The Globe. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1878.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1429, 13 September 1878, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1878.

We fancy that most people will agree with us when wo say that the result of yesterday’s Municipal election is far from satisfactory. It has long been a matter of general notoriety that the ratepayers of the city do not exhibit that interest when sending to the Council men who would best represent them, which the all important questions daily at issue demand. With the enormous expenditure now going on, and the increasing ratio of rates, which cause so much recrimination and grumbling, it might bo expected that many among the most influential classes of the community would come forward in order to overlook and protect public interests. But this interest unfortunately is wanting. Municipal meetings and Municipal elections seem to be looked upon, uow-a-days, as occasions of irrational festivity, when pentup feelings of devilry and larrikinism find unchecked display. The disgraceful antics which disfigured the proceedings of the public meeting at the Oddfellows’ Hall on Wednesday, and which appear to have culminated at the close of the poll last evening, have probably a good deal to do in preventing men of superior standing from taking a part in Municipal politics. And we can scarcely wonder at it. Yery few men, unless they bo carried away by temporary feelings of ambition amounting almost to monomania, will in future care to contest Municipal honors after the exhibition of “ popular” eccentricity which characterised the electoral doings of yesterday. It is not our intention to rake up matters which belong to the past, nor is it our desire to cast stones at any one whose position in the commercial world might not bo in keeping with his natural abilities or practical experience of civic matters. Wo only wish to compare results, and to show how from small causes most important effects will arise. This pernicious habit of a certain class of light-minded individuals of burlesquing Municipal matters on all and every occasion when they delight in witnessing the governing coach struggling in a quagmire, is as unseemly as it is seriously antagonistic to the orderly conduct of public affairs. For some years past in Christchurch, a not inconsiderable portion of ratepayers —in point of numbers at ajl events appear to have looked upon Municipal elections and their concomitant meetings and polling-days as a kind of theatrical performance, where the more the grotesque and vulgar element predominated tlio greater the fun. A somewhat considerable number of ratepayers have deemed it a not inappropriate joke to hoist Mr. William Wilson upon the municipal pinnacle. That gentleman, it is well-known, has made his mark here during a past number of years, both as a citizen and a representative of a certain section of the community. Owing to circumstances upon the nature of which wo need not expatiate, a strong feeling of distrust has not unreasonably seized the public mind as to his ability of ever doing good in any public capacity. That mirth-loving section of our citizens who will so often insist on casting as much odium upon the most important administrative institution which the city possesses, Resisted by a few enthusiastic believers in tji.oso social Utopias that point to impossible regonorakug ropults, have placed Mr, Wilson \ovy

tlio top of the poll. Tlio more respect- j able of tlio Councillors have, in couso- j queuco, either resigned, or they are about j to do so. A bare quorum will thus bo left iu the Council. From ihoso gentlemen’s own point of view, wo fear that no one can blame them for the step they have taken. In all probability they have fully considered, their position, and have not arrived too hastily at conclusions which will so seriously affect the aspect of affairs. Never, without a doubt, were municipal matters in a more unfortunate, if not scandalous a state. To tho apathy of tho well-thinking portion of tho community, these lamentable results must, to a great extent, bo attributed. Yet, it is possible that the traditional straw which is said to have at last broken tho camel’s back, will now bo wafted in our direction. The outcome of yesterday's proceedings may have tho effect of awakening those who have so long neglected municipal affairs, to a sense of tho danger by which their most vital interests are certainly jeopardised, and wo can only trust that during the approaching electoral convulsions, which tho resignations, almost en masse, of the Councillors renders necessary, tho public mind will at last find its true channel, and that an end will finally bo put to the tomfoolery which is making tho name of tho Christchurch City Council a byeword and a subject of derision.