The Invercargill Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1863.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 47, 21 April 1863, Page 2

The Invercargill Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1863.

It is the usual, and, we believe, " the correct tiling," for Town Boards, Municipal Councils, and City Corporations pcherally to be subjected to a never failing flow of abuse and vituperation. We have nlways seen it so, and must confess that it appears to bo a state of things altogether inseparable from the existence of these bodies, and, to tell the truth, it is by no means certain that in the long 1 run this continual goading and spurring does not exert a powerful influence for the benefit of the ratepayers and public generally. Endeavor to impress on a man every time you meet him that he is little better than an idiot, and upon all occasions try to make your friends believe the same, and the chances are that he will either take summary and personal vengeance on yon, or will in the end betrin actually to think that there may be some truth in the remark, and acting on that supposition, do all he can to cause you to alter your opinion. Now , with regard to the summary and personal vengeance aforesaid, a Town Board is rather differently situated to an individual. The abuse so freely lavished upon it is almost always of a genera] and common character, applying to the Board as a body, and cannot justly be appropriated by any one member as his private and personal property. Some one has said that a " Corporation has neither a body to be kicked or a soul to be d — d/' and with equal justice it may be remarked that a Town Board is compelled either to pocket the numerous insults and slights put upon it, and manfully fight the battle through, if only for the sake of showing that a false estimate has been formed of its efficiency, or ignominiously retire from the contest. All the Invercargill world knows that it's Town Board has attempted to reduce Tay-street to its proper level, and in doing so has succeeded in reducing it to a miserable state of ruin. Having accomplished this desirable object, four of the members hand in their resisnation, assigning as a reason for the step that Mr. Walter Pearson, the Chief Commissioner of Waste Lands, has thought proper to obstruct them in their endeavor to bring the Tay-street affair to a successful termination. Whatever may be our opinion of the course Mr. Pearson has pursued in the matter, and of which we shall take a future opportunity of speaking, we venture to suggest that although this is the ostensible, it is not the real reason for the resignation. These gentlemen find that they have commenced a work of importance at the wrong season of the year, and not liking to endure the frequent expressions of disgust which salute their too sensitive ears from all directions, they retire, and attempt to father the blame on Mr. Pearson, who, whether right or wrong, is only doing what he considers his duty. The Town Board displayed bad judgment in commencing the work before spring, and the contractor has also had, unfortunately, to csntend with unusually bad weather ; and if any amount of gravel had been placed at his disposal, the consequence would have been pretty much the same. But the members who have retired have shown very bad judgment indeed, in the matter. They should have stopped in their places, and done the best they could under the circumstances; they should have remained, and' as far as possible compelled the contractor to keep to the terms of

his agreement, and they should have remained and fought the battle (a friendly contest, we believe,) with Mr. Pearson about the reserves. We state it as our firm conviction that had the weather continued fine, we should have heard nothing about these resignations, whether Mr. Pearson stopped the supply of gravel or not. The abuse to which the Town Board has been subjected followed as a natural consequence on their display of stupidity in commencing the work at the wrong season ; and we have no doubt that the " wiggin' '' they have received will have a good effect eventually, by causing th« fresh members to exercise their wits a little more sharply in matters where the ratepayers' interests are so nearly concerned. We designate the action taken by those four ex-members as cowardly. In a letter written to us by Mr D. M 'Arthur, and which would have appeared in our Friday's issue had our space permitted it, that gentleman very justly observes that "instead of facing difficulties, real or imaginary, and exercising their talents and ingenuity to overcome them, they jump at the conclusion that the shortest way to a solution of their official troubles is to resign their place at the Board, throwing their responsibilities and the interest of their constituents to the winds." No one doubts that Tay-street will, in the course of time, emerge from its present disgusting state, and become " more beautiful than ever," but the ratepayers, as they survey with satisfaction the accomplished work, will not fail to remember these four much-injured and reviled members of the Town Board, who deserted their posts when they had, in conjunction with the weather, brought the streets to the exact consistency so much admired by good brickmakers. They will not fail to remember^that these gentlemen, in the discharge of the duties undertaken by them, reduced the town to a perfect state of triumphant filth and impracticability, and then retired into private life, hoping to enjoy the opportunity of laughing at the mistakes and misfortunes of their successors.