THE LATE PUBLIC MEETING.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 87, 10 September 1874, Page 4

THE LATE PUBLIC MEETING.

[From the Press.'] Or the public meeting held in the Oddfellows’ Hall on Tuesday evening we can only say that it was a disgrace to the city. The conduct of a large portion of those present was disorderly in the extreme, and the whole proceedings calculated to give the outside public a very mean opinion of the intelligence of the ratepayers of Christchurch. But it was more than disorderly. It displayed a spirit of unfairness strangely at variance with Englishmen’s love of fair play. The meeting permitted certain charges to be brought against his Worship the Mayor, and when he sought to vindicate himself not only refused to listen to his explanation, but added to the indignity by heaping further insult upon him. His Worship,, as chairman of the meeting, may not have been acting quite in accordance with etiquette in seeking to make an explanation from the chair, but such an error of judgment was pardonable in the circumstances. For the conduct of a portion of the meeting there is no excuse whatever. If such is the manner the chief magistrate of the city is to be rewarded for bis exertions on behalf of the ratepayers, the public cannot expect that the better class of citizens will offer themselves as candidates for seats in the City Council. They do not care to subject themselves to the abuse of a disorderly and irresponsible mob. Nor do we see the utility of such, meetings at all. The majority of those who attend them, do not go there to gain information as to the views of the various candidates, but to enjoy some fun at their expense. The result is that the ratepayers come from the meeting as ignorant as when they entered it, of the views of the candidates on municipal matters. And this,will always continue to be the case till the orderly portion of the Ratepayers show more interest in municipal affairs, and determine to put a stop to such disgraceful proceedings as those of Tuesday night.