The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1882.

Kumara Times, Issue 1750, 10 May 1882, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1882.

There is a time-honored saying that “ In a multitude of Councillors there is wisdom/’ but we doubt very much if the remark will apply with strict accuracy to the Municipal Council of the Borough of Kumara, or to the proceedings -of that body. In passing a resolution for the abolition of the Borough, an act has been committed at once indiscreet and indefensible. Surely before such a step was taken the opinion of those most interested, the ratepayers, should have been sought and taken. Who has asked for the Borough to be abolished ] That is a question which requires to be answered. * As a town, Kumara will compare most favorably with many others of much older date. It has been well laid out, and the streets are formed and drained in a style which reflects the highest credit upon those who planned and and carried out the work. Our municipal institutions have worked with a very faildegree of smoothness, and although on many occasions, members of the Council have thought fit to talk about the times as much as might be deemed necessary, still at the same time, they were not probably worse in that respect than members of other similarly constituted bodies. No reason has as yet been given for the course which has hoen taken, except that publicans’ license fees are higher in a borough than they are outside of it. This is all very true, and a great hardship is inflicted upon an already heavily taxed class of people, but the publicans have not as yet, expressed an opinion upon the subject. A meeting of hotel peepers was held on Monday evening, at which a majority of license-holders in the town were present. The main object of the meeting was to make arrangements for an interview with the members of the Licensing Committee as to their interpretation of the thirty-eighth section of the Licensing Act, as to know what alterations would be re-

quired to be made in licensed premises previous to the time appointed for holding tile annual meeting. A resolution was passed in which a deputation was appointed to carry Out the above-named object, when Mr Seddon, who had been asked to attend in his representative Capacity, took advantage of the occasion, and moved a resolution by which a deputation was appointed wait upon the Borough Council to request them to take a step to assimilate the license fees within the Borough, to those in the County. This was carried side by side with a resolution requesting the Borough Council to consider the question of granting a rebate in the matter of licenses. The question of the abolition of the Borough was not discussed, or even raised. Not a word was spoken upon the subject. Under such circumstances, how comes it then that the Borough Council has thought fit to take the initiatory step towards the abolition of our municipal institutions? There is no doubt but that a majority of the members of the Borough Council have betrayed the trust placed in their hands. It is true that they had not pledged themselves to the adoption of an} 7 particular line of conduct, for the pernicious custom has obtained of refraining from addressing the ratepayers previous to election, but the interests of the town were confided to their care by the ratepayers themselves, and to the ratepayers should have been remitted, the question of the proposed abolition of the Borough, previous to any vote b“ing taken in the Council. Fortunately a remedy against the recent outrageous proceedings is to be found in the Municipal Corporations Act, and a public meeting of burgesses should he convened forthwith to consider and decide the question.