The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas, et Prevalebit. SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1882. A Distinction without a Difference.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 546, 28 January 1882, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas, et Prevalebit. SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1882. A Distinction without a Difference.

TOWN EDITION, [lssued at 4.30 p.m.j

We are son/ that the Mayor has. misunderstood the meaning of a para-| graph which appeared in this journal in reference to the state of the Tancred street side-channel. This is unfortunate, because we endeavored to point out to our readers that certain had been made to the Council, on cer-| tain sanitary matters, which required' immediate attention at their hands, in order to prevent disease and death. We were accused at the last,meeting of the Borough Council with misstating facts, published in a way which were likely to damage the fair name 0;' the Borough in the eyes of anjj stranger, so it was said. We are uni able to gather the exact points uporj which his Worship based the remark'’; made by him on Thursday night, but: if they were made with the object of correcting the |statements made by u:,: he will pardon us if we make no hesitation in putting him right. As a matter of fact it was pointed out to the Council by a deputation that a certain street drainage was defective, that there were dead animals and refuse accumulating, that diphtheria and dysentery had shown themselves in no less that-} five houses ! The bad drainage may or may not have been the cause for all this, but the natural conclusion to come to was, that it required immediate attention on sanitary grounds. The Council decided upon taking the matter in hand, so soon as they were in |a position to concrete channell the street in _ question. The grievance against us is that we published a paragraph to the effect that hi (the Mayor) Stated that the Council would like to see water flowing down every street in the place, but had not got the moneyjjto do anything to remedy the nuisance complained of by Mr Jameson, or they could do nothing at the present time for wants of funds. What we ought to have said would perhaps have sounded better to the effect: —“The Council thanked the deputation for bringing the matter before their notice, and regretted exceedingly, that in the face of a large overdraft at the Bank, the nuisance .complained of must be allowed to stai d over for an indefinite period.” The stranger reading this, would agree with us, we opine, that it is “a distinction without a difference,” and that however willing this Council was : to abate a nuisance, that nuisance must await the necessary funds. Whatever any outsiders may think, it is our duty to call public attention to a matter which affects the health of our townspeople. As is well known, delays in sanitary matters frequently lead to fatal results. Nothing has yet been done. The money for the pipes is not yet in the hands of the Council, and in all probability there will be fatal cases yet recorded in the neighborhood of this particular street, through unpardonable delay in the expenditure of some £,so in streetchannelling. Our worthy Mayor evidently does not like the town to suffer from wrong impressions, and neither do we, but surely when he takes upon himself to correct any so-called mis-statements of ours he should endeavor to put himself right with the burgesses by plainly stating more reasonable grounds for bringing them before the notice of the Council than lie did in this instance. We feel rather flattered, than otherwise, with the remarks which fell from Councillor St. Hill, because “ penny - a - liners seldom get a genius to criticise their work without an object. Whether Councillor St. Hill’s object was the welfare of the town or the gratification of his wejlknown antipathy towards us really dot;;s not concern u s in the least, so long its we feel that our remarks on the state of

things, as represented by Messrs Jameson and Bland, were perfectly justified arid warranted.