THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2020, 14 August 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1880.

Some short time ago, when writing on the matter of the relations between the | City Council and the Tramway Company, we urged the necessity of the former body becoming posted up as to the real bearing of the concession already granted. That this courso was one which should have been taken long ore this, the events in connection with the " flying shunt" near the City Hotel conclusively prove. It will bo recollected that the chairman of the Company gave the Council to understand that this was merely a temporary arrangement, and the rail would bo removed very shortly. For a time this pacified the Council, but days went on, and still the objectionable " flying shunt " remained, and the public "wanted to know you know " when it would be done away with. The "Works Committee, acting as the temporary Tramway Committee, then wrote to the Company, tolling them that unless the shunt was removed the surveyor would be instructed to do the work. To this the company vouchsafed no reply, a change evidently having coming man the spirit of the dream of the chairover as to the shunt being temi)or,ary. Tho city surveyor is then instructed to remove it and this instruction ■ duly reported to the Council. But now arises the question—which we contend should have been settled before moving in the matter —whether the Council have any power to order the removal. The chairman insists on it that the compainy have a right under the concession to place theai

shunts wherever they may deem necessary. In other words, as tersely, but most aptly put by a member of the works committee, " the company have obtained a lease of the streets and wish to convert it into a freehold." It is not necessary to point out how essential it is to the convenience and safety of the citizens that some supervision and control should be in the hands of the local authorities. If the chairman's contention is right, then the City Council do not appear to possess that power, unless the Act (as we think it does) overrides the concession. That the Council have shown most conclusively they do not know what concessions have been granted, or to what extent the city is pledged, is proved by the fact that they have had before them an application to proceecUup Oxford Terrace, which, it is now discovered, had been granted by the previous Council. Can anything be more patent than that it was the duty of the new Council on coming into office to ascertain with preciseness their exact position and how far they, in common with the citizens, were pledged to the Tramway Company. They were taking up a trust as representatives of the citizens; yet they have gone blindly into it without knowing what had been done in the matter previously. This hardly seems to us the way business-men should go about transacting the business of the city. Now they find themselves in this position that they are obliged to take the very step we urged upon them months ago, viz., ascortain their status; and for that purpose they propose to take legal advice. Had they done so before ordering the shunt to be removed without knowing their power, they would not now be in the somewhat peculiar position of having to admit that they know-nothing of the exact relations between themselves and the Company. We trust that the vexed question will soon be set at rest, and that in the future the negociations between the two bodies will be carried on with at least some little knowledge on the part of the City Council as to what has been done by their predecessors, and as to their own true status in the matter.