THE CORPORATION OFFICIALS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5062, 14 June 1877, Page 2

THE CORPORATION OFFICIALS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir,—l am what is irreverently called an old fogy—l live at the outskirts of the town, read my Times every day, live within my means, hate business and politics, and love hooks. Like the “Spectator,” lam a shortfaced gentleman, and generally distinguished by a profound silence. I have looked on at the game of municipal gladiatorii, as recorded in your valuable and trustworthy columns, so long, that like most outsiders I flatter myself I see the position better than the players do — Munora nunc eilunt et verso pollicc vulgi, QuemUbet occidunt populariter. Speakers in the arena are oft-times so occupied iu thrust and parry, and the literary canistiß or bottle-holders in scoring points and witching “ pollicem vulgi,” that none care to note the direction in which the combatauts edge. Now, I wish to tell them where I fancy they are drifting in their no doubt honest effort at reorganisation. I must premise that luckily I am unacquainted with auy of the officials. I never iu my life spoke to the Town Clerk, the City Surveyor, or the Wharfinger. I confess to a sneaking distate for all three. To the Town Clerk, because I have been threatened with a summons for rates. I am proud of being a payer of rates ; I am disgusted at having to pay them. Reconcile the paradox if you can. To the City Surveyor, because my neighbor wants a drain, and cannet get it; and to the Wharfinger, because last year my uiece was stopped ou the wharf and made to pay a largo sum for her luggage. Give fair weight to this confession if you perceive any leaning towards injustice in my remarks. Well, my opinion is this : When long since you raised a warning voice about the conduct of affairs, strict investigation should have followed promptly. Had the Council doue its duty, possibly at this moment better men might have been in harness and broken in to their work ; but by some fatuity the unpleasant duty was postponed time after time, until now the matter comes to

a head at perhaps the most inopportune Moment that could have been chosen within the last two or three years. Were the City Council to decide on dismissing tire whole executive staff now, by a very curious coincidence these gentlemen would all go out of office on the very day on which a new Council would come in, viz., the Ist of October, Human nature is very weak, and I would not be surprised to find that the dismissed officials should refuse to aid after that date, but on the contrary rather enjoy the confusion worse confounded that would inaugurate the new regime. I say advisedly a new Council. I hear several of the best men do not intend again to w T oo the “ fickle voice of the people,” and that the “ fickle voice of the people ” has made up its mind not to woo the majority left. It is thus quite on the cards that nine-twelfths of the new Council will be new men.

There will certainly be our worthy Mayor to the rescue. He is a host in himself, ami holds all the reins well in hand ; hut it is hardly fair to place him in such a position that if he was laid up with a cold or went out of town, the whole Council and staff would be at a loss what to do in any emergency. Now I think all this very wrong and illadvised. Somehow this action of the City Council brings vividly to my mind the high jinks we used to play at school at the end of our last term. The way we ripped the pillows, delicately half-cut through the bed-lacing, bored holes in the leaden inkstands, shoved peas in the locks, bred certain insects in the desks, kicked to pieces everything kickahle, and generally made things pleasant for the new hoys, was an ordeal for those young gentlemen which I trust the new Council will not have to go through. I say leave the whole matter to the new Council. You, sir, I am sure will watch it with a lynx eye, and see it does its duty, by a thorough investigation into the management of municipal affairs.l am, &c., Horatio.