Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1873. " MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 283, 3 July 1873, Page 4

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1873. " MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Well through the Provincial Council elections, we have now to face the Municipal, and to decide upon the question who is to be Mayor this year and who the new Councillors. We are inclined to the belief that there is, and always has been, in Lawrence (regarding civic matters at all events) far too much conservatism — too much of the " let well alone." We say too much, because we kn(Kv that leaving well alone is good as a rule, but a rule which may be easily carried too far, to the detriment of the persons or community whose over-anxiety or laziness betrays them into its hyperadoption. Lawrence has been a Municipality nearly seven years, during six of which Mr. Horace Bastings most ably filled the Mayoralty chair. It was perhaps well that he was so continually re-elected, for the reason that thdlL was no other man in Lawrence si well up in Municipal mattei-s ; an/, seeing that the Municipality was in its infancy, it was fortunate that we had at hand so experienced and withal so good and willing a nurse. Last year Mr. Edward Herbert was chosen Mayor, and we must say that during his term of office he has performed his duties with the same quiet success which has ever marked his mercantile life. Without great brilliancy, earnest, steady, and determined work — the product of that invaluable quality which so few possess, to wit, application — has crowned Mr. Edward Herbert's Mayoralty with all the honor he can possibly desire — the confidence of the citizens, a confidence which he will retain whether he be again returned or not. We think that, save under peculiar and exceptional circumstances, the office of Mayor should roll annually ; and it is indeed a poor community that cannot present once a year one of its number fit and capable as regards education, ability, and social position to fill the office. In the Corporate towns at home we see professional men — barristers, solicitors, physicians, surgeons, well-to-do tradesmen, publicans, aye and sinners too — keenly contesting for civic honors. Where are our lawyers and doctors here in Lawrence, and what are their ideas regarding their obligations relative to the performance of a portion of public duty that we never hear them so much as spoken of as candidates for public distinction 1 The medical men. have an excuse, and a good one, for abstaining; but the lawyers have none. The whole routine of their business and their habits of life fit them for the very work which a civic representative has to perform ; and, unless there is some cause which ought not to exist, we are of opinion that the lawyers of Lawrence should be ashamed of themselves for keeping in the back ground. Do they grudge the time ? Surely they are not so busy as all that comes to — at air events they growl loudly enough that they have nothing to do. What are our master tradesmen about that they make no show upon the Municipal stage ? Do they expect the same old team to go on and continue in harness for ever? We could name at least a score of tradesmen in Lawrence who have never yet done a hands-turn for the public, and whose duty it is now to comefroraout their shellsanddo their fair share of the work, which must be done, and that at private cost. We are not inclined to mention names at present, as it might be considered invidious. There ought to be at least a half dozen candidates for the Mayoralty this year, and a like number for each vacant Councillorship.

The circuit sitting of the Supreme Court at Lawrence is now an undoubted advantage to the community, and a saving both to individuals and the State ; but unless existing arrangements are more largely taken advantage of the full benefit will not be derived. It is perhaps inconvenient that the circuit is ouly bi-yearly, because Magistrates up-country, when committing prisoners for trial, naturally and rightly feel a repugnance at causing them to be detained longer than is absolutely necessary and unavoidable, and, as the Supreme Court sits in its criminal jurisdiction four time a year in Dunedin, this difficulty

is continually cropping up. Two cases were recently committed to Dunedin from the Dunstan which might, and ought to have been, sent to Lawrence, for we have just had a sitting here, and these two cases are still untried, so that the very hardship which the Magistrates are properly anxious to avoid has been inflicted. The probability is that the committing Magistrate, in the cases alluded to, was not aware as to when the Supreme Court would sit in Lawrence, and, to be on the safe side., sent the accused prisoners to Dunedin ; but the Minister of Justice will doubtless in the future see that Magistrates are duly apprised of dates of sitting, and thus give to all parties the full benefit of the Circuit Court. Another matter we desire to call attenti&n to, and in so doing we trust that the next grand jury impannelled in Lawrence will make some presentment to his Honor relative to it. The Court House is, as regards size and accommodation, wholly inadequate to the proper conduct of the business. Sitting as the Supreme Court did for seventeen consecutive days in February last, the whole work of the Resident Magistrate's and Warden's Courts was per force suspended, thus causing great public inconvenience and loss of time. Lawrence is large enough, important enough, busy enough, and wealthy enough to demand a Court House with sufficient space to accommodate the Supreme ! and inferior Courts simultaneously, and no loss would accrue to the State b}' the abandonment of the present building, as we must have a postoffice (there is no post-office in Lawrence just now worthy of the name), and the existing Court House, with very slight alterations, would answer the purpose admirably. Spirits of Bastings, Brown, and Bathgate kindly take the matter up and ''see ye to it."