THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1880. THE NEW BOARD OF CONSERVATORS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2110, 27 November 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1880. THE NEW BOARD OF CONSERVATORS.

We have before adverted to the unfortunate circumstances that none of the gentlemen composing the old Board hav« stood for election on the new one. As we pointed out, these gentlemen have through a series of years been gathering facts and data on the vagaries of the Waimakariri, and have laid [by a fund of experience to be drawn on as occasion might require. The river is indeed a formidable enemy that has to be guarded against with the utmost care, and any relaxation of watchfulness on the part of the Conservators might prove most disastrous to the property-holders in the district. In the same way as Hannibal in a series of battles, taught the Romans the art of war, so has the river taught the Conservators how to conquer it, and it is a great pity that none Jof these victors in the old struggle will leaven tho new mass. It appears that, owing to a blunder, the Jwhole affair, including the nominations, will have to be gone over again, and we can only hope that, at all events, one of the two gentlemen who may be said to have formed the executive of the late Board will see fit to reconsider his decision and allow himself to be nominated. It is perhaps natural that gentlemen who have acted on a nominated Board with a full knowledge of who their colleagues would be, might feel some few qualms of nervousness when consenting to act with a body that might be composed of members with whom they would be unlikely to work in harmony. The list of those lately nominated should, however, dispel the fear that the gentlemen likely to be elected on tho Board would be found difficult to get on with. Taking the candidates for out districts we find among them Messrs. Boag, Peryman, Munro, and J. L. Wilson, and, if there should happen to be in the whole list some names that do not represent individuals likely to do credit to the Board, the electors may, we presume, safely be relied upon to eliminate them. It is to be hoped, therefore, that some members of the old Board, having gained some insight into the way in which the Act is likely to work, may once more offer their services to the public. Taking the gentlemen already mentioned in the first nomination, the most striking feature about them is that there is only one of them who has any technical knowledge of the description of work they will have to undertake. That candidate is Mr. F. Jones, whose services would be of great value on any Board Buch as the Waimakariri Board, from the fact that he has a large knowledge in the engineering and surveying line, having been engaged in such matters up to the time of his coming out to the colony. It is evident, therefore, that he is just the description of individual who should be snapped at by the ratepayers as likely to be of the greatest use on the new Board. Unless the remainder of the candidates are prepared to work by inspiration or intuition, any Board formed on the materials plotted out by the first nomination would find in Mr. Jones a colleague they could hardly dispense with. There are several points which will at once come prominently before the new Board when elected, and will demand their serious consideration. The work to be done is no child's play, and it is to be feared that many of the Board living some distance from the river will find but little time to see personally how affairs are progressing. In point of fact, the main part of the work is likely to fall on the Chairman, who will have besides a considerable amount of office work, in the shape of financing, to look after. The relative proportion of departmental expenditure to total expenditure would be increased to an absurd extent if members generally were paid as they were in the old Board. The payment of the Chairman, however, and the providing him with some sort of clerical or other assistance would seem a sine qua non, and in the event of no gentleman with professional knowledge being elected, we cannot see how it would be possible to dispense with professional advice. But what we wish particularly to point to is that the new Board will have seriously to face their financial difficulties, which are very considerable, and agree to be as economical as possible, more especially in the direction of keeping down departmental expenses. ■_•