The Temuka Leader. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1879.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 133, 2 April 1879, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1879.

The Geraldine County Council held the adjourned meeting on Monday last in the Temuka Road Board office at noon. Ttiis meeting was called in accordance with a resolution carried at the meeting held on Monday, the 25th instant. The object of the adjournment was to give the members who desired to bring the Act into operation an opportunity of voting for it at the adjourned special meeting to be held at 2 p.m. At that meeting Mr Wilson proposed, and Mr Mendelson seconded, that the Act be brought into force. The motion being put, three voted for it and two (Messrs Acton and Hardcastle) against it. As staled then by Mr Wilson that he did not think the Act could be brought into force by three votes out of an understood Council of seven he would advise delay in acting upon it. We were therefore glad to hear Mr Wilson state at the last meeting that lie would be no party to bringing in the Act by a fluke ; he considered it would be taking an undue advantage of the resignation of the two members who were not now present, and he would rather not see the Act brought into force in that way. Mr Wilson has stated to us since the meeting that if he had not had good reason for believing the remaining member for the Levels (Mr Acton) would give his vote for the resolution lie would not have proposed it. Mr Acton is a puzzle, we cannot understand him, nor can we admire his tactics. The diversity of opinion amongst the legal gentlemen is perhaps to be accounted for to some extent from the way the case was represented to them, but in any case even if it should be found to be legal in our opinion it should not be acted upon. Had Mr Acton voted for the resolution the case would have been different. As although the member for Mount Cook, in the heat of the moment, chose to throw up his appointment it is not reasonable to expect that all business should be stopped. Mr Macintosh, one of the members for the Levels Riding, had a very different reason for resigning. Looking at the matter as it now stand.s it is our opinion that the whole of the members should resign. There is no congruity between one or other of them ; it is too much a case of diamond cut diamond. No spirit of agreement exists amongst them, and any member who may be elected to fill up the vacant seats would it is to be feared, be chosen more for their ability to fight the battle of their respective constituents than to fairly and calmly act up to the spirit of the law. Another thing we have noticed ; the efforts made in certain quarters to connect the Milford Harbor movement with the County Council doings, has, however absurd the notion, been accepted as truth amongst a certain class of electors who have not the same opportunity as others of examining tine fraud.

The best course now to adopt, if the present members still persist in holding office, is to let each riding please itself. From the first there lias not been any opposition to Mount Cook Riding becoming a county by itself, nor has there been any strong objection to any other part of the present county breaking off from the parent stock. If it 'is the wish of the Levels Riding to have a county let them have it. If Mount Peel chooses to have its rugged mountains called a county let them have the honor. Geraldine County would be Gcral dine Count}' still. This would only be carrying out the views wc expressed all along to have at most a county from the Opihi to the Rangitata. One thing is quite evident, such diversity of interest exists, and such petty jealousies exist, and such a fear of any one part of the county obtaining a larger share of the county’s funds than another exist that it seems utterly impossible to work smoothly together. No matter how pure the motive, no matter how just and conscientious the conduct of members, selfishness and greed are not unfrequently put forward as their highest aim. It seems to us, therefore, hopeless to expect any good from the actions of the present members, and we think most of them must feel quite sick of the whole affair. The Ashley Council has, to serve a purpose, been held up by the ‘ Timaru Herald ’ as a pattern Council, although it has most flagrantly, and over and over again, broken the law. But it is largely composed of the Road Board element, and the old saying holds good, scratch my back and I will scratch yours. The funds of the Geraldine County were by resolution divided, it must be admitted, very fairly, but strong objection was taken by one of the members of the Temuka Riding to the way Mount Peel and Mount Cook Ridings grabbed at the County funds, while they very carefully abstained from taxingthemselves for a single sixpence of rates, and they also have loads of money to their credit. This certainly is another gross injustice, and a further proof that the County, as at present constituted, is unworkable. The case of the legality or otherwise of the resolution proposed by Mr Wilson, and carried by three against two, is now left in the hands of the Governor-in-Council, and in a few days we will kno\y the result of its deliberations.