CORRESPONDENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 251, 28 March 1855, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

'i To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. :|iß,r—l am a plain man. lam not given to Trancing. I do not allow my family to read llfels, uot even Walter Scott's. I have burnt t|ee volumes of James's; and, though in want ol servants,; haive just discharged one, caught &retly "reading Bulwer's "Zanoni." I have fken in your spaper from the commencement, -jbcause the matter was such as was good for Juung people, giving them a taste for Associations, Trusteeships, and Mr. Sewell. Last Saturday, then, you may judge of my disgust Ivhen I found you too had begun to pander to a ilepraved taste, and inserted what appears to be -|lhe commencement of a Novel. The title cerftaihly is grave enough—"{Lyttelton Municipality Bill" : —but" suggests such an utter improbafbility, that it offends a correct taste. But, '/Sir, I look further down, and find mention j made of things which do not exist, and are not 'likely to exist: a Common Council, Sir, as if •our present Provincial Council was not common when one of the members of the Government milks my cows, and I have been 1 obliged to turn away a member of the General j Assembly for drinking. Really, Sir, as if a ] Council was wanted to be more common. Thus you open your story with what to say the least is an improbability. I then find a grave mention made of what the Common Council are to do ; and here, Sir; is the part that is really too much for my feelings. I read it over and over, and then such a roar of laughter shook me all over as immediately convinced me that tasting the forbidden fruit of novel reading like other sins was pleasant. Of course, my family wisfied to know the joke, but I was enabled to keep the paper out of their way by immediately putting it in my- pocket. This Council,,' Sir; it appears to me is to do every thing the Provincial Council ought to do, and ought not to do. They appear as if they were to be the fags of the Provincial Council. Now we know what a hard-working set they are in the Council; we know, I say, Sir, they work hard. We never see the Provincial Secretary lounging about in self-satisfied importance, with no sign of business, looking like the great Panjandrum without the little button at the top ; I say, Sir, we never see this, nor the Superintendent exposing his precious life' on the top of an article in the carriage line that ought to be in tbe museum the Common Council are to take care of when they get it. Knowing all this, Sir, we may well say,it is an improbable incident to talk of their transferring their duties to another body. And this council is to do what, Sir ; to regulate pedlars and hawkers ; I should be disposed to add, and mend watches and bellows, which would be quite as useful, and probably they would know as much of one as another. To make public parks. Observe the plural: as if we had so much to do we wanted an airing in , a park on a Sunday, and moreover must be like the man who came out in three ships, have to air ourselves in half-a-dozen which this uncommon Council are to look after, and most likely have little gardens in for mustard and cress and beadle's staffs. All too improbable, Sir, and not admissible in novels of this day. Museums are among the number ; and these appear to me to be the effect of a cause. Given a common council. Where to put it is a natural question. Of course,in a museum with all those funny liVjtle bits of rock and spar, peculiar woods, and cannibal weapons, which are always found in such places and nowhere else. But why have all the bother of an election to get nine old women to look after a museum, or nine old tinkers to look after a dozen parks, or nine old humbugs to regulate one tinker, or nine busybodies to look after one or two carters, I do not know.

But a truce to this_ nonsense. Leave off Novel writing, return to Mr. Sewell and squabbling with Christchurch ; but if you do want to write a story amusing and instructive, one eveiy family ought to have on its table, write one to be called the " Miserable existence of a Sucking Prime-Minister,"and remember these three maxims— " What to eat ?" Roast beef. " What to drink?" Ale. "What to avoid?" A Corporation! lam,&c. ;■. An Unwilling Burgess.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir,— From whose .prolific brain has emanated the magnificent conception for shedding a broad light of ridicule on the theory of local Self-Government.-which appeared in your last under the title of a Municipal Corporation Bill ? Would not the ends proposed be attained more simply and effectively, by repealing the Union between Lyttelton and the rest of the Province, giving to it a Superintendent, Provincial Secretary, Executive Council (strictly responsible), and a Provincial Council of its own (all to be lawmakers) ; only providing for the prevention ofthe probable contingency of each ofthe town wards at some future period repealing their union with each other, and each starting itself as a separate republic. Lyttelton might make a league offensive and defensive with the mother country. Hang the expence ;we fight t for a principle. Are we not four thousand in . this Province, counting women and children, and shall we be limited to one Parliamentary Government f Do not we number 150 on the Electoral Roll of Lyttelton ? and may we not have a separate Government? I hope this proposition will be considered. If we had a law-making Council, fatness would not be expected. But if the corporation \s insisted on, some cruel means, like that adopted at Strasburg for fattening geese, must be thought of at once for preparing mayors and aldermen. Yours obediently, Junius Brutus.

To the Editor ofthe Lyttelton Times. Sir,—-The last number of your Journal contains the most useful measure yet proposed in this Province. I allude to the Lyttelton Municipal Corporation Bill. This we are informed is to be brought before the Provincial Council atits next session. On reading it carefully over, I am inclined to think that its only fault is that it is not sufficiently comprehensive ; its coercive powers are not sufficiently great. Why, for instance, should not the [powers for regulating the fees paid to carters and boatmen, be extended to those of lawyers and doctors? .Why should not the prices of every marketable commodity be regulated by the Municipal Council ? Why should not their byelaws enable them.to inflict the penalty of whipping as well as fine. I cannot understand why by the 27th clause, the " disposal of property for corporate purposes, or for purposes of public utility," should be confined to the inhabitants of Lyttelton, why others in the Province should not get any pickings in the scramble. With these exceptions, I consider the bill perfect. Lyttelton will be the most lively place in the whole of the colonies ; elections of some sort or other will be of daily occurrence, the various points which will arise for discussion will afford boundless topics of conversation, and the town itself will, I feel sure, be the best regulated, best lighted, best paved, best drained, and most healthy in the world, and its inhabitants, though fleeced, bedevilled, and worn out by legislation, the most sober, moral, peaceable, and loyal. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, Lord Mayor.