The Globe. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1878.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1493, 28 November 1878, Page 2

The Globe. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1878.

The reorganisation of tho permanent staff of the City Council is a matter which, as we hinted yesterday, calls for immediate attention. The subject is most distasteful, and it is nothing short of a severo sense of our duty to the public, which has led us again to bring the matter forward. That a state of things in the internal administration of our City Council affairs has arisen which is so glaring as to attract tho comments and condemnation of a most indulgent press and public, we think cannot be denied, and it seems to us that the time has arrived when the whole question must be handled, in such a manner, as to secure a total and permanent cure of the slovenly and happy-go-lucky way in which almost every department under the Council does its work. It is difficult to choose from the many examples before us, and delicacy forbids us to give a bad pre-eminence to any, but tentatively, we may enquire why so many dummies, dead men, and non-residents appear on tho rate roll, while peoplo in tho flesh, not (lead at all, are compelled to pay rates, but, at tho same time, are denied tho privilege of a voto. It is not difficult to imagine tho grin of derision with which this question will be met by tho employes of tho Council. They are sure to say, " Where is tho law, rule, or direction in any shape that can make us responsible for these omissions?" No more there are, but he is a miserable and useless servant indeed, who cannot find out and suggest a remedy for any defect in tho conduct of his master's business. Tho rectification of the ratepayers' roll can only be effected by a house to house visitation. The system that has been pursued of simply copying from the old rolls favors the idleness of men paid to work, and nothing more. And the indolence, or ignorance shown in this matter cuts more ways than one. Whether any member of tho City Council thinks it above or beneath him, or not, ive ask, how much money has been lost to the city funds in rates, by '' wrong description" and "non-application?" Much—much more than outsiders think, has in this manner found its way to the debit side of the municipal ledger. Tho thing is easy enough to understand. If an accurate roll is prepared every year, the corporation have in their hands a directory, showing at easy reference their whole income. Such a thing does not now exist, never has existed, and, unless some man with brains and a will finds his way into the Council's offices, never will exist. We repeat, and it cannot be too often repeated that, fossils who are content to run in the groove ploughed out by years of perfunctory inattention to the increasing wants of the day, should be relegated to some limbo that no doubt Providence has laid out for them.

There is another and if possible a greaser evil which is destructive of sound government anywhere, and this is painfully apparent in tho management of tho affairs of the City Council. Any one even running may read, a subordinate is allowed to direct the whole business of the Corporation, until at last matters hive come to such a pitch as to form nutter for the jokes of outsiders, ratepayers, of course, who receive little more for their money. To wind it all up. The Mayor, tho City Councillors, tho surveyor the workmen and all togother seem to bo hell in the palm of one man's hand, and it is time they were disentangled. Tho stipid blunders, tho costly mistakes, that ha r e lately been made are, with a little paience, traceable to tho same source, anl must convince any disinterested loker-on that it is high time, indeed, the pemanont staff of the Christchurch City Cuncil was "reorganised."