GREAT AUTUMN HANDICAP. MUNICIPAL BUSINESS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1607, 15 April 1879, Page 2

GREAT AUTUMN HANDICAP.

MUNICIPAL BUSINESS.

A. VOICE FSOM THE ANTIPODES. It is under this heading that an English 4 paper, " Berrow's Worcester Journal," calls t (bo attention of its readers to the fact that a a fellow townsman, Mr C. T. Ick, Mayor of 8 Christchurch, has given suoh sound advica, . which may well be taken to heart by the x Worcester municipality. j The sub-leader in question runs as follows: I If it be true that " the glories of children . are their fathers," as proudly set forth by the Harleian Society, it is no less true that fathers [ are proud of their children. Sometimes, ; indeed, old men are jealous of the successes ; of younger men, and when beaten in life's I battle, are too apt to exclaim, like the brave old Bimon de Montfort, at Evesham, " See, , they have learned from me the art of war." There was a time in the history of England s when there was a tinge of jealous feeling with i respect to the American colonies. We saw in [ their enterprise, in their ingenuity, and in , their energy, a pretension to rivalry. We did not discern in these evidences of self-reliance, | independence, and vigour, the essence of those qualities which made our country great and which we had transmitted to our sons. In these later times a better feeling prevails, and , we learn to take a pride in the successes of; our kinsfolk, whether on the busy sea-board or the broad rolling prairies of America, o in that wondrous Australian land, or in th isles of Antipodean seas. We love oeea- : sionally to catch the familiar tones of those we once knew, or who drew their first inspirations from their mother England. It is pleasant to hear even the very echo of the thoughts which had their birthplace in the land we love, and to feel that the lessons of experience have not been thrown away. We know how pleasant it is to meet in some distant land, or in some lonely place, one who knows the same town, went to the same school, and has mixed with the same people ; so, in glancing at a newspaper published at Christchurch, New Zealand, we were agreeably surprised to see a once familiar name in Worcester reported as uttering from the civio chair of the city he has now made his home, sentiments as applicable to the city of Worcester in which he once lived as to the newer community over which he presides. There are many who will remember Mr C. T. Ick, once associated with Alderman Woodward of this city, and there will be many who will rejoice in his prosperity, and that he has not forgotten th high principles of municipal government he e irned here, but which, alas, too many wordy and ambitious Town Councillors at home do not care to learn. Speaking on Monday, December 30th, he hoped the ensuing year would redound to the honour and credit of the city, and that good feeling and unanimity would prevail. That long meetings would be avoided, and that the rules and regulations which experience had provided for their guidance would be borne in mind, for "in his experience of the Council ho had found that the business was much better done when there was less talk. They might in this respect take a very good lesson from, and follow the example of a younger municipality whose motto was ' Deeds not Words.'" In his earlier days Mr Ick must have been impressed with the weary waste of time in Worcester caused by the empty verbiage of wouldbe orators whom chance or overweening ambition had made town councillors. In a new colony time is money, and the settlers know that judgment is not always accompanied by a fluent tongue or a gush of wordß. They prefer tact, business habits, and some public spirit to mere clap trap and popularity, courting verbiage. The Mayor of Christchurch pointed out what works required to be done, and as far as we can judge by the report the Council proceeded to carry out his suggestion in a practical manner. If his words should happen to catch the eyes of Borne local town councillors, let us hope they will not lose any influence or power by travelling from the other side of the world — from the New Zealand to the old " Isle set is the silver sea."