CHAOS AND DRAINS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 269, 6 August 1908, Page 6

CHAOS AND DRAINS.

CONFUSION AT A CONFERENCE. I' " ! . ' ■ A LIVELY SCENE. The Municipal Conference, after two days' toiling through an arid, prickly wilderness, lost itself, yesterday, like Monmouth's army, among drains. For some time, venerable City Fathers floundered in a quagmire from which there! seemed no means of extrication. Uncertain legislation was tho will-of-the-wisp whoso fitful light led them astray. The simple word "drains" is apparently used in different senses iu tho Public Works Act and the Municipal Corporations Act, and certain members of tho Conference wcro prepared to rush on. desperate enterprises, for the sake of finding out what is meant by " drains." Tho Alayor of Nelson was ostensibly the leader of tho Conferenco, but tho younger bloods dragged him at their chariot wheels. For a time at least, he could not be said to have command. A delegate moved that the Conference incur tho exponso of taking a special caso to the Court of Appeal in order to get a judicial interpretation of "drains" in a certain section of the Public Works Act. The motion was put to the meeting without having been seconded, and a confused pandemonium of this kind ensued. First voice: Get the.motion seconded. Second voice: - Tho motion is seconded now. Third voice: He had no right to rise while I had possession of the floor. Hon. J. Barr (with the Scottish, fighting look) : I rise to a point of order. (Varying interjections by a score of voices.) ' Hon. J. Barr: Sir, I want to protest, and I protest against the ruling of the Chair. : Third voice: Sir, what ! want to say ia' this- .. Eon. J. Barr: I "rise to a point of order. Now voice: I riso to support the Chair. (Chorus of "Hear," "Hear.") Hon. J. Barr: My point of order is this — _ The Chairman: Anyono has tho right to riso to a point of order. Hon. J. Barr: Tho motion was put. Third voico: No one seconded it. Hon. J. Barr:.No opportunity was given to second it. You never called for a seconder. . Had an opportunity been given I would have seconded it. Tho Chairman made an explanation. Hon. J. Barr: Then it was a misunderstanding, on your part. The Chairman ruled that someone was out of order,' arid peace; reigned until' he proposed to put tho motion. Then a voice .broke in "Well Sir,_ I object to the way in which the. business is being transacted." The Conference proceeded to investigate "drains." The noxious word, in divers accents, dinned through a confused discussion —"drains," "drains," "drains," more than a "tintinnabulation." An amendment was moved that the Government be asked to define the word "drains" in the section. Then a wiso' man spoke: "Tho amendment is nonsensical. The Government would say 'We have stated in tho Act what wo mean, and that is what we mean.'"

The amendment, and also the motion, wero thrown' _ out, and tlio Conference abandoned drains to talk about "diseasea traceable from, impuro pork." Tho mystery'of "drains' Vis still unsolved. But perhaps "A drain'' by any other name—" , . .At another time tho Conference fell into a Slough of Despond, or at least Confusion, whilo following proposed amendments to tlio Auctioneers Biill, Members got deeper and deeper'in the mire, till one delegate saw dry ground in a proposal to proceed to the next business. ; Tho wclcomo ; foothold was rushed, but hours later a rash delegate led tho Conforetico back into tho morass, whence it scrambled out, after a very short experience, somewhat ignoininiously, leaving tlio Auctioneers Bill behind.