The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3555, 30 November 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1882.

Since the resolutions passed by the Municipal Council at the special meeting of September 28 it has become every day more and more apparent that, if put into effect they would prove utterly unworkable, and throw all the Corporation offices into confusion. It will be remembered that a special meeting had been called for the consideration of certain notices of motion that had for their object the reduction of the salaries of the officials to the scale at which they stood before the £10,000 loan was raised. In addition to this reduction it was proposed to add the inspectorship of nuisances to the office of overseer of roads, and to that end it was deemed necessary to give notice of dismissal to the inspector and overseer, with a view to their reinstatement under altered titles. There was no intention to finally dispense with their services. There were two other notices of motion, one waa that day labor should be replaced by contract work, and the other was that the engineer should be a consulting and not a permanent officer. It was retrenchment not revolution that was aimed at, and if those motions bad been carried a very considerable saving in office expenditure would have been effected, while the efficiency of every department would have been preserved. The loan

had been spent, and the public works would have to be stopped, and in con-

sideration of tbe fact that the increase of salaries that had been made from time to time had been paid out of borrowed money, it did not seem preposterous that a reduction should be made when the

source of payment had dried up. There was not a dissentient voice to the course proposed to be pursued in this matter till a few boura before the Council met. It was then that a councillor, wbo has long ceased to reside within forty miles of the borough, arrived in town, and succeeded in getting a series of amendments framed which were as hasty as they were mischievous ia character. These amendments were kept secret until the time arrived to spring them as a mine, when tbe Council, pledged to retrenchment, would be forced to accept them or stultify itself. No time was allowed for reflection, and every

amendment was carried. The effect of the resolutions thus passed will be as follows: —The town clerk's salary will be reduced from £400 to £350 a-year, and in addition to his duties as treasurer he will be receiver of rates. Hie assistant is to be Mr E. Williams, whose salary is to be £156 a-yaar. Mr Parker, whose salary is £186, will retire. Mr Black, wboee salary is to remain as it is, namely £180, will, ia addition to being overseer of roads and clerk of the works, be inspector of nuisances, inspector of hackney carriages, fire inspector, and building surveyor. In the first place it is absolutely impossible for the town clerk to perform the duties of receiver of rates. No doubt he would try to do them, but the anxiety and the day and night work that the double offices would entail would inevitably break any man down, and the very first day on which ! bis health failed everything would be in a hopeless state of confusion. It is no disrespect to Mr Williams to say that bis assistance would be very little. Mr Williams ie not a trained accountant, and it is the height of absurdity to put him into a position that be is not qualified to fill. In getting rid of Mr Parker a gross piece of stupidity wowld be perpetrated, and we have no hesitation in saying that, if the resolutions are given effect to, it would not be many weeks before it would be necessary to request bis return to his office. Under the circumstances it would not be likely that be would return. He has already has too good an experience of what it is to bring the books from a state of chaos into order. Under the proposed alterations, that they would revert to a condition of behind-date and muddle there can be no doubt. It is the duty of the Mayor and councillors to protect the interests of ratepayers in this respect. After converting Mr Williams into an office clerk, the resolutions proceed to turn Mr Black into a building

surveyor! It might be easy enough fa the versatile genius who conceived these startling transformations to fit himself into any groove in which he might slide or be pitchforked. It is not given, however, to every man to be so elastic and accommodating as the councillor who so ably represents the interests of the middle ward by residing at Waipawa. In former days—and not so many months ago either—he was a staunch supporter of tbe cry of the British artisan, " a fair day's pay for a fair day's work," and that day's work was not to be more than eight hours, and the pay was to be as much as could be got out of the employer. The same principle ought to be extended to the Corporation officers. They ought not to be put to work that must be necessity over-tax their powers, and they ought not to have thrust upon them duties that their training has not qualified them to fulfil.