The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1886. The Tinwald Town Board.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1264, 15 June 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1886. The Tinwald Town Board.

The Tinwald Town Board has earned a by no means enviable notoriety, and, if we may judge from their recent proceedings, the present members of the Board have no very serious desire to elevate the status of the institution. When the formation of the Town District was first proposed we pointed out some of the difficulties and inconveniences which might arise from the step, and, we regret to say, our very worst fears and anticipations have been more than realised. Wnile ratepayers of the Longbcach or Upper Ashburton Road Board the residents in Tinwald had very little, in the matter of local government, to complain of. Their grievances, which were small indeed, would have been entirely removed had the division now compris-

ing the Town District been made a separate ward of lire Longbeach Road District. But a majority of the people of Tinwald thought otherwise; they would have nothing less than a Town District, and led by a certain intermittent politician, who has since abandoned them to their own devices, they obtained the object of their desire. The incidents connected with the election of the first Board are still fresh in the memories of many of our readers; we need not recount them, but may observe that they did not augur well for the future career of the new body. Tor a time we watched the proceedings of the Board with amused interest; the members appeared to be

inspired with a plausible desire to discharge their not very onerous duties with exemplary propriety. But this desire was unsupported either by knowledge or experience, and after wrestling with what we may term the avant-propos of their new office for ten or twelve months, they plunged headlong and indiscriminately into the prosecution of works. They have undertaken to form | streets and build bridges and effect a | variety of other costly improvements in ! outlying portions of the town, but have entirely overlooked or disregarded the requirements of the main street and principal thoroughfares. Gorse is over-growing the footpaths within a few yards of the centre of the town, many of the sidewalks are all but impassable and the locality wears an atr of general neglect and disorder. Some months ago one of the members of the Board resigned his seat in order that he might be able to accept a number of contracts for work under the Board, but no steps have yet been taken to fill the vacancy created by the resignation, and this happy family has exercised no sort of care to confine its proceedings within the four corners of the law. But we will not quarrel with the Board on afty nice point of law ; we are prepared to admit that some of the irregularities perpetrated are in a measure excused by the incomplete Character ot the ;

awn Districts Act. But the Board is made executive blunders of a rious and inexcusable nature. It has, nong other things, undertaken to form number of roads dedicated to the disict by Mr R. Wilkin, which will absorb iur or five times the sura contributed »r the purpose by the dedicator; it has xposed itself to a great deal of adverse riticisra by letting work in an irregular mnner. it has not sought an exchange f confidence and goodwill with the Repayers, and has totally ignored the orce and direction of public opinion. Ve approve of a certain amount —and hat a very large amount —of indepenlence on the part of public bodies, but ndifference to the wishes and interests )f the ratepayers is quite another thing. Fhe members of the Tinwald Town Board have taken up the latter position ind the ratepayers of the District should it once taisc their voices in unanimous, unmistakeable, and emphatic protest. Arhburtcn R.M. Court

We understand that Mr Baddeley, R.M., contemplates ceasing to hold a Court for the despatch of criminal business on Tuesdays, and to take the whole of the criminal and civil business of his Court on Fridays. The change is to be made at the suggestion and to suit the convenience of two professional gentlemen who practise in the Court but who live fifty miles away, and also, we presume, to some extent, to meet Mr Baddeley’s own arrangements. The local members of the profession object to the change, and we desire to add our earnest protest to theirs. We are aware that the business of the Resident Magistrate’s Court has been slack of late, but that state of things is not likely to be permanent, and in any case the business which, spread over two days can be done easily and well, could not be compressed into one day, or, if it were, it would be done badly, and suitors’ interests would suffer. We shonld have a revival of the scandalous state of things which prevailed in Mr Bcswick’a time, in oider to remedy which Mr Baddeley was appointed, .with the express object that a Stipendiary Magistrate should be resident in the district. We do insist that the interests of the public, and not the convenience of certain lawyers, should be considered in the administration of justice.