The Globe. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1874.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 160, 9 December 1874, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1874.

The Mayoral year is now drawing to a close, and the present occupant of the civic chair will, on the anniversary of the settlement, sinkfromthe dignity of " Tour Worship " to the lower level of Councillor. Future historians, when describing the reign of Michael of the Drain, will have to record the brilliant era which for twelve months has awakened the envy of our neighbours, and shed a halo over the city of Christchurch. It is not for us now to deal with this; that must be left for posterity. But there is one point upon which we do wish to say a few words, and as this reign has been to a large extent connected with it, indeed, has been the first during which the practice has been followed out, it becomes somewhat difficult in our remarks to separate them. We allude to the salary or allowance to the Mayor. We hope that, before the new Mayor isformally inducted, some measure will be devised by which an allowance may be granted to the Mayor. whoever he may be. The arrangement come to when the present Mayor took office had many faults, it was granted upon too vague and too little understood conditions, and the result har been some, unpleasantness. Our

opinion on the point is well known: we hold, and shall always do so, that the celebrated banquet was an unauthorised and unjustifiable expenditure of the public money, one totally uncalled for, and against which the Councillors should have protested strongly. However, that is done with, and we only mention it to express a hoje that a similar waste of the ralepayers' money will not occur again. It will, we think, be conceded by even the most rigid economist that it is only just andequitable, that the person who is elected to the office of Mayor should have a certain sum allotted him yearly, to meet the demands made upon him arising out of his position as Mayor of an important city like Christchurch. Of this there can be no doubt, as it can hardly be expected that, besides losing a large amount of valuable time, the Mayor is also to put his hand in his private purse and subscribe as Mayor to the many objects which he is called upon to do. Therefore we are advocates for a certain sum being set apart for this; not lettered with any degrading condition, but that; it shall be distinctly understood that it is for the purpose above-named and that only, and also that no part of it shall be' expended in banqueting— That is the basis upon which we hope to see an allowance of some kind made to the Mayor of 1875, and there is even a stronger reason than any we have advanced why it should be so. Under the present absurd and cliquecreating system of choosing the Mayor, it may come to the turn of a gentleman whose private means are not such as to enable him to subscribe to charitable objects so liberally as it is proper the Mayor should do, and therefore it would be a great hardship that, when ho is entitled by seniority to the office, he should be compelled to decline on account of being unable to meet the necessary expenditure. We therefore hope the City Council at the next meeting will consider the subject, and place the matter upon such a basis as to be satisfactory alike to the Mayor and the ratepayers. Before concluding we may perhaps be allowed to point out to the retiring dignitary how he may make his exit from official life, not only gracefully, but positively with eclat. There is now we believe about £lll, or say £IOO remaining unappropriated of the £3OO voted for this year, and it is said that the Mayor's "little bill" for this amount will come in next Monday. Now the suggestion we wish to make to the Mayor is that he should act the magnanimous and divide this small sum amongst the various charitable institutions of the city, or else if he has conscientious scruples against doing this, make the ratepayers a"present of it. The past year has been a singularly uneventful one;_ there have been no royal or vice-regal visitors to entertain, and the calls upon the allowance of the Mayor have been few and far between, bo that we think either of the two courses we have pointed out might be adopted by His Worship, alike with credit to himself and to the city. The termination of his year of office just prior to the advent of the new Governor —and a Marquis too—has it is true deprived him of the opportunity of exhibiting that hospitality and liberality (at the ratepayers expense) which has been telegraphed from one end of the colony to the other, but is there not comfort in the thought that the £IOO is still intact and will afford him an opportunity of closing his reign with a blaze of triumph in no way inferior to that which heralded its early days.