MUNICIPAL MEETINGS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2237, 29 April 1881, Page 2

MUNICIPAL MEETINGS.

If any further arguments were needed to show the utter absurdity of meetings to hear the opinions of candidates for municipal honors, the one held last night at Sydenham would amply supply them. Three worthy burgesses, laudably anxious, no doubt, to serve their follow ratepayers, are—so to speak—pilloried for the amusement of a number of people without one tittle of advantage being gained. No doubt there are many people who believe conscientiously in these meetings, and go there honestly endeavoring to find out who of the candidates is the fittest. But do they in one case out of twenty do this? Wo say No, The majority of people go there as to a free show or amusement; just, as they phrase it, to have a lark with So-and-so. If there happen to be present one or two persons who make it a practice to attend these meetings, the amusement is so much the more enhanced, and the audience go home without the faintest shadow of a notion, from what they have heard, as to who is the fittest candidate. If there were nothing further in this practice than an evening’s amusement for a number of worthy people, then there would not be so much to complain of. But the mischief lies deeper than this. As wo have proved by bitter experience in Christchurch, our best men—those who by their position, intelligence, or influence, would bo best fitted to hold seats in the Council—decline to place themselves in the humiliating position of being baited by everyone who chooses to stand up and ask questions. The consequence has been—for happily mootings of the kind we have referred to are now rare in Christchurch—that the very men we have wanted in municipal affairs have declined to giro their services. Now,

wo should like to call the attention of our Sydenham friends to this. It is to their interest most particularly, as a new borough, to secure the heat men they can for their Council. Therefore we would point out to them that hy the light of our experience the very way to keep such men out of the Council. is to encourage the holding of meetings like that of last night. Besides this there is another point—viz, the expense, which, however small, comes out of the rates. "Wo trust, therefore, that an end will ho put to what cannot but bo regarded as a most injudicious practice—viz., the holding of meetings of this character. There are plenty of means whereby much more effectually and more intelligently candidates can put their views forward, and if a meeting were to bo hold every night in the week the ratepayers would still, wo feel sure, bo as wise as if it had never taken place.