The Globe. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1878.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1507, 14 December 1878, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1878.

The time lias now all but arrived when the present members of the Christchurch District Drainage Board complete their term of office. From a variety of circumstances with which the public are pretty well familiar, the actual work done by the Board has not been so extensive as was expected. Still the members have evinced a laudable anxiety to carry forward the work of the drainage of the city as rapidly as was possible under the peculiar circumstances in which they were placed. But the delay thus caused has had this effect, that the Board find themselves at the conclusion of their tenure of office just on the threshold, as it were, of their work. Had the stoppage referred to not occurred, they would have been in a position to hand over to their successors (should a new Board be elected) the work fully inaugurated and the preliminary details disposed of. As we have pointed out, however, this is not the case. Hence we conceive it to bo of great importance to the ratepayers of the district that continuity of action in connection with the work of the drainage of the district should be preserved. After almost interminable discussion wo have a plan for the work upon which, so far as can be learnt, there is tolerable unanimity. The present members have decided upon a certain line of action which they consider will best serve the interests of all parties concerned, and at the same time give the district the benefit of good drainage at the earliest possible period. In order to do this the Board have entered into contracts both for materials and labor in furtherance of the scheme laid down by them. It will thus be seen that the success of the drainage works depends very greatly upon the carrying out consistently of the plan which they have inaugurated. Of course, it does not follow that if a new Board is elected the members will at once proceed to act diametrically in opposition to the policy of their predecessors. But the chances are very greatly in favor of a considerable difference of opinion existing as to the way in which the works are to bo carried out. The work now under construction is only a portion of the whole scheme, and it is necessary that the works taken in hand after the completion of those in progress shall be in harmony with each other. The present Board cannot, of course, bind their successors any further than to the works now being done, and it may be that if a new Board is elected they may disagree with the present one as to either the course or mode of construction. When, therefore, we come to consider all the points of the question, and looking to the fact that the present members of the Board are jnst inaugurating the scheme it seems advisable in the iuterests of the ratepayers that they should be enabled to carry out their work to a practical issue. If the ratepayers can secure the services of the gentlemen who now compose the Board for another they will ensure that continuity of action which io nocossnrv in works of this chai’acter. We hope, theroj.ol.o, . the retiring members will consent to come forward for re-election. Without entering into the discussion of the vexed questions, which at the time caused so much ill feeling, it is justly due to the retiring members to say that they have throughout their term of office done their best, according to their lights, to carry out works for the benefit of the district at large.

“ Circumstances alter casesopinions, too are continually being twisted to suit the exigencies of the times, Who, for example, w mld have thought that that steady-going old proser the Lyttelton Times, would ever have attempted to justify the resort, under any conjuncture of events, to “Mob Law.” There is something wrong somewhere. The schoolmaster must have taken a half holiday, and his pupils are running riot in a very ungenteel manner. Judge Lynch is not the sort of hero that we expected to turn up in the columns of our staid contemporary, except to point a very proper moral and adorn a dullest tale. Vetso it is ; the contemplation of the bush-ranging exploits of Kelly and his gang has brought about this most unexpected result. Boiled down, his leader of this morning advises the people of Victoria to imitate our American cousins, and go about ornamented with those “ dreadful daggers,” bowie knives, slung shots, and other weapons that form the fit out of every citizen of the country that can “whip all creation.” We are not going by quotations, out of his own mouth, to show how singularly different the advice he now gives is to the solemn twaddle of an opposite tendency that was let loose on the same subject not long ago, because, for once, we quite agree with him. The fact is, what he now says we intended some time ago to say in a much better manner—so that it is no use to travel over his walk. It will not do, however, to admit that “ the practice of lynching can only be the outcome of a long course of crime favoured by corrupt adminlstation of the law,” It strikes us very forcibly, that the un-ermined law-giver will very soon make his dehit in Victoria, and nobody can say that his appearance will be the result of official corruption. If summary justice, or injustice, dictated by popular feeling is ever carried out in Victoria, it will be from the same reason that caused the formation of a vigilance committee in San Francisco, which swept out of that city a horde of miscreants far more dangerous than the Kelly’s ever can be, and that was on account of the weakness of the law, and not of its corrupt idministration. The “tremendous army detailed to capture the Kelly’s exists only in the imagination of the Times, The pursuers were not in force enough, or sufficiently well armed to capture a rabbit, much less to tackle desperadoes who it is quite evident have made up their minds to run-a-muck during the short life that is left them.

Tr is satisfactory to notice that our municipal magnates can spare time in the midst of the turmoil of wordy warfare which takes place in the City Council, to consider matters of importance to the well-being of the citizens. We allude to the remarks of Cr. Ayers at the last meeting of the Council, with respect to the sale of damaged fruit in the city. Pome short time back we called attention 1o the prevalence of this practice in Christchurch. Anyone who passes by the various fruit shops will see exposed for sale fruit in various stages of decay, utterly unfit for food, but rendered tempting to the juvenile eye by being ticketed at a merely nominal price. Now at this season of the year there can hardly be a more prolific cause of choleraic disease than thin. Children especially are more subject than adult o , and in their case the effects are nice dangerous. It therefore becomes a serious matter, and we hope the inspector of nuisances, in whom, by law, is vested the power of prosecution under the 9th clause of the Act of 1877, will lose no time in making an example of one or more tradesmen so offending.

"The railway fire-engine was yesterday employed for the purpose of emptying the bath at the Eait Christchurch schools.” This is very satisfactory; it is quite clear that the

steamer is not, as has been popularly supposed, frozen in its track. The next thing we shall hear is that it has been pumping water on a fire, and if a skipper is appointed, and if he gets a good crew, and if the Government —but there are no end of it’s between its present state and that usefulness which, whether we have a right to expect or not, would be the source of great congratulation to the poor burnt out.