THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1944, 18 May 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1880.

Councillor. Bishop deserves some amount of kudos for the ingenuity he has displayed in using the late fire in Dunedin as an argument in favour of the return of the railway staff: to Christchurch. The pathetic manner in which the late occupants of our offices are invited ought to touch even the flinty heart of the Minister for Public "Works. The offices lately occupied in Dunedin by the Commissioner's staff having been destroyed, it follows, as a matter of course that it will have to be housed somewhere. This, as Cr. Bishop very pertinently points out, means building new offices at great cost to the colony. He goes on still further to demonstrate that this cost may be saved by the officers re-occupying their old quarters in Christchurch. This is true so far as it goes, but we think the resolution passed by the Council instoad of confining itself to the return of those wanderers, of the Railway Department who have strayed from the Christchurch fold, should have pointed the moral and adorned the tale with reference to those still here, but who may be removed at any moment south. So far as regards the Commissioner himself, we do not think anyone would make a point of calling him from his sphere of usefulness in Otago. Ho is employing his gifts in re-organising the Otago system, but although why he was moved at all is not apparent, seeing that the Dunedin section was always under his charge, somehow we have managed to survive his loss, and no great demoralisation at. present appears. Our present officers in charge appear to manage extremely well without the diplomatic Commissioner. Affairs run smoothly under the supervision of tho General Manager, and the personal presence of Mr. Conyers, as Mr. Conyers, seems hardly necessary. However.. praiseworthy the efforts of the City Council may be, we fear that they would have more chance of success if they had relied more on the smaller issue. The removal of tho Paymaster, Engineer, and Accountant's offico to Dunedin must be resisted to the utmost. Tho Commissioner has been burnt out, and we are sorry for it; but we have a shrewd suspicion that the flames are not at all likely to drivo him out of the " land o'cakes." But the flames should at the least prevent the departments above alluded to from moving south. Mr. Oliver's views on the subject are much more likely to be influenced by a good healthy agitation than by any number of conflagrations. The question of the site of the clock tower appears on the face of the report of the Reserves Committee, presented last night, to be settled. It will bo remembered that the Council submitted the matter to this committee with a view to

their bringing up a report at tho next meeting with a recommendation. This they have done, and probably many of the ratepayers on reading it and also the division list following on which the clause was accepted, would imagine that the matter was finally settled, and that the clock tower was to be erected on the east town belt, near Worcester street. But such is not tho case. The report of the committee was a most peculiar one, and its reception brought out a most remarkable phase in the history of the Council. For the first time since their election the members of the works committee wore to be found voting on the same side. Again tho Reserves Committo with an astuteness one would scarcely give them credit for, havo selected a locaility for the erection of this clock tower where it is almost an impossibility that tho conditions of tho Council as to contribution towards the cost should be complied with. In other words they have quietly shelved tho whole thing, and until some member ambitious for municipal fame moves that the tower be erected in this particular ward, the clock and tower will remain where they are. It is no use blinking the fact that in makiiag the present to the City Council the then Premier gave them a white elephant. So much so that it was contemplated by some of the members to moot Sir Georgo during hia visit hero and Koquest him to be kind enough 13 take the clock and tower with him to Auckland or to Kawau. Wo hope that until the Council has made up its mind really where to erect this tower, no more money will be spent on it. It has already cost thirty or forty pounds, and now it is impossible to say what to do with it.