CITY COUNCIL REFORMS. Wanted—Re-organization.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 44, 4 May 1901, Page 8

CITY COUNCIL REFORMS. Wanted— Re-organization.

THE twenty-four candidates who struggled for those vacant chairs at the Wellington City Council, to say nothing of the two who aspired to rule the roast, gave the burgesses the result of their cogitations how to run the city to the best advantage. It is, of course, a very miscellaneous assortment of ideas, but there are a good many in the collection that ought not to be pitchforked into the limbo of oblivion now that the scramble for seats is over. There is one particularly that seems to us eminently practical, and which, on account of its practicalness, should receive early attention. • • • It is that the time has arrived for a thorough re-organisation of the Corporation staff. And it has been suggested with a good deal of force that it would be an excellent beginning to make the City Solicitor (Mr. T. F. Martin) Town Clerk and to appoint the present Town Clerk the City Treasurer. At the present time, Mr. J. E. Page is both Town Clerk and City Treasurer, and, although he is a very able, diligent and painstaking officer, it is quite manifest that he is over-weighted in struggling with a dual task. The absent-mindedness that allowed those Willis-street compensation claims to go uncontested, and, after reducing the Council to the pitiful position of entreating the Court ad misericordiam to overlook its technical default, obliges it to pay £7000 more than it thinks is true value, is partly attributable to the fact that Mr. Page has too much to do. • • • Both in area and in population Wellington is the largest borough in the colony and although in the day of small things it was an easy matter for one officer to discharge the onerous functions attaching to two such important offices as Town Clerk and City Treasurer it is no longer feasible except at the expense of impaired efficiency. The position of Town Clerk of a large city like Wellington is one that ought to be filled by a man of legal attainments. Mr. T. F. Martin would make an ideal town clerk. He held the office from 1884 till 1889, so that he is familiar with its routine. He has acted as City Solicitor ever since, and from end to end of the colony he is recognised as an authority on municipal law and all cognate matters. That is shewn by the fact that he was appointed counsel for the Municipal Association of New Zealand and also for the Counties Association. • * • If it could be made worth his while to accept the Town Clerkship the Corporation affairs would be as well looked after as are now the Harbour Board affairs. The larger salary that would have to be paid would be more than recouped in the saving of legal expenses and the abolition of the office of City Solicitor. Even if Mr. Martin's services cannot be obtained, the City Council ought to persevere with

this reform. Most up-to-date cities have already moved in that direction. And the scheme of re-organisation thus initiated should be carried right through the office. Old-fashioned methods have prevailed too long and a thorough over-hauling is badly needed. Let us see if the new Council is equal to the undertaking.