The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3798, 17 September 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1883.

Municipal matters in the city of AVellington just now are not running smoothly, but perhaps they aro mado to appear to an outsider in a worse light through tho extraordinary hostility shown by both tho local papers to the Mayor. However that may be, a good many things have gone wrong of late, and everybody is putting tho blame on somebody else. The contractor for the reclamation works has failed; Mr Travors, the city solicitor, has resigned ; the engineer and the Council arc not at one; and now thoy want to get rid of the Town Clerk, and replace him by giving tho appointment to a lawyer. Tho Times deprecates the employment of a solicitor, and the Post, of course, has taken tho other side of tho question. Tho Times says:—"The real forte of lawyers, as everyone knows, is quibbling and hairsplitting ; now that a man brought up in the practice of that particular art should suddenly forego its use when ho is appointed a Town Clerk, and instead of saddling tho Council with law suits and law costs bo specially anxious to avoid them, to save legal expenses, and to be ever ready for prudent compromise, is one of those things which passes our understanding." The Post replies to this by saying that '' a very slight degree of intelligent reflection will show anybody that, whereas under the present system it is made tho interest of the City Solicitor to pile up the city law costs as high as possible, the interest of a lawyer Town Clerk Avould be in exactly the opposite direction. He would gain nothing by civic litigation. On tho contrary, ho would lose, for his reputation as tho Council's everpresent adviser would suffer by every action in which the city became involved, unless the Council had openly ignored his counsel, in which case the odium would fall so heavily on them that they would be very unlikely to incur it The rash assertion that 'first-class legal wen' would not accept the office is suf-

ficiently answered by the fact that Mr Travcrs has actually 'made a direct offer to take the post at a lower salary than that first proposed, and on the terms suggested." Now all Ihis reads as though written for a purpose. Mr Travcrs, it appears, has resigned the post of city solicitor because he was" not in accord with certain of the councillors and officers of the Corporation. His appointment apparently was too dis(asieful to allow him to continue his official connociion with the Council. The Post now asserts that Mr Travers will renew that connection at a lower salary than that first proposed. If we remember rightly tho salary suggested was .€7OO a year. But if, under tho existing system, it was "mado « the interest of the city solicitor to pilo up the city law costs as high as possible," we • may surely presume that the desired change is to be brought about in order to cheapen tho legal expenses of the borough. That is to say, the Post wants to get rid of tho present Town Clerk in order to give tho position to tho lawyer whose interest it has hitherto been " to pilo up tho city law costs." If the law costs had not been piled up as high as possiblo tho desirability of a change would not have suggested itself. Now, let us see how tho Post tries to force on the ratepayers of AVellington tho idea that an ornamental Town Clerk is due to the importance of the city:—"lt is the rare exception to find iv a town, even tho size of AVellington, the position of Town Clerk held by other than a lawyer. So far from there being any difficulty in obtaining able practitioners, the position is, on tho contrary, eagerly sought after, and often accepted at a nominal salary, for the sake of the standing and prestige it conveys. There is no necessity, nor would it be desirable, to prevent a Lawyer Town Clerk continuing his private practice, so long as this is not allowed to interfere with his official duties, which could be arranged without the slightest difficulty. This is the usual course, and it seems to us tho preferable one, but there is tho other alternative of securing the entire service of a lawyer as is dono in tho case of the Solicitor-General and CroAvn Law Officers.'' AA r e altogether fail to follow the Post in its arguments in support of its present fad. It asserts that a " very capable man could bo secured at a salary which would effect an enormous saving on tho expense to which the city is now put with the two officers."—the Town Clerk and the City Solicitor. If an enormous saving could be effected, it follows that hitherto there has been an enormous expen* diture, due, presumably from the Post's arguments, to it having been to the interest of the city solicitor to pile up the law costs. The Post offers as a remedy "a hair of tho dog that bit you " by advocating tho appointment of the solicitor to tho offico o£ Town Clerk. A curious way this we should think of bettering a state of things that could be so easily altered by changing tho solicitor.