THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1882. THE NEW COUNCILLORS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2638, 20 September 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1882. THE NEW COUNCILLORS.

The rebuke of Councillor Vincent onMonday night with respect to the loquaciousness of the new Councillor Reese, - though severe, was certainly deserved. Hitherto we may not have agreed with all that our City Councillors have advanced, but at any rate, when discussing a subject of public importance, they I have known what they were talking about. This was just what both Councillors Reese and Prudhoe did not on Mondayevening. Hardly were they warm in their municipal seats than Councillor Reese rose to make a few remarks and to move an amendment on a matter of which 1 his speech showed him to be profoundly ! ignorant. Probably, to the gigantic intellect which produced those fearful anct | wonderful statistics respecting the trams j on the "West Coast line, this question would appear but very small and insig- • nificant, but nevertheless it was one of ' considerable importance to the citizens, 1 and it was further surrounded by so many j peculiarities as to make it exceedingly J difficult, even for those who had j carefully studied the matter, to comprehend. No less a personage than i Councillor Hiorns, whose broad and intelligent views on public questions are well known, rose with the commendable object of imparting to the newly-fledged Councillors a little of his wisdom, but had to confess that he was in a fog. Yet [ Councillor Reese, probably remembering . a certain passage abont a class of people who are far more daring than angels | under certain circumstances, boldly stood ; up and moved an amendment that the , whole matter be abandoned, without I positively one iota or glimmering of Knowledge of what ilia true position of, affairs was. But his rashness did not j stop here. Probably forgetting the > august assembly into which he had so ' lately been introduced, Councillor Reese 3 imagined himself at a meeting of the committee of the Industrial Association. ' In that blest abode, where rules of debate r vex not the spirit, and all is unconfined and unconventional, five or six amend- ) ments, piled like Ossa upon Pelion on the unfortunate resolution, is considered quite the thing. Any member who does not ! speak seven or eight times on the one - subject with more or less relevancy is not t regarded as having the interests of the Association at heart. However, he rose to speak again, and then Councillor Vincent, with kindly pity beamingthrough his spectacles, as who should Bay, " Here is a giddy young thing straying from tbe path of duty; I will reclaim him," raised a point of order, and the new Councillor was metaphorically sat upon. No one will deny that he deserved it, and it is to be hoped that though sharp the lesson will be a salutary one. Councillor Reese will, we feel sure, make a very useful member of the Council, if he will be content to stand still upon the 1 stage for a while, and not play to the pit and gallery so early in his career. Above all, the little mistake made will, we trust, inculcate the necessity of first becoming aware of the subject upon which Councillor Reese desires to address the Council. The position of a public man is quite new yet to him, and like all young soldiers he is no doubt anxious to " flesh his maiden sword." But let him temper his valor with discretion, and above all refrain from lengthy harangues full of sound and fury, signifying—nothing. The other two new Councillors, not so ambitious as their confrere, evidently believed in the proverb, " speech is silvern, but silence is golden," and wisely held their tongues. There is no doubt the three new members of the Council will prove very efficient in their respective vocations, but they must not hope with one bound to take charge of the whole business. THE SANITARY RESOLUTIONS. It is somewhat astonishing that a gentleman who has taken so active a part in public affairs as Councillor Thomson should have been so much in the dark as regards the effect of the resolutions recently passed at the conference ef delegates of local bodies respecting amendments in the Public Health Act. Councillor Thomson seems to have mistaken the drift altogether, inasmuch as by the proposed repeal of clause 1-tth the Christchurch District Drainage Board will no longer bo the Board of Health, but the various local bodies will take up the work in their respective districts under the supervision of a central authority. There can then be no fear of that conflict of authority which now seems such a bugbear. Each body would work within its own sphere, with a controlling and supervising Central Board. Now it appears to us that there can be no objection to this proposal. The Drainage Board now have no power to raise funds to do any works that may be necessary; the City Council and loeal bodies have. Therefore it is much better to let matters remain as they'are— i.e., leaving the sanitary control of the city in the hands of the Council, who have most efficiently carried out the work. The outside portions will, of course, be cared for by the local bodies,

and aa Town Districts are now becoming pretty general in the suburbs, doubtless the sanitary portions of the district will also be cared for. Now we come to the point of which we have the strongest objection in the whole scheme, viz., the selection of the Board by delegation from the local bodies interested. Such a method seems to us to be open to very grave objection, and to be likely to render the whole scheme for amendment nugatory. The matters with which the Board would have to deal are of great public importance, affecting as they do the vital interests of the people. It is therefore only right that the people should have a right to exercise their franchise, and to make their voice heard as to who should be returned on that Board. It has been urged in opposition to this theory that the members of these local bodies are elected by the people. This is perfectly true, but the fallacy of arguing that because they are so they should be drafted on to something entirely different must be at once apparent. A man may I make a very good City Councillor or Road Board member, but would be entirely and utterly unfit to deal with questions of sanitary importance coming before a Board of Health. Hence it is j that we are very averse to the proposal , made that the Board shall be constituted - by delegation from the various local < bodies, and should much prefer to ' see election by the people. "We trust , that Cr Thomson and those of the other Councillors who coma new to the work * will study the question of the regulations • during the coming week or so, and be : prepared to discuss them with a little ( more knowledge of what islntended, and i insight into the effect likely to be pro- ( duced, than they appeared to possess on ' Monday evening.