The Globe. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1878.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1480, 13 November 1878, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1878.

The economy of the present City Council lias been lauded until it bas almost passed into a proverb, but there is just one item in its proceedings in wbicb wo venture to doubt its attention to the interests of the ratepayers. On the 2btb of October, 1877, a petition was presented to the Council, requesting it to form a private street called Carter’s Lane, upon tbo same terms and conditions that private streets may bo formed under tbo Act. On November 19tb of tbo same year the petition camo again bexore tbo Council and tbo prayer was acceded to, subject to the couditious of tbo Act. On December 1 Itb of tbo same year tbo matter was before the Works Committee, aud notice was given to the owners aud occupiers to remove cortaiu obstructions, so as to make the street tbo required width under tbo Act. Nothing further appears on the records of the Council until February I Itb tbo same year, when the surveyor reports having channelled the (street. This work, it will bo noted, was undertaken presumably under audiority of tbo Works Committee, under whose orders tbo surveyor acts, ibis was done at a cost to tbo ratepayers of £l-25 its (id. Now, under tbo provisions of clause 210 sections 2 and 3 of tbo Municipal Corporations Act, 1876, tbo owners or occupiers of land fronting upon any private street should have notice given them before any proposed transfer of private property to the Corporation is effected. Want is the fact, as regards this particular work ? Why, that die notice was not served until after the work was done. Tlio Surveyor reported under date of February litb, 18f8, that tbo channelling of Carter’s lane bad been completed. whereas the notices, proper forms for wbicb exist, printed over tbo signature of the Town Clerk, were not served until September 18tb of tbo same year. The result is that tbo residents refuse to pay their proportion of tbo cost, and as tboy cannot be compelled to pay, the ratepayers of tbo city lose £125 Os 6d by tbo S\icb ,ip tjio bare statement

of fads, and the question now remains, Who is to blame for such a waste of the city funds. Bogin at the head : Is it the Mayor, who may be supposed not ignorant of the internal working and transactions of (lie various committees ? Is it the Chairman of the Works Committee, who must, certainly, bo intimately acquainted with the branch of the Executive of which ho is the head ? or, to explore further still, is it either of the paid officers of the Council, who are supposed to carry out the orders of the W orks Committee ? Those are, of course, the Surveyor and the Town Clerk, whose signature appears on every legal notice of iho kind described. Without at this stage imputing the cause of these laches to any, wo think that the blame will bo found to rest, or bo shifted, on to some one of the many persons we have named, and it is highly desirable that this matter should be cleared up as soon as possible. Ordinarily, we may ask question after question from such bodies without eliciting a reply; but sometimes opportunities arise for the clearing up of mysteries in arrear. Such a chance will bo given on Monday next, when, or —and wo would rather see it done—before, somebody may, as wo have no doubt somebody can, give us a satisfactory explanation of what now seems an egregious misappropriation of the city funds.

TnK report of the last weekly meeting of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board would furnish texts for many sermons. Here is one: —“The Secretary reported a case where a man had two children in the Orphanage tor eighteen months During the whole ( f that time he had never been to (he I statu’i m to see the children, althi ugh ho live 1 in Lyttelton, nor had he paid one tingle penny towards their support.” The Secretary, no doubt, was perfectly right in calling the attention of the Board to this extraordinary fact, only, why has not something similar been dme befi T 3 ? It may be] hit the man has been as poor in pocket as he is destitute of natural affaction, and that no benefit to the Institution could have followed the disturbance of his peace ; but we strongly suspe it it is the happy-go lucky manner in which the Orphanage has been conducted, that has allowed the neglect of this man to pass unrectifiel for such a long period. We are as ignorant of the paiticulars of this case as the Board appears to be, but we have now heard quite enough to convince us that the new governing body, if they attend to their work, wdl have no sinecure in the (rust they have undertaken. Chaiity has no more attractive application than that in which they are called upon to administer it. Be it their care not to allow of its prosthu'ion, the conversion of its bounty into a p-emium for the encouragement of unscrupulous or improvident parasites.

Why should any particular sect be allowed to exercise their religious ministrations within the Hospital at the risk of offending members of other denominations, who will be compelled to endure the imposition as best they may ? It is too often forgotten by those who should know better, that an Hospital is not a gaol. Prisoners the inmates through mis fortune may be, but felons they are not, and there is no more right on the pa r t of anyone to force their religious inclinations than there is to make them pick oakum. An unobtrusive sidt frrm a pitying friend, whatever his mission may be, no doubt may do the greatest of good, and as such would by most be gratefully received, but the singing of psalms and hymns are not always calculated to soothe the occupants of a sick chamber, and most likely will prove only a source of irritation to the majority of those now to be subjected to this treatment. To bring this matter homo : If the Society of St. Vincent de Paul apply for a privilege similar to that granted the Young Women’s Christian Association will it be conceded ? We hope it may, but doubt it severely. OtJE morning friend in Gloucester street has been to the Circus, and came away rather muddled. The comic heads of their clownships have been too much for him. We have not time to scratch all the polls he presents to us—what we should find would not repay the trouble, —but simply observe he has unfortunately omitted to mention one head very much poked into the business on hand, that is, the “ cabbage head.” _ When in future he is short of information, we advise him not to go to further fields for it, or wait till the original has been forgotten.