THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1881. THE SOUTH BELT QUESTION AGAIN.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2189, 2 March 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1881. THE SOUTH BELT QUESTION AGAIN.

Our readers will have seen with regret that there is likely once more to bo a hitch in the matter of the formation of the South Town Belt. We wore congratulating ourselves upon tho fact, that, legislation having been obtained and all the little minor difficulties smoothed over, tbe people would not in the coming winter be subject to such discomfort as last. But it seems these hopes were vain. A difficulty has arisen between the two Councils as to the method of the formation; in fact, as to which Council should do certain work. A mandamus is talked of, and generally not alone do wo see a prospect of a large amount of the ratepayers’ money being spent, but what, perhaps, is worse, months of valuable time wasted. As is well known, the law is full of delays, and in a case such as this, where each side appears to believe firmly that they, and they only, are in tho right, the fight is likely to be a protracted one. But we, in the name of the ratepayers of both Christchurch and Sydenham, protest against any such course being adopted. In the first place, it is imperative that another winter shall not come on ns with the Sonth Belt in the state it now is. The residents have for some time not .only lived in a state of discomfort, but positive danger from disease, and it is an injustice to them that they should bo compelled to undergo those discomforts and dangers again. We are now at tho commencement of the autumn. Long before the two Councils can settle their differences the winter will have set in, when no work—or very little —can be done. Thus, then, of necessity 1

should the course proposed be adopted, the delay of another season must ensue. Now as to the second point—we emphatically protest against the money of the ratepayers being squandered in any such contest. It will be most expensive, most irritating, and when all is over most die appointing oven to the winning side. If the Councils cannot agree, let them take advantage of the provisions in the Act, and refer the matter to the arbitration of parties to bo appointed. Tho cost of the work'in dispute is but small, and yet it is proposed to expend something like three times tho amount to settle a question which may probably be amicably arranged by conference or otherwise. There is just this that wo wish to urge—viz., that no more delay must bo permitted to take place. Every day tho formation of that Belt is neglected, the danger exists of loss of life or the outbreak of disease. These points one cannot but see, and no persons know this better than the members of both Councils. Wo trust therefore that steps will at once ho taken to settle this matter, and to do the work which is so pressing a necessity. “ THE PRESS ” REJUVENATEDThe attentive reader of the loading articles appearing for some little time past in the columns of our contemporary the “ Press ” cannot fail to have been struck with the remarkable change which has taken place in their character. Instead of that staid decorous style which for so long a period has distinguished our contemporary, the “ Press ” has recently become—if we may he permitted to use the word skittish. It has actually perpetrated funniments albeit of a somewhat funereal order—in those sacred columns whore the words of wisdom and sago reflection only had place. But oven this has been outdone, for in its issue of this morning the “ Press ” has actually, like Mr. Silas Wegg, dropped into poetry, and doggrel poetry too. Nay more, there is also a Shaksporian quotation in the same article—which, by the way, is incorrectly quoted—evoked, no doubt, by the forthcoming Bandmann season. Indeed, throughout tho whole article there is, so to speak, a rollicking manner of dealing with the subject in hand, which must be perfectly appalling to its old steady going readers. We however congratulate our contemporary upon having, as it were, renewed its youth. Those who, like ourselves, have watched the career of our contemporary with some degree of interest, will, we are sure, feel pleasure in the evidences which have been lately given that it has taken a fresh lease of youth. But while this is so, we may bo permitted to give a word of warning to the giddy young thing. There is just the possibility of taking too sudden a jump from staid, heavy respectability to youthful lightness and levity. Let our contemporary bo funny by degrees. In tho words of one of the characters in “ Nothing to Wear,” let it make a small joke to-day, tell a funny story to-morrow, and thus accustom its readers by degrees to what some of them may consider a most alarming—nay, revolutionary—change of character.