GENTEEL BEGGING.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1088, 19 September 1883, Page 2

GENTEEL BEGGING.

The railway demonstration resulted in a loss of £2l odd. Whether or not the speeches at the luncheon were so dry that visitors became unusually thirsty and so went in 100 heavy for liquid refreshment, we are unable to say. The fact remains that there is a deficit, as the result of the committee’s labour. There is nothing strange about that. Such demonstrations somehow or another have an unpleasant habit of turning out with a balance on the wrong side. The calculations upon which expenditure is based are generally under the mark while prospective receipts are estimated too liberally in the opposite direction. The gentlemen who undertook the management of the affair were surely in anticipation of having to dip their hands into their pockets when it was all over and in this connection they have not been disappointed. But they don’t like the idea, and having had their dance, they want the Borough Council to pay the piper. Don’t they wish they may get it ! Borough funds can be more profitably expended than npon cakes and ale. The Committee claim that the demonstration was a Borough affair and the Council ought to make up the deficiency. We should say that the celebration was as much a County as' a Borough one, and if the Borough Council is entitled to pay anything, the County Council also ought to be asked to contribute. We are quite sure, however, that neither body will feel inclined to “ part” at the request of the Committee. Borough Councillors are sticklers for the “ Act,” and so far as we are aware, no provision is made in the Act for an expenditure npon cold fowl, sponge cakes, or bottled beer and such like delicacies. A sura might be voted to the Mayor as salary and the difficulty got over in that way. But such course is only adopted in cases when the Mayor has been put to large individual expense in upholding the claims of hospitality on behalf of the town, or disbursing funds in some similar connection. In the present instance he has not borne the expense of the entertainment, and therefore, it may be expected that the Council will not feel anxious to open their purse strings. It would, we think, have been much more dignified if the committee had subscribed the deficiency themselves instead of asking the Borough to pay their debts. If we are not mistaken, they will have to pay in the end, and it will not be nearly so pleasant after the Council has given a polite negative to their appeal.