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South Canterbury Times, Issue 2393, 17 November 1880, Page 2

Thk Mayoral salary in Dunedin is exciting as great a hubbub as the Darling grant did some years ago in 'Victoria. In accordance with time-honored precedent. the retiring Mayor of Dunedin —Mr 11..1. Walter—-Is entitled to £4OO. but the City Council have only voted him a shilling. The reason of this scurvy treatment is understood to be that Mr Walter has usurped the seat, that according to the popular vote, belonged to his rival, Mr H. S. Fish. At the last Mayoral election Mr Fish polled the majority of votes, but the other candidate appealed to the Resident Magistrate, and as Mr Fish, who is a painter and paperhanger, was shewn to have had an interest in the decoration of the new Town Hall, he was disqualified, The Civic fathers being almost uniformly contractors themselves displayed that “ fellow feeling ” towards the outwitted Pish which “makes us wondrous kind,” and by way of punishing Walter for an infringement of their rights as contractors they resolved that if he enjoyed the honor of the mayoral chair, he should not have the profit. Several attempts have been made to get them to alter their determination and vote the usual salary, but each has been unsuccessful. The singular feature in the divisions is that the minority have not been contractors, while the majority have invariably been contractors. Fortunately the citizens have at last stepped in, and they have upheld the principle that mayors and councillors should have nothing to do with corporation contracts, by sending some of the ancient and obdurate fathers about their business, and petitioning in favor of the Mayor’s salary. In the meantime the irrepressible Fish is again to the fore as a candidate for the Mayoralty—this time, it is presumed, with clean hands, free from contracts. How the petition will fare, and how the Mayoral election will terminate it is impossible to predict, but the quality of the municipal morality that pervades this southern city will be indicated with tolerable accuracy by tbe issue.