The Globe. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1874.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 96, 21 September 1874, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1874.

The old proverb anent new brooms is just now receiving practical illustration in our City Council. Mr Councillor Eaphael, the one new member amongst the recently returned batch, has tabled a motion respecting the Mayor s salary, which comes on for discussion this evening. There can be no doubt

of the feeling of the ratepayers upon this point; but we think a false issne has been raised. They do not object to their Mayor receiving a sura sufficient to cover actual expenses incurred during his year of office—expenditure, that is, entailed upon him ex officio. It would hardly be right to ask any gentleman not only to give up his time in the service of the ratepayers, but also to sustain pecuniary loss, and therefore even the most rabid opponent of paying the chief officer of the city will, we think, agree with us that to this extent, at least, the Mayor should be indemnified. But the real grievance is not this ; had this been done, had the various calls upon the purse of the Mayor in the way of charity, &c, been the cause of expenditure, there would have been no room for complaint. The fact is that the ratepayers look upon the large expenditure —some £lB0 —for a banquet as uncalled for, and quite opposed to the spirit of the resolution under which the grant was made, and in this we are bound to agree with them. No doubt the Mayor, having in view thecivic feasts at home, was acting in strict accordance with municipal traditions, and those lucky enough to be bidden to the banquet enjoyed themselves thoroughly, but when what aFrench author has wittily called the mauvais quart d'heure arrived, and with it the “ little ” bill, the real founders of the feast, the ratepayers, were surprised that they should be called upon to bear the cost of what to them appeared a perfectly uncalledfor demonstration. No doubt it was a happy inspiration which contrived to combine the birthday of his Worship with the completion of the drain, but then why was it necessary that the latter event should be celebrated in such a style of magnificence at the cost of the ratepayers’ particularly when the Council over and over again when asked to do some necessary work in the city uniformly returned the answer that it was only with the strictest economy that they were enabled to conclude their financial year on the right side of the ledger? In conclusion, while not agreeing with the sweeping resolution proposed by Councillor Haphael, wo hope that some means will be taken by the Council to prevent a recurrence of what we have alluded to, and that while providing that the gentleman who may be called upon to devote his time during the year to the service of the citizens, shall not be also out of pocket, they will see that the rates are not expended in so useless and unnecessary a manner as a banquet, which, after all, was only an opportunity for self-laudation, and a verification of the old Scotch saying, “ You claw me and I’ll claw you.”