THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1879.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1693, 24 July 1879, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1879.

The committee of taste, to whom the designs for tho Municipal Buildings have been referred for award, have made a first selection. Their choice, as far as taste is concerned, is apparently, a good one; the best, or at least, one of tho best, has boon selected. But there is just ono point in connection with tho matter which is worth consideration, a point seriously affecting the unsuccessful competitors. One of the conditions —indeed wo look on it as the main ono —laid down by the Council was, that the building shall not cost more than £20,000. Tho competitors, taking this as a starting point, were supposed to frame their plans accordingly. It will at once bo seen that for purposes of comparison, a design costing £20,000 ha 3 no chance whatever with one which would cost £65,000 or more. Tet what has tho committee done ? It has selected designs for buildings, the cost of erecting each ono of which, we are assured, will far exceed the limit placed by the Council. The design 1 receiving the greatest number of votes is one which practical men who have carefully considered it, say cannot be erected for under £65,000. What we want to point out to the committee, therofore, is, that an injustice is done to other competitors who are put out of tho race, it may be because, by keeping strictly within the conditions, they have not been able to design either the elaborate architecture or the conveniences which others have admitted into their plans by disregarding the item of expense. We contend that, according to the conditions, tho plans so manifestly far in excess of the limit as to price, should havo at once been disqualified as not complying with the conditions. This would have been the only fair way of dealing with the matter. But to select as a first choice plans which on tho face of them will tako more than double the amount at our disposal does not seem the right way of doing business. As the conditions were framed, any plan which would take over £20,000 to carry out is as much out of tho competition as if it had arrived here days after the time appointed.

" My nephew" possesses at all events one invaluable quality. He is not gushing. He is, on the contrary, remarkably reticent, and is not to be drawn by his constituents or anybody else. The electors of Hokitika have, for an unlimited period, longed for the presence of Mr. Seymour George. The jewels that fell from his lips when he once favored the inhabitants with his views on political economy and other abstruse subjects were at the time gratefully collected, and a further supply eagerly desired. But, with the modesty that characterises all truly great men,|Mr. George has persisted in keeping in tho background. No efforts on the part of his constituents can lure him to tho place of his political birth. Liko the guest invited to tho wedding feast, business of a varying nature has kept him from accepting tho invitation. He prefers the warmer and drier climate of tho North to tho moist atmosphere of tho "West Coast. As with his constituents, so with the House. Mr. Seymour George was the mover of the adjournment of the debate re the address in reply on Friday night, and his views on the political situation woro expected by a Heuso that was quite willing to bo instructed. But "my nephew " did not come to the front, and Mr. Barff -was forced to expatiate oh his disappointment, of course shared by all other members, that his hon. colleague had not thought it worth whilo to rise on so important au occasion. No doubt, however, Mr. George is acting up to instructions. "Wo can weH imagine tho description of advice ho may have received from Sir George Grey when first the electors of Hokitika were overwhelmed with tho delightful intelligence that they woro to act as political nurses to his nephew. "My boy," might Sir George paternally exclaim, "when onco elected, hold yoiir tonguo and vote straight." Excollont young man ! ho has hitherto followed out the advice to the letter. But perhaps ho has, up to the present time, only been reserving himself for some gigantic effort, for we obsorve that he has given notico of his intontion to a»k the Colonial Treasurer the following interesting questions : —" (1) The total estimated value of land in tho colony, as valued by tho land tax valuers under the Land Tax Act, 1878; (2) the total estimated value of land in the colony taxable undor the Act; (3) tho number of persons who hold land in tho colony, and are taxable undor tho Act, and the total amount of tax payable by them; (4) the number of porsons who hold land in the colony, but are oxompted from the land tax, undor the exemption clause of the said Act?" The Houso was electrified as this stream of ponderous questions poured forth from a source so little expected. One of tho burning questions of the day now is—What will Mr. Seymour Georgo do with tho information when he has got it ?

Councillor Cass is, we aro delightful to observe, still well to the front. Ho is still in possession of these varying qualities of mind which have rendered him the pet of his colleagues and the public at largo. His little sallies aro as keen and brilliant as evor, calculated alike to charm a <oa party or a universe. His views on the Press, the rotundity of the earth, and a thousand other subjects are atill as naive and charmingly frosh as when he first entered tho Council Chamber. Age, municipal or bodily, has no powor to dull tho chubby and <her.ibic character of his intelligence. His latest . dea has beon to attack the writer of an

article appearing in our last night's issue. With his usual innocence he apparently assumes that the editor of a paper is not only responsible for all that appears in it, but that ho writes all. What a fresh and original idea ! And as, for some reasoa or other, he does not seem to love the editor of the Globe, ho characterises the said article as " blackguardly." Into the moiifcs of the question he does not descend. Just what might have boon expocted from our infantile minded horo. But still wo cannot help asking him how he explains away the fact that the water supply committee havo been in existence considerably more than eighteen months, and that apparently tho only result of their labor is a mysterious cylinder deposited on tho banks of tho Wainiakariri.