The Globe. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1876.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 691, 6 September 1876, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1876.

No less than six candidates foy the three vacant seats in the City Council sent in their names at the Town Clerk’s office yesterday. The names received were those of Messrs T. D. Jones, H. Toomer, sen, M. B. Hart, L. E, Nathan, E. Hobbs, and W. P. Cowlishaw. We „do not intend to discuss tbe merits or demerits of those gentlemen, they are nearly all well known to the ratepayers. But the fact of tbe last named gentleman having permitted himself to be placed in the lists is somewhat curious. Most people are by this time aware that there is such an institution in existence as the Drainage Board, enjoying large powers over the city and suburbs. Most of its members are either City Councillors or members of tbe suburban Road Boards. So far tbe Drainage Board

has worked harmoniously with the City Council, at least the outside public is not aware of anything to the contrary. But time sufficient to denote the possibility of the two bodies clashing has not yet elapsed since the Board first came into existence. That such a contingency is within the limits of possibility has already been discussed ; and as the powers ot the younger corporation are of a kind likely to overlap those which the Council possesses within the four corners of the belt, there is nothing wonderful in the fact that the subject has already attracted attention. Now Mr. Cowlishaw holds the office of Solicitor to the Drainage Board, and he can scarcely have thought of the anomalous position which he would occupy were litigation to arise between the Board and the Council during his term of office as City Councillor. In calling attention to this matter we do not intend for one instant to depreciate Mr Cowlishaw’s qualifications for civic honors. In fact, but for the objection which we have raised, Mr. Cowlishaw’s presence in the City Council would be of very great value to the ratepayers. If therefore in the interests of the city he is prepared to resign the office of solicitor to the Drainage Board in order to leave himself perfectly unfettered, we hope he may be returned near the top of the poll. Such a step would be a worthy example to set, the consequences of which it is impossible to estimate. In these degenerate days, it is not every one of our public men who, like Caesar’s wife, is above suspicion, and it would be quite refreshing to find a gentleman come forward at coming election and, at considerable pecuniary sacrifice, resign a valuable office at tbe call of duty. But we cannot conceive that he can seriously entertain the advisability of taking his seat in the Council while holding a position the duties of which are so thoroughly incompatible with those of the post he already holds.

Journalism is in a bad way in some parts of the colony. What the cause of its seeming decline can be, it is hard to tell. Here, at our very doors, in prosperous Canterbury, instances of the lamentable fact are of continual recurrence. Take, for example, our evening contemporary. How people can put together and offer to the public gaze the childish twaddle which our contemporary publishes night after night, is to many people a complete puzzle! Last week we were gravely informed, that “ Dr ” Turner being so long at large, “ showed that New Zea- “ land had some distance to travel in “ life before her constabulary arrange- “ ments came up to the mark.” A graceful allusion, no doubt, to the railway policy of Sir Julius Vogel, Yesterday, the startling announcement was made through the same original channel that Major Atkinson, the new Premier, was “inexperienced,” and that “ as the first-fruits of bis experience, he “ had consented to waive his precedence “ in the Executive Council in favour of “ the Attorney-General.” —As a matter of fact, Major Atkinson has been for a number of years one of the leading politicians of New Zealand, and a prominent member of several Ministries. It is really too absurd to see insertion given to precocious yet inflated ideas such as the journal in question publishes for the merriment, evidently, of the man “round the “ corner.” Yet, it must be said, very few people swallow any particles of the substance bo aptly designated by Mr, Macandrew in the House as “ flap-doodle.” But then “ a little “ wind in tbe bellows, is better than no “ wind at all.”