The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1888. MUNICIPAL DECLARATIONS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2796, 12 January 1888, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1888. MUNICIPAL DECLARATIONS.

Each member of a Borough Council when he assumes office signs the following declaration; —/ do declare that I xoill faithfully and impartially, according to tie best of my skill and judgment, execute the powers and authorities vested in me as a Councillor by virtue of the Municipal Corporation's Act, 1886. It will thus bo seen that a somewhat solemn responsibility devolves upon persons who undertake the office of a Councillor, and that they have, in tho words we have quoted, imposed upon them by law a special charter which indicates alike their functions and their privileges. A late public meeting, convened by Mr Kenall, at his instigation, passed a resolution requesting the Borough Council to leave the matter of water supply in /us (Mr Reimll's) hands. It is quite evident that Councillors who have signed the declaration we have quoted cannot leave any function which they possess, in any third person's hands; they are bound to act for themselves, In order to allow Mr Eenall's resolution, as endorsed by the public meeting, to be carried out, the declaration under the Act would have to run as follows:— I do dechre that I will faithfully and impartially; according to the best of Mr Eenall's skill and judgment, execute the powers and authorities vested in me as a Councillor by virtue of the Municipal Corporation Act, 1886. In no other way could Councillors conscientiously obey the resolution expressed by the late public meeting That the Council should ignore a gross and improper interference with their functions and privileges, follows, as,a matter of course. Had they acceded to the request they would have been derided and reproved, from one end of the colony to the other. We do not blame the public meeting for the resolution which it passed, [t allowed itself to be lod by MrKonall, and accepted him as an authority both on law and practice. The responsibility of what appears to us to be a grave outrage on constituted authority rests upon Mr Mr Renall. When but a few days ago our present Mayor took office, he signed a declaration pledging himself to faithfully and impartially execute the powers and authorities vested in him as Mayor, in virtue of the Municipal Corporations Act, and yet he is now in season and out of season, endeavoring to undermine the authority and functions of a Council of which he himself is a unit, and to carry out a project by illegal means, which he is unable to compass by a legal procedure, We venture to affirm that the request made at tho instigation of Mr Renall to the Borough Council, was grossly illegal and improper, and, emanating from one who should be by virtue ot his office the defender and guardian of the functions and privileges of the Council, it is all the more heinous.JMr Eenall placed the late public meeting in a false position, and he has placed himself, as Mayor, in a false positicn but, thanks to tho good senso of the Councillors, they escaped the trap he set for them, and he has still before him the task of putting them in a false position. We trust he will again read, and ponder over the declarations signed by himself and the Council overwhich he presides, and will not again commit himself by asking Councillors to violate their solemn pledges..