crisis, whilst
the others to whom rewards were voted
had the full sum made up to them by a
special vote in 1861; The probable
reason why the clai m of Mr Hargreaves
has found so little favour is, that the
general opinion is that he has been well
rewarded for what he did; and has re
ceived enough to make him iridependent
for life if he only used ordinary; pru
dence. We think that we may say that
this business is how at an end. Mr
Hargreaves has made his : last attempt
and has failed, for the Assembly has re
fused even to grant a committee to en
quire into his claim by a very large
majority. On strictly equitable grounds
the decision cannot be.said to be de
fensible, because the sum was voted, but
no one will feel any great pity for Mr.
Hargreaves, seeing , that he has been
altogether very handsomely rewarded.
The chief interest in this, last airing of
this now musty claim lies in the refer
ences, delicate and tender, which were
made -to what took place on a former
occasion. Some old members had un
pleasant recollections, especially Mr
Francis, who referred to some one' say
ing that “more grease” was .required,
but even he did not remember all- that
took place. In July, 1867, when Hr
Hargreaves sought : to get his little bill
settled;both he and. Mr Syme, of the
Age, were brought to the‘bar of- the
House,.to explain a statement that had
been made in a leading article in the
paper on the authority, it was averred;
of Mr Hargreaves. The serious portion
of the article-was as follows:
Ifc is „known -that when Mr- Hargreaves
advanced his claim for payment of a balance
alleged to be due to him for the first discovery
of a payable goldfield in Australia, he was
waited upon by a member of the Assembly and
politely iuformed-tbnt, if bedid'not. give. 10
.per cent, of tfae money as a bribe to two mem*
berp, and £5O each to-siz others, he was
certain to have : his : application rejected; but
that i( ha would agree to giro tbe'raquirad tip,
■aeoea would bo certain. \jf y
- Mr Syme was examined at ebbsider*
able length, bat hedid not makematters
jeryclearfas'. heibad- little direct testi
mony to give ; butheput in a ‘statutory
declaration of IJr James' Harrison, then'
editor of the Afftf in which it waastated
that - Mr Hargreaves had told the editor
that unless bribes were given,,to eight,
. members the money would not be got.
It will be seen that the declaration does
not: bear 'out the article,'as it does not
say that Mr Hargreaves was waited_iipon -
by a member, and it was-subsequently
shown that he was not,- We see . exact- i
ness of statement was not characteristic
of the Age in"those days any more than
at the present time, but the Age was
right in denouncing the whole business,
as there can be no doubt that members
were promised to be what is called
“squared.”- In fact, an agent who was,
to act for Mr Hargreaves said that be
was pledged to give five men. £5O each,
and a sixth was wanted. Ten per
cent, commission was., wanted, but
Mr Hargreaves declared that he
repudiated the whole, business, and
-intended to expose it in-a pamphlet on
the state of Victoria.. Finally, a select
committee was appointed, which smelt
rats, but nothing appears to have been
done pn its report, as Sir James M‘Cul
loch declared that it rested on the tittle
tattle of Collins street, and what waiters
had overheard in hotels. Just at that
time, too, the Lady Darling grant busi
ness burst out in all its fury, and the
privilege case was forgotten and Mr
Hargreaves’ claim with it. Happily,
there are no insinuations against hon.
members at the present time. Bad as the
present House is in some respects, it is
not open to the charges that were freely
made and as freely believed in 1807,
and for which there does appear to have
been some foundation. We may now say
that the Hargreaves episode is at an end.
He does not seem to have been fairly
treated, because if a subsequent Assem
bly did not approve of what was done
by a predecessor it ought to have re
scinded the vote, but no one will doubt
that he has been handsomely rewarded
for what he did, and especially as he
was. not the discoverer,of gold in Vic
toria. Gold had been discovered here
many years before he came back from
California, and goldfields were sure to
have been opened, whether New South
Wales led the way or not. Technically,
Mr Hargreaves has not beenwell treated,
and yet we cannot say that substantial
i justice has not been done.
There are roads in the Western States
of America which begin a mile broad
and end in an opossum’s track up a gum
tree. There are official acts which begin
with much pomp and circumstance and
which end in a miserable fizzle. One
example-. of this kind of official act is
afforded to an .admiring public and a
wondering citizen army by : the result of
the court-martial... on Acting-corporal
Rehfisch, who has been sentenced to
be—reprimanded ! This is a free coun
try, and it is, perhaps, only fitting that
our citizen army should be free and easy
also, but we may remark that a free and
easy army means an army that is not
worth the uniform it wears, or the
powder that it .idly blows away at sham
fights. A brief statement of the facts
of this truly wonderful , case will go, we
hope, a long way towards enlightening
the public generally as to the condition
of the. volunteer; force generally, and
as to the sort of material it has to
depend upon to repel an invasion of our
shores. The account will be instructive
•not only as to'the material of the force,
but also as to the way in which "disci
pline is enforced, and' volunteer matters
are managed generally. On the 24th
May last, the Queen’s Birthday, the
volunteers were, as usual, paraded to
fire a feude-joie, in accordance with a
good, old,’loyal custom; When'Captain
Musgrove gave the order to load, Acting
corporal Rehfisch refused to do so in a
i-very insolent manner, and continued
insubordinate behaviour for some time
afterwards. : Captain Musgrove had no
choice, even if he had any desire, but to
report the matter in due form to Major
Sleep, whose duty it was to take prompt
action to get a court-martial held, and
the offender properly punished.; But,
as far as we can learn, -the: matter did
) not strike Major. Sleep as being, one of
.importance, for he absolutely forgot that
.the papers containing the charge against
a member of his force were in his posses
sion, and some considerable delay took
place before they were forwarded to
Colonel Rede in Melbourne. Here, as .we
learn, there was' more forgetfulness, for
the colonel thought as little of the
matter as the major, and the court
martial was not-appointed for a con
siderable time. It will strike everyone
at once that there is something very
strange in the indifference with which a j
grave breach of discipline was regarded,
and by those who may be fairly said to
be responsible for the discipline of the
force, ■ We understand that it was only
through strong; representations being
made from Ballarat that the matter was
got through at last, and the offender was
reprimanded’after a long delay. Colonel
Hutton, with whom the pronouncing of
sentence lay, must, we think, have.some
what misunderstood the case, or like
members of Parliament, he must, have
been open to what are called proper
representations. He does not, surely,
believe that the,- discipline of the force;
can be maintained, or the officers
preserve their due authority, if such
flagrant , insubordination is to.' be
passed .over with a. mere' reprimand;.
What does a man who will be
guilty of such ah act care for a few
formal words 1 - If he is not - ashamed to
fly in: the face .of all propriety in the
presence of his comrades, is it pro
bable that he" will care about being
lectured in their presence ? A letter
which we publish in another part of the
paper from. Acting-corporal, Rehfisch
proves conclusively the truth of what
we say, and shows how utterly absurd
! the sentence is; It will be seen that |
i the reprimand has produced only the i
effect of making, matters worse than
they were before. If the Volunteers |
I were a lot of "school-girls the punish--
I ment would not bo at all adequate to
the offence, whilst-an-average lot of
school-boys would regard the whole
of the -proceedings as “a jolly lark.”
•The decision of the Colonel-Commanding
is felt to be so absurd that Captain White
at once resigned his position, and we ars
quite. sure that officers and men feel
that justice - has not been done, whilst
the discipline of the...force has been
seriously endangered. N A volunteer who
wouldnct ns Rehfisch did ought not, it
is felt,; to remain, in .the force a moment
beyond the time required for the necessary
formalities to expel him," and wo should
'like to know in- what way- Colonel
Hutton is able to . justify his decision,
and what all the persons responsible have.
got to : say about . delay
that took place before ..-anything/!!))
fhe purpose was haa, taken,
nearly three months', to get a .groaa
dffeoderagaihstdiscipline,repriijaaiidkd,
and that' is -only accomplised-. after a
great deal exertion: onthepartof
: those who ought not to have been obliged
to stir in the matter at.: all beyond the
initial stage. ' If Colonel Hutton- thinks
that he is going to preserve thodiscip;.
lino of the force by such proceedings or
make it any of use for any purpose in the
.way of.warfare, we can only regard his
views as highly original, and a great deal
more' original than. practicable.^, But,
perhaps, the real key to the decision is
the fact that the new Commandant
regards the whole volunteer force not as
a standing army but as a standing joke.
He wants, evidently, to be in the fun.
He knows that moat of the.officers know
very little about their duties, he knows
that the men are .very imperfectly
trained, and he may be supposed to feel
that he must not treat them as if they
real soldiers. In the army a man.
who had done as Behfisch did would
receive very severe punishment and we
know enough of the English Volunteer
Force to be able to say that no member
guilty of such conduct could bo allowed
again to fall in. But if a joke is being
carried -on the thing is all right, except
that the public, which pays for the force,
is unable to see it. The public does not
perceive where the fun comes in, and has
come to look ■ upon the force with any
thing but its former pride. The existing
feeling of contempt will not be at all
decreased by the recent miserable failure
to promptly and thoroughly uphold the
discipline without which the volunteers
are no better than a mob, for the public
will see that not only is the force in
efficient, but it is not able even to enforce
what may be called the decencies of its
duties. It is high time that the whole
business was dealt with in an effective
and business-like manner, and that the
colony got for its large expenditure at
least something that it could feel might
be relied upon. Good officers have
managed to accomplish a great deal with
even bad men, and good men have at
times retrieved the blunders of bad
officers, but who ever heard of inefficient
officers arid inefficient men doing any
thing save get into trouble or keeping
out of the .way. of danger 1
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