THE WELLINGTON CITY COUNCIL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 226, 8 January 1876, Page 16

THE WELLINGTON CITY COUNCIL.

(From the New Zealand Times, January 7.) Ip anything were wanting to prove that our municipal affairs require “ reform- “ ing altogether,” Thursday’s meeting of the Council would supply it. In the first place, the committee on accounts brought up a report which substantially affirmed all that had been urged by the auditors, thus proving that without any wrongdoing or malversation of trust the Corporation accounts have yet been let get into a most unsatisfactory state. Then in the discussion on this same report an incident occurred affording complete proof that the Mayor’s notions of conducting business are not first-class, and that a prominent member of the Council is in much the same predicament. No motion had been made for the adoption of the report, but Councillor Gillon calmly started to move an amendment in the body of the report, and, hauling the report itself towards him, calmly proceeded to alter it to suit his amendment. The Mayor, who had been oblivious of the fact that an amendment could scarcely be proposed to a motion which did not exist, was by the murmurs of several Councillors apparently awakened to the fact that Mr. Gillon could scarcely be permitted to make his own amendments by tampering with the text of the report. However, aroused in the manner we have stated, he did insist on Councillor Gillon writing his proposed amendments on a separate piece of paper, in order that they might be put to the meeting before being embodied in the original document. This high handed and arbitrary mode of proceeding appeared to greatly astonish Councillor Gillon, who is one of those young gentlemen inspired with an overpowering faith in his own ability, and who would to-morrow morning take charge of the finances of the colony, or write an essay on the inverse theory of perturbations with equal readiness and ignorance of his subject. He submitted to the Mayor’s ruling with an excessively bad grace, about as courteously, say, as a Dodo might have acted under similar circumstances. Of course, this can be easily accounted for. Councillor Gillon based liis claims to election largely on the fact that when he was in the Council, it would possess at least one member of capacity and experience -in public business. The little difficulty indicated was disposed of, and Councillor Gillon’s amendment being carried, the report was adopted without any motion to that effect being put. It is to be presumed, however, that the gentleman who acted as Town Clerk, and read the minutes with an equal indifference to caligraphy and pronunciation, will put this matter right, and that the minutes produced at next meeting of Council will be in proper, even if in imaginative, form. Now, these gross mistakes in the mere conduct of (business, both by the Mayor and by Councillor, demand especial notice, because each occupies of his own accord a

position which makes such tnistakes most inexcusable. The Mayor has been elected after a distinct affirmation by himself of his fitness for his office. Councillor Gillon has not hesitated to assert that in electing him the ratepayers were getting a gentleman who would not make such mistakes, but would, on the contrary, prevent their occurrence in an assemblage of plain business men, unused to exact legal formality at meetings. And yet these gentlemen are the very first to show that, with regard to the conduct of business at Council meetings, each is about as well adapted to act as would be a pantomime clown taking part in a meeting to promote his orthodox fun. Well may it be said to the ratepayers, “These be “ thy Gods, O Israel.” From another report adopted by the Council, it will be seen that members contemplate taking the working of the wharf into their own hands next year. Were the Council anything but what it is ; were its present servants anything but what they are ; this move would be hailed with satisfaction. Seeing, however, that the Council and its servants have just shown in regard to their accounts how ill fitted they are to conduct anything, we fancy the ratepayers will scarcely care to have them try their ’prentice hands at wharf management, in order to add another to the list of blunders now on the records. That some Councillors think their servants are altogether to blame is shown by the notice of motion which Councillor Gillon has handed in, for giving all employees three months’ notice to quit. Now, as a matter of fact, the servants are the least to blame for all the confusion that has arisen. Servants are very often what their masters make them, and the Council servants are exactly what the Council, by its own conduct, has transformed them into. And for the blame of this Councillor Gillon and one or two like him, are largely accountable. They were the gentlemen of all the talents who were to show the poor ordinary Councillors how everything was to be done. As a matter of fact, their powers of work being mostly confined to their tongues, they have conceived nothing practical, and, as Paddy would say, have executed less. Had not these highly cultivated minds got into the Council, it is quite possible that a few men of plain common sense, having substantial interest in and identified with the city, might have managed its affairs without glitter, but at least without confusion. It is of such a class that the Council should be formed, and it is by gentlemen capable of conducting its meetings decently, and in order, that it should be presided over. The Council has within itself at the present moment a majority of the elements that are desired, but this is overshadowed and rendered useless by the ignorant assumption of the objectionable minority whose intolerant self-assertion outweighs mere common sense. Whilst such is the case, the Council will never of itself effect the necessary reforms. What it wants is, as has been said before, “reforming alto- “ gether.’’