THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, MAT 26, 1880.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3561, 26 May 1880, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, MAT 26, 1880.

His Worship the Mayor offered some remarks yesterday at the meeting for the consideration of the Borough finances, with reference to the propriety of allowing the Press to peruse telegrams and other correspondence received by the Council, previous to their being laid before that body for consideration. We believe there is a motion standing in the Mayor's name, which will be brought up at the Council on Thursday evening. It is to the effect "To oonsider whether the Press shall see the telegrams received until they have been before tie Council." His Worship also refused to allow the members of the Press permission to read a letter sent to the Borough Council

complaining of the disgraceful state of a certain draiu. This looks very much as if His Worship wished to withhold j some grievance from the public gaze. Had the letter redounded to the credit of His Worship and Council we hare no doubt he would have been the first to secure its publication. This is but one of the numerous instances in which the Mayor has endeavoured to have his own way. The civic honours invested in a Mayor do not sit him with that easy grace they should do, and we are inclined to< think that his Worship overrates the powers conferred on him by the will of the public. This fact is patent in every transaction in which the Mayor is concerned. At the Borough Council meetings he always shows a desire to treat the members of the Council, the Press, and everyone in the same way in which he would treat the men in his own establishment. Unfortunately for him the members of the Council object to this offhand treatment, and are naturally incensed at being treated in such an unwarrantable manner. This is not the way to further public business. The present financial difficulty is a result of his absurd manner of conducting public business. , Had he taken an interest in the matter, instead of allowing things to go on in a happy-go-lucky manner the present difficulty would hare been easily got over—indeed it is not too late now with an energetic exercise of his Mayoral functions. His reason for refusing to cooperate with the Loan Committee—that he knew a loan could not be floated, and therefore would not attempt to raise one—was as foolish as it was impolitic. More courtesy should have been shown to their banker, and the Government should have been plied to pay such sums as are due to the Borough, and for advances, or loans, which latter, in the peculiar circumstances, might have been asked for with a fair chance of getting. The duty of a Mayor is to throw his heart and soul into public business, to preside at Council meetings as chairman, and rule order, and to listen impartially to all the members of his Council before obtruding his remarks on the Council, When the Mayor interrupts the Council, he should himself be called to order. He must remember that he is only one if he is {the Mayor, and that he cannot carry any measures without the consent of the majority of the Council. These duties His Worship has so far shown his inability to perform, but now that we have come to his assistance, we tru st that it may have a salutary effect on him, and that he will in future remember that he cannot turn Press, Council and Public round in any direction he may chose. remarks of the Town Clerk yesterday re the present difficulty do not appear clear. Had the late Mayor followed the example of his predecessors, and plunged the Council further into debt, where _would .they __have been now^ ?.._ It if difficult"C6~Bee hb'w~"the economy of the late Mayor and Council affects the finance of the Borough.