The Globe. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1874.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 91, 15 September 1874, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1874.

The City Council held their usual weekly meeting last night, and the new Councillor, Mr A. J. Eaphael, has the following notice of motion on the books, to be discussed at the next meeting:—" That the resolution. "No " 23, on the minutes of the Council, " 17th September, 1873, with reference " to the sum of £3OO being allowed " for the Mayor's official expenses, be " rescinded from the expiration of the " present Mayoral year." It is not likely, we think, that Mr Eaphael will be able to induce a majority of the present Council to agree with him, but the motion is in itself a protest, and a stand against the system which has been in force for the last twelve months. We had never heard up to the last year, of any Mayor requiring an allowance from the Council, and the gentlemen who have held the office have considered themselves compensated for any expenditure over and above their usual yearly disbursements, by the fact that they have been plnrtrrl to the post of chief officer by liuir fellow Councillors, and consequently through them by the ratepayers. We by no means object to the sum of £3OO being voted to the Mayor of Christchurch every year ; but we must decidedly object to the wording of the resolution, which says that the sum shall be allowed for " official expenses." If it is necessary to attach any salary to the office of Mayor of the city, let the sum be fixed at whatever seems proper, and let the Mayor for the time being draw it, and be answerable to no one for the manner in which he may choose to spend it. It is absurd to vote certain money for the Mayor, and then oblige that dignitary to bring down to the Council a statement of the manner in which this money has been expended. It is not fair to the Mayor, and no two sections of the community will agreo aB to

what are, and what are not, official expenses. The dignity of the office can be kept up without banquets which must be paid for by the ratepayers, and to wh'ch only a limited number of people can be asked ; and it is to be hoped that there are mauy citizens who wou 1 d give the Hme and trouble which the supervision of the necessary works of improvement in the city would entail upon them, without wishing to draw a large percentage from the amount raised by the rates, and which the Council is always grumbling at as being too small to be of any good. If a man goes into the City Council with the idea that he is eventually to be Mayor, then perhaps a Provincial Councillor, and finally a member of the General Assembly, we regard his wishes and aspirations as worthy ones; but if on attaining the position of Mayor, he is chiefly anxious to shine by the robes of office he shall wear, the luncheons he shall give, and the laying down of the law at all times and in all places, then we think that the sooner he is relegated to his native obscurity, the better for the city and the citizens. Councillor Raphael will do good service by bringing forward the motion standing in his name, and, though we do not anticipate his success, the question at all events must be discussed, and the public will see how many gentlemen there are in the Council, who are willing to serve the city for the good oi the city, and how many are iufluenced by the £3OO attached to the office of Mayor.