MUNICIPAL PROGRESS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 47, 16 December 1871, Page 7

MUNICIPAL PROGRESS.

The City of Wellington has now enjoyed the advantages of municipal government for very nearly twelve months, and the time is drawing near when it will become the duty of the Council to elect the Mayor for 1872. The circumstances of the case would appear to us to point very clearly to what is the most judicious course to pursue, having regard to the very large interests involved and the urgent necessity for consistency of action in the various matters at present in the course of negotiation and settlement, considora tions which involve very grave consequences to our future as a body politic. Mr Dransiield was chairman of the old Town Board, and with the limited powers at his disposal did his work, in conjunction with his colleagues, as well, or better indeed, than could possibly have been expected. He had to make such " bricks" as he could " without straw," and succeeded fairly enough, at all events, in fatiguing himself and in demonstrating the fatuous absurdity of a community like this allowing things to drift to the bad, simply from a want of knowledge or ability to take advantage of legislation which provides for the development of clusters of shanties, and " tin pot" frontispieces with unpresentable backgrounds, into the embryo of a city with all its accidents of life and energy, and that political vitality which is the very soul of good government under a happy democracy such as we enjoy in this colony. Mr Dransiield, had he no other claims, has done this, and he deserves well of Wellington, if upon no other grounds. Very properly, and with every justification of desert, he was elected the first Mayor of this city, somewhere now about a year ago, and we take leave to think has fully justified the choice of the then councillors, the greater number of whom, we are glad to say, still retain their positions of use fulness. Let us very briefly refer to what has been actually done during this our first year of Municipal life. The supply of pure water for domestic purposes —a requirement second to none as regards the health and comfort of the been arranged for, and is now only a question of a few weeks. The exceptional mortality and decease amongst children will then be a matter of the past; for there is no doubt whatever that such fatalities have been entirely owing to the impure water which

been for years the " Hobson's choice"of this unfortunate city. Without in anyway ignoring the part taken by every individual councillor, we would point to the Mayor as their executive officer, and congratulate the citizens upon the intelligent action taken by him with regard to the reclaimed land and the wharf. The property in these has been obtained for the city upon most favorable terms, and to the personal exertions of Mr Dransfield we think this is in no slight degree to be attributed. The necessary funds have been, as is now generally known, raised by debentures upon most favorable terms, and it should be a matter of congratulation to us for many reasons that these debentures have been taken up, not by the Banks with their more or less foreign capital, but by a local society which practically represents our own most substantial citizens. We think we are justified in assuming that a great deal has been done for Wellington city during the past year, and that its present position affords a very gratifying contrast to this time twelvemonths; when political annihilation and bankruptcy stared us in the face, and when, with the province, the city must have fallen. The Executive have done their work manfully, and their honest straightforward work for the general good has been recognised by Parliament, which has most wisely given effect to their proposals. So far as the city is concerned, Mr Dransfield, as Mayor, has most cordially co-operated with the Superintendent, and it is to this co-operation that no slight amount of success is due. A hostile or unintelligent chief magistrate might have worked " powers of evil'" in the recent crisis of events, and the quasi friends of this province might, with such assistance, have rejoiced in its extinction. Mr Dransfield has given the Government, general and provincial, a hearty and intelligent support, and in this course he has been fully approved by the members of the Council, and this has in no slight degree conduced to the present position of affairs, which we venture to assume is not altogether unfavorable to out' local interests. We have somewhat digressed. Now for the pith of our argument. The city has a right good man as Mayor. Let us keep him, at all events for another year or two. That is, of course, if he is willing to continue to do our work, as heretofore, ably and intelligently, and without fee or reward to carry out to its development the works he has had no slight share in initiating. It would be a very great blunder, we think, to oust Mr Dransfield from the mayoral chair after his first year, provided ho is willing to occupy it. We do not re quire a succession of experiments, and under present circumstances it is extremely desirable that we should have no " new hands at the bellows." We have a capital Council and a first rate Mayor, and our advice is " Let things stand as they are !"