Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, APRIL 21,1900.

Manawatu Herald, 21 April 1900, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1900.

The Town Clerk, ♦■ ■ The Council have before them, owing to the resignation of his office by the present Town Clerk, an opportunity so as to arrange the duties of officers of the Borough whereby the work can be better done and at less expense. We have not been backward in stating our opinion that for the salary the Council can offer it i« simply impossible to secure the services of any one who is not a resident of the town, for any lengthy period. We wrote to this effect on the lamented death of the late Mr Gibson, and urged then the appointment of a local man. Councillors thought otherwise and selected an outsider, an excellent man in the person of Mr McQueen, but the result remained that he only stayed six months. The present Town Clerk has not held office any length of time. We find no fault with men endeavouring to better themselves but we are surprised that Councillors were unable to Bee the probability of what has taken place, taking place. As the experience has been gained we should imagine that an effort will be made to get all the duties carried out by local men, as it was very fairly done during the late Mr Gibson's tenure of office. We have no need for an engineer, and we only pretend we do -by inviting applications for that position, as a good roadman is capable of doing all the work there is to be done. What is needed is a good clerk who is a competent bookkeeper, and the other items coming under the duties of Town Clerk can be done by one possessing but ordinary sense. The Town Cleck does not need to have the valuations thrown upon him as they could be made by, it might be. a more competent outsider. To our mind the Inspector of Nuisances should be in no way attached to the duties of

Town Clerk for very many good reasons, one of winch is that owing to the Inspector's duties being none of the pleasantest he frequently omits to attend to them, and if the ■> 'fleer has only that duty to attend to, it will be easier to suspend him than it would be to suspend an officer who had many other matters to look after. The new Town Clerk 3hould be clear of the Library duties, and the cottage in the building should revert again ta a caretaker's hands. We feel sure a readjustment of officers would result in a. full saving of £25 a year, and the Borough work would be more pleasantly and more thoroughly carried out. We trust the Councillors will well consider this view before taking any decided steps toward 3 filling up the position of Town Clerk. [From the report of the Borough Council meeting last night it will be noticed they have adopted a similar resolution to owl* suggestions — Ed. M.H.]