THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1882. STILL OBDURATE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2709, 13 December 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1882. STILL OBDURATE.

When a person has committed an error and owns up to it fiankly, there is a feeling of sympathy for the slip made. But it is altogether different when an offender, whilst confessing his guilt, still glories in it. This is precisely :ho position of the City Council with re gard to the now celebrated £25, They tacitly one and all admit that they were wrong, and yet strange to say they refuse to make the only reparation in their power by handing over the amount, unjustifiably detained. Nothing could bo stronger evidence of this fact than the Words made use of by the chairman of the Firo Brigade Committee in reply to a question from one of the councillors. As will be remembered the position taken up by the Fire Bri-

gads Committee is that, at the request of the brigade, they framed a scale of charges for attendance at saburban fires, and that, this scale being in force at the time Mr. Rhodes sent his donation, they were entitled to take toll /to -the extent of one-half, -’Row let us jnst test this position by the utterances of the chairman of that committee. He said on Monday night that the com mittee had still under consideration the question of a scale of charges for attendance at fires outside the city and they would report upon it shortly. How does this square with thoir assertion that the £25 has been deducted under a scale arranged. Cr. Reese, who has for some reason or other followed the bright example sot by the chairman of the committee, and joined in the attempt, to deprive the Brigade of what is their due, read out a scale of charges at the meeting, which he said was in force. Bat the scale has never been submitted to

the Council, and more than that we have the authority of the Chairman of the Fire Brigade Committee, Cr. Hiorna, for saying that the matter is still under consideration. On what grounds, then, or by what right has the £25 been kept by the City Council. According to thoir own showing, they have not a vestige of right to hold that money any more than a private citizen. If a scale of charges bad been passed by the Council on the recommendation of the committee we should at once have said that it was perfectly right to deduct such a charge from the amount of the donation. But this is not the case, and further, we have the word of the councillors that, had Mr, Rhodes known the address of the new Superintendent of the Fire Brigade he would have sent the cheque direct. What farther evidence is necessary that the Council have not one iota of right to the money. Wo were glad to notice that the paternal admonitions recently administered by ns to Cr. Ayers bore some fruit. He spoke on the side of right and justice, and put the case in its proper light. He acknowledged that a mistake had been made, and that, owing to misconception, the money had been diverted from its proper destination. But what can he say of the popular candidate Cr. Hiorns, It is but a few days since he was presiding at a little festive gathering of the Brigade when ho gushed over thsra to a very largo extent’ What is the result of this fair crop of promises ? Why, that the very first chance that occurs of doing the Brigade a service by passing on a donation, sent by mistake to the Mayor, he, as Chairman of the Fire Brigade Committee, recommends the mulcting of half of it. On his own showing, there is not a shadow of right or reason for so doing. No scale of charges has been settled, and yet the City Council, with a meanness which to us is incomprehensible, still clings to the £25 which belongs entirely and absolutely to the Bridade. The last shred of an excuse for its retention has been dissipated by the chairman’s statement. Nothing has yet been decided on, therefore no authority exists for making a charge of 50 per cent, of a donation. Wo cannot but regret that the Council have not the manliness, when they find they have done a wrong, unintentionally we believe, to retrace thoir steps. The money is tho property of the Brigade, and tho Council know it. Yet at the bidding of Cr. Hiorns they retain it. The money may rest in the coffers of the Council to the credit of any fund that may be named, but we mistake the ratepayers of Christchurch if they over forget the attempt which has been made without the least reason to despoil of their reward a body of men who have done good service in tho city. If the memory of the little transact ion sleeps at. any time, it will bo cur pleasing duty to wake the echoes, and trumpet forth tho I virtues of those two patriots—Gra. Reese and Hiorns.