New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1876. A MUDDLE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 226, 8 January 1876, Page 12

New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1876. A MUDDLE.

An Englislx historian tells how one of the Georges once, visiting a provincial town, found no one ready to receive him officially. ITis Majesty waited for some time, and at last asked of the casual spectators of the scene, “ Where is the Town ££ Council V to which the spectators replied promptly, “ Please, your Majesty, ££ it’s in a mess.” The Wellington City Council seems at present fully to realise the graphic description of its prototype’s condition. It is emphatically and entirely “ in a mess. ’ The auditors have condemned the Town Clerk, a committee has condemned the Surveyor, the public has condemned the Councillors, and every one has joined in condemning the Mayor. One organ of public opinion assures us that Mr. Hester is all in the wrong ; another is equally certain that Mr. Marciiant is to blame; both agree that under any circumstances Mr. Hutchison has committed a grave error. This is to a certain extent satisfactory, as showing that by general admission municipal affairs are not as they should be, and that someone or another is to blame. But it will be scarcely accepted as satisfactory by the ratepayers, who will naturally want to know what the evil precisely is, and where the onus of the evil should be precisely placed. Under the circumstances, we fancy that the ratepayers will quickly come to the conclusion that the City Council, Mayor, members, and officials included, wants reforming altogether. The Mayor himself has certainly had but scant time in which to permit us to judge of his competency for the office he holds, and it is perhaps within the bounds of probability that, with extended experience, he may improve on first acquaintance ; but it cannot be denied that in the very first case in which an opportunity occurred for him to show his competency, he failed most lamentably and miserably. Some of the members have of late shown pretty plainly that their object in getting into the Council was not to work for the good of the city, but to take pride out of the little fancied addition to their social status formed by becoming Councillors, and to boast of the imagined influence which had enabled them to keep some other men out. The officials have gradually, we believe, come to look upon municipal institutions in general, and those of Wellington in particular, as beautiful instances of the ways and workings of Divine Providence, for the good of town clerks, surveyors, and the like. There has been exhibited by them a calm indifference to Act 3 of Parliament, a sub-

lime contempt for Town Councils, and an indifference to the reports of auditors and committees most creditable to their self-appreciation, but scarcely satisfactory to the citizens who, in common language, have to “pay the piper.” Unfortunately it is impossible to conceal the fact that for the existence of this state of things those are to blame who should really have prevented it. Gentlemen who have entered the Council, or taken upon themselves the discussion of its affairs, have not done so with eyes open to the general evils that exist, but rather with eyes closed to all imperfections except those of some individual or individuals against whom they have a grievance. Hence we have had in turn fiery speeches, and bitter paragraphs pointing out that municipal matters in Wellington were going to a very bad place indeed, and that the Mayor was to blame for the process, or that the fault lay at the doors of certain Councillors, or that so long as the Town Clerk held office no amendment could be hoped for, or that the Surveyor was accountable. Historical parallels between Mr. Hutchison and Athelstane the Unready have been instituted. The Councillors have been compared to the Star Chamber. Mr. Hester has been likened unto Gallio, the Roman, who cared for none of these things. Whilst it has been reserved for Mr. Marciiant to be unfavorably compared with the Egyptian who would not allow straw to his brickmakers. We are neither incorrect nor fanciful in stating the case as we have done. Every one taking, or affecting to take, an interest in municipal matters has been most ready to find fault, but has never really pointed out that the evils lay not with a particular person, but with the utter muddle into which the whole system of municipal administration in Wellington has been allowed to drift. After all, the consequences of this may not be so bad. The ratepayers will at last in all likelihood awaken to the fact that they must take the remedy into their own hands. They have trusted for some time to certain gentlemen who were very loud in their denunciations of evil, and very liberal in their promises of reform, but whose denunciations and promises ended with their elections. It is just as well that by the serious position which things have got into, the ratepayers should be enabled in future to detect the true metal from the false, to return to the Council earnest practical men : men of position, and having an interest in the place, not ambitious politicians or gentlemen merely anxious to be called Town Councillors. It is from this, and this alone, that we can look for an. amelioration—an amelioration which will be effected not by finding fault with this officer or that, not by blaming one Councillor or another, but by reforming the thing altogether.