The Southland Times. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1660, 12 November 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1872.

The citizens of the good town of Invercargill are certainly indebted to the nine gentlemen who, in the capacity of Mayor and Councillors, devote three or four hours every Thursday evening to attending to their interests. It is true, no doubt, that the debates •with which our civic magnates fill up their weekly meetings do not present any great features of interest to the general public, and that an unprejudiced spectator of their deliberations is apt to come to the conclusion that the business actually got through might be accomplished with a som ewhat smal ler ex pen diture of eloquence and time. But it would be in the highest degree ungrateful to find fault with this, for the time which the worthy Mayor and Councillors expend is unquestionably their own, and if, in the interests of their constituents, they are disposed to beatow an amount of care and deliberation en the public business which may seem unnecessary to those who know less about it than they must do, no cne has any right to complain. The public have certainly had every reason, up to the present time, to be satisfied with the results, and it is with these that they are chiefly concerned. There is, however, a certain danger, which the members of the Town Council ought not to overlook, of falling into a chronic state ot " consideration,*' the effect of which may b& that not only their own time, but that of other people, may be wasted, and many useful improvements which ought to be commenced at once may be delayed, for no better reason than that the Council has not yet made up its mind about them What are we to think, for instance, about the great drainage scheme, which formed such a pTominesnt topic in the addresses of some of the candidates at the last municipal election, and the urgent necessity of which was so convincingly demonstrated that it was proposed to borrow the Eeserves Fund, in order to set about it at once ? We have not heard much about it since then. The available portion of the Eeserves Fund has certainly been spent in the meantime, but there is abundance of other money to be had, if the Council is willing to borrow. Then two proposals to light the town with gas have been successively declined, for good reasons probably, but by no means because the idea is in itself objectionable. On the contrary, the Council, in declining the last proposition to this effect, Mr A. J. Smyth's, expressed the opinion that it was a duty which the Council itself ought to undertake. But since fcben nothing seems to have been done. With the effort of arriving at this conclusion, the correctness of which we have no intention of disputing, that it was the business of the Council, namely, to see to the lighting of the town with gas, the energies of that respectable and hard-working body seem to have been exhausted for the time, as regards the consideration of this particular question at all events. In summer, of courae, gas is not so much needed, and as we have done tolerably well without it for a long time, there is nothing to force ifc on our notice. Still last winter is not a period so very remote that the Councillors can have forgotten how important it seemed to be then. They must know, too, one would think, that though gasworks are neither very expensive nor very uncommon undertakings, they require a little time to construct, and like everything else of the

sort, are most easily erected in the I summer months. It does not seem a very ! difficult conclusion to arrive at that as the | thing must be done sooner or later, and ' as the Council have accepted the responsibility of doing it, the earlier it is set about the better. It is probable, too, that the undertaking;, if at all well managed, would be self-supporting from the very first. Like everything else in the shape of a local industry, the indirect advantages which would be derived from it are worth considering. Some of the money now sent away for kerosene would be returned to the citizens generally in the shape of rates, or added to the remuneration of the working classes in the form of wages. New Zealand coal might be used to make the gas, and "Winton lime to purify it, and the railway would have the benefit of the freight. The Councillors themselves,itmay be supposed , when returning to their homes after the , late meetings on Thursday nights, would not be insensible to the advantage of walking through well-lighted streets, but on this point we do not insist. It would be satisfactory to know, however, whether there is any better reason than mere indifference and the habit of procrastination for the delay which has taken place in the consideration of this subject. The drainage scheme is even more important. Unlike the gasworks, the drainage will not appear to be commercially a selfsupporting undertaking. The citizens will have to pay for it, but ifc is not the less true that they will receive as good or better value for their money, if the work is even reasonably well done. Indications are not wanting even now that Invercargill, if it has hitherto been an exceptionally healthy place, has been so rather from the sparseness of the population than from the natural advantages of the site. It does not seem very wise to wait until the lesson which we now may learn from the teachings of science and the history of other places is forced upon us by the sad experience of an unhealthy summer, with its accompaniments of doctors' bills and funeral processions. The question of water supply for the town, is also one which will have soon to be considered, and while for the present this matter may. not seem so urgent as the other two we hare suggested, there is no doubt that its importance will ere long be recognised, as essential to the health of the community. But, it may be said, all this may be very true, still these improvements cannot be made without money, and where is that to come from? This is certainly an important consideration, and one which it would never do to overlook in treating of these matters. Bub we do not think that any suppospd difficulty in this direction has really I been at the bottom of the proeras tination and indifference to which we have called attention. The Council is to meet to-night to consider the amount of the annual rate, and whatever may be the figure decided upon, the general prosperity of the town and the Municipal revenue will not fail to afford matter for congratulation. Besides the increase in the value of property which has taken place since the establishment of the Mv nicipality, considerable sums have been added from other channels by recent legislation to the resources of the Council. The current expenses have, however, increased in almost equal ratio, and so long as the money is well laid out there is no reason why they should not. It is evident then that such works as we recommend cannot be undertaken out of ih© annual income at the disposal of the town. It is fortunate, at the same time, that there is no reason why they should be, while there are mauy reasons why they should not. It is by no means fair, for instance, that the whole cost of such works should be defrayed by the present inhabitants, while those who are yet to be added to their numbers, and who in a few years may more than double the present population, will derive au equal or greater advantage from the benefits which they confer. This injustice is remedied at once by the simple expedient of borrowing the capital required. The ; town has the legal power to do .so, its credit is good, and money is abtfndant. More than would construct all the works at present urgently required in Invercargill might easily be had at six per cent., which, for £5,000, would come to £300 a year, a sum which the town coald very well afford to pay. As the members of the Town Council have already established a good character for caution and prudence, it might not be well for them to run any risk of its being called in question by an attempt to become " brilliant financiers." But we think they might safely venture on the sum named, and after they have shown how well they can direct its expenditure, they may perhaps be encouraged, by the approbation of their fellow-citizens, to ask for in ore.