MATTERS MUNICIPAL.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 561, 29 November 1881, Page 2

MATTERS MUNICIPAL.

To the Editor.

Sib, —Will you give me a little of your valuable space that I may my a word or two on the corning election, and the first nnd most iinpor ant question is—a , ''fitand proper pprson to fill the mayoral chair, end R8 nre only two candidates, then the-quest ion w<3 liare to decide is which is the man most qualified to act as head of affairs, and,this ir the question that in past elections has been the least important, with a cert-tin section of our ratepayers, and lam afraid is so still; Party feeling and personal spite hare overcome every other consideration, and men have been induced to come forward wholly unfit to rule, and whose want of knowledge of municipal laws have made thftn mere tools in the hands of one or two, and the consequence has been that the Council meetings have been a waste of time and, the ratepayers' money pquandered for the want of fit men ns Mayors. I wish it to be thoroughly understood that the above remarks do not apply to our present Mayor, as we are all agreed that during Mr Garwood's term of office municipal matters have gone on swimmingly. We "want a man who at any rate can manage his own affairs; also with a certain amount of firmness, a great amount of principle, a knowledge of the municipal laws, a. good chairman, and one who haa proved himself a good public man in the past. One of tlie candidates at any rate enn lay claim to the above qualification. Mr W. Meech is well known in Akaroa, and is a gentleman of sterling character and a lover of justice, one who has filled various offices for the good of the town, and has shown while carrying out the duties of those offices no mean abilities, and as a chairman has few equils here. His knowledge, of the municipal laws makes him a fair match for even his most subtle enemies, and his love of justice a terror to the same. I challenge any one who will honestly look back during Mr Meech's residence in Akaroa to disprove the foregoing statements, or to question that gentleman's ability to fill the office of Mayor. I trust then that the ratepayers this time will let their sens* of jiwiice come to the fore, and not allow themselveu to be talked euv of*their common sense by one or two, whose leading qualifications is tbeir " gift of'the gab." But let ue act like Englishmen, and if there is any honor in being Mayor, then give that honor as a reward to the man who even outside shop has always stack to his last. Your*, etc., SOLES AND EELS.