THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2882, 11 May 1878, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1878.

Amongst other matters discussed at the last meeting of the Borough Council was the question of the Mayor's salary and allowances, and the worthy gentleman who at present fills the Mayoral chair appears to have lost his temper and made use of intemperate language—-language we had not thought him guilty of. He characterised a statement which had appeared in this paper "a deliberate lie ; " said it was made to injure him, and went on to say other things of a gratuitously impertinent character. The sentence which appears to have raised the Doctor's ire was probably the following, which occurred in an article of Monday's date : " The Mayor himself, who draws a regular salary, and two guineas a day every time he proceeds on mysterious visits to Auckland, can he justify," &c. When that was written we were under the full impression that the Mayor had bren so remunerated, and we shall give reasons for such- belief pre* sently. There was no desire to misstate actual facts, and if the Mayor or the Town Clerk had requested a correction next day it would have received due prominence, with an expression of,. regret for having unwittingly— not deliberately—stated what was not borne out by facts. The Mayor chose to " nurse his wrath to keep it warm/ and no doubt considered he did make it very warm for us when he characterised the statement quoted above.'! a deliberate lie." He was mistaken in one way : he might have considered that we would not rest under any such imputation, and that the more the question of salary and allowances was ventilated the worse it would be for him. We have requested the Town Clerk to furnish us with a memo, of amounts paid for travelling expenses dur> ing this year. The amount is not large—it only amounts to £19 4s. Dr. Kilgour and the Town Clerk have not made any claim for their last visit to Auckland; and to the credit of the latter, be it said, we never knew him to make any claim. Of the amount paid for travelling expenses the Mayor (with his salary of £150 a year) has received £8. The Hamilton Conference cost £12, the Mayor and Councillor Gibbons receiving payment for six days each, at the rate of £1 per day. Now, it is unnecessary to go into the question of the Mayor's salary. The original intention of the Thames Borough Council was, not to give remuneration to the Mayor for services rendered, but to recoup the actual expenditure which.any burgess elected to the honorable position of Mayor might have to engage in. The/ addition of travelling expenses appears to have been introduced during the present regime, the ex-Mayor not having received any extra remuneration except during his lengthened visit to Wellington, when he succeeded in getting the overdraft paid"off. The present Mayor, however, when called upon the other night to explain this matter of salary and expenses, not only assumed the virtuously indignant tone, but averred that he had " never received anything but his travelling expenses, and these in no case had exceeded a guinea a day." Would the Mayor inform us if the expenses, were ever less than a guinea a day P Has he not, when making,«ut his bill, charged so many days at one,pound per day? No matter, we wiH^try and fix the Mayor oh one item—the Hamilton Conference,

For this .the Mayor and Councillor Gibbons each charged £Q for six days at ; 46l per day. As the Mayor made the statement -that " he had never received anything but his travelling expenses," we put it to him this way : Did he and the other delegates not get free passes on the railway from Auckland to Hamilton and back ? Was not the Mayor of Thames the guest of the Mayor, of Hamilton al'* the time he remained at Hamilton p Was not the real business of the Conference settled in one, day? If so, how could the " travelling expenses" tot up to £1 per day for six days P If Dr Kilgour can answer these queries satisfactorily we shall be~ gfad. He has accused us of trying to injure him by the circulation of deliberate 'untruths, and so impugned our integrity as journalists < and compelled us to rake up matters we would not have referred to but to show that we had grounds for our belief. We may, in conclusion, inform the Mayor andall others that we would scorn to publish knowingly and deliberately amisstatenient; that whenever it has been pointed out that we have unwittingly, fallen into an error, we have hastened to make all' amends. We shall not retire from this course, but we say— not in a spirit of bravado, be it understood —that when a public man in a public place attacks us and' imputes unworthy motives, we "go for him." In " Still Waters Run Deep " —an excellent comedy known to most readers — when John Mildmay is asked by Captain Hawkesley what he would do if a m^u struck him, he rep fas, in a tone almost of surprise g§

to what would be expected 'of him, "Why I ])jfc him again." The moral is obvious.

FfiOM what Uauspirid at the meeting of the Borough Couiicil on Thursday, during the little episode arising out of the presentation by Councillor Khrenfried of the list of private subscriptions towards the laying down of the 10-inch mains through Albert, Brown and Owen streets for fire purposes, it is apparent that Dr. Kilgour possesses peculiar notions as to what is expected of the Mayor of the Borough. Mr Ehrenfried is a gentleman of plain speech, and he put it to the doctor in plain terras that a subscription was expected of h'm—if not of Dr. Kilgour as the 9 owner of property on the line of streets to be rendered additionally safe from fire, at least as Mayor who receives an honorarium from the Council out of the ratepayers' money so as to be able to respond in a liberal manner to the numerous calls upon his purge as first citizen during his term of office. The Mayor was deaf to all entreaties. Neither as the owner of property nor as Mayor could he be induced to- ;t part" with a trifling sum to reduce the drain upon the public purse for the purpose indicated. It is really surprising how staunch some people can be for the sake of principle ; but it is also equally a matter for regret that such a sorry spectacle should be presented in the Borough Council as that of the Mayor declining to contribute a couple of guineas from his " salary" towards tfn object which was not only calculated to increase the value of his property, but which has also been paraded as an actual public good, and towards which, we believe, nearly every councillor-has contributed. The deduction burgesses will draw from this little incident naturally will be that geutlemen of Dr. Kilgour's calibre seek the office of Mayor for the sake of the paltry " salary " of £150 a year, and thereby place themselves on ah equality with the Inspector of Nuisances, and a long way below the Foreman of Works. It is fervently to be hoped that such a scene will not be witnessed in the Council again, or we shall pray to be delivered from the domination of Borough Council, and endeavor to take refuge under, the protecting wings of the County Council, at whose board things are conducted '"■ decently and in order."

These was no business at the Jt.M Court this morning. : . !

A soiree will be held in the Grahamstown Wesley an School-room next Tuesday evening in , connection with the Church, when the financial statement will be read and addresses delivered by several ministers and friends. Selections of music will be rendered by the choir. The Kuranui Hill United Company are calling tenderßrfor-driving--at-640-feet level. * „, ! Special services will be held in the Wesleyan Churches here to - morrowi The Bev.rMr Nixon will officiate at Short land in the morniug, and the Rev. K. S. Bunn at Grahamstown-iti the evening. Mb E. Cabb, of Auckland, will preach at the Good Templar Hall to-morrow evening, commencing at G. 30. The steamer Eotoiti is advertised to leave Curtis' wharf for Auckland, to-mor-row afternoon, four o'clock; A pious, well disposed lady, residing in Shortland, sent a little deformed Maori boy, whom she has adopted, to Church a few Sundays age, giving him sixpence to give to the offertory. On returning the youth was heard to say, " Kapai Church ; all'a sanie theatre. Only charge 'ikapenny though."

Messbs Thornton, Smith, and Firth announce that they have increased the price of bran-to £7 per ton, commencing 10th May^

The Government hare (says the Her. Id) issued a circular calling the attention of municipal bodies to sections 184, 190, 2C 3, and 201 of the Municipal Act of 1876, which relate to the width of streets, &c, whether public or private, and the hope is expressed that care will be tak«n to have these provisions of the Act carefully carried out.

The writer of an obituary notice on the late Dr W. A. Persion in the Northern Advocate states that the father of the doctor wasjost by the wreck of the Forfarshire in 1838, among the Fame Islands, on which occasion the celebrated Grace Darling distinguished herself by going off in a boat with her father, keeper of the lighthouse off Bambo;ough Castle, Northumberland, and rescuing nine of the passengers. The same writer remarks that the late doctor's father was a Glasgow merchant; that Dr Perston for some time practised at Peckham Bye, 1-ondon, whe-e he joined the Society of Friends. DrlPerston's deiith is generally regretted in the Whangarei district.

The Count de Zaba lectured in Auckland on Thursday night on ." The History and Literature of Poland," in aid of the funds of the Ladies' Benevolent Society. The peroration of what appears to have been a brilliant historical sketch wa» devoted to a glimpse of the present state of Europe, and is reported in the Herald as follows? —The martyrdom of Poland has left an imprint on the page of history whiclv no future events can efface. The nation was based upon justice, and her destruction was a crime which must be expiat3cl hereafter in some form of atonement. JJussia, you will perceive has been the disorganiser of Europe from the commencement. I hope I have succeeded in showing to this audience that the principles upon which the Polish nation was established were favourable to the development and progress of liberal id^as. Now she is- destroyed, what advantages are offerei to mankind for fhe annihilation of her government P It would be impos«ible for the most experienced diplomatist to speculate ppon the probable issues of the present crisis, or what may be the. faJe of.-.Europe. The aspects of the relations of Stales are most complicated ; but if Justice should be recalled to take her plape pn"e moie in the Council of JNatiqna, that Justice would demand her re-establishment, if only for a check upon the restless and aggressive policy of liussia. (Cheers.) It is by acquisition of territory that Russians been-enabled to obtain preponderance, and it is by rehabilitating iiie States she has subju-

gated, without a crime on their part, that her power for future disturbance is to be prevented. I hope tbit current events may take that direction. Let us all hope, whatever be the issue, that the principles of justice and humanity wi'l in the end triumph. (Cheers.)

The No. 2 Haurakis held their usual weekly parade at their Drill Hall, Grahamstown, last night. There was a considerable muster of tte men with Captain Sraftll and Lieutsnanls Barlow and Denby in command. After SergeantMajor Grant had exercised the corps in company and batallion evolutions for upwards of an hour, the officers fell outand the coi'ps was dismissed. The members then adjourned to the lecture room for the general meeting, when the volunteer regulations were read by the captain for the information of young members. Lieut. Denby spoke at length on the advisability of arranging forthwith for a supply of scarlet uaiforms. Lieut. Barlow, in giving notice of motion for the next general meeting, to bring forward a proposition for a,'ending parade more frequently in uniform, insteadof as at present in plain clothes, urged 4'iat it would be mere conducive to discipline and of benefit to the corps for the men to habituate themselves to their military harness. After some financial business the meeting dispersed.

Mr Watson has imported one of Martin and MacDennoU'a rock drills from Glasgow. It is worked entirely by handpower, and is capable of putting in a hole 3 feet deep in four minutes in hard sandstone country Space prevents us writing more about it just now, but as a trial of it is to be made at the Piako mine on Monday, we may again have occasion to refer to it.

" Atlas " in the world writes :—" I hear frotn Berlin that Prince BisJiarck and his imperial and royal master do not, quite hit it off ou the i astorn question. J£aiser Wilhelm is completely absorbed by his attachment to the Emperor of all the fiussias, for whom he has just testified his affection in a very practical shape by making him a present of a hundred Krupp guns, a trifle in the way of surplus artillery which' be happened to have on his hands. As for the German Chancellor, he is England's very good friend ; but he has been heard to remark that the Turk is dead in Europe, and that the future of Bulgaria will prove a 1 hard nut to crack."