NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 899, 19 August 1910, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

An important point seems to have been overlooked in the current discussion upon the powers of the City Council in respect of the sale of electric fittings and appliances. The law 'seems'"to' 'be' pretty much the same in New Zealand, as in Great Britain—so much the same, indeed, as is clear from a reading of the judgment, of' Mr: Justice Neville in The; Attorney-General v. 'Corporation of Leicester, that argu-ment'-outside the' Courts is not of much use. The point wc wish to note,.however, is this': that Mr. Justice Neville's- decision against the right of a municipality to deal in> electric fittings is riot .final. A stay of injunction was applied for to permit of appeal, and sinco the case will affect many, municipalities, more is certain to be heard of at. Nothing, clearly'; ought to be' decided upon until, finality has been reached in the British case. Parliament, of course, can easily remove all the difficulties by _ passing an Act giving municipalities express authority to do as the local Corporation is doing. But any such Act would involve principles reaching beyond the immediate object dealt with.'

That the Prime Minister's cold will leave him with all possible speed must be the wish of everybody who wants Parliament to get ahead with its business. No one, probably, will wish this more earnestly than those Government -supporters .whose vision is sufficiently clear for them to see how. pathetic a figure Ministers cut when the chief is away. The object of Ministers yesterday was to mark time. The afternoon, it ■was hoped, would slip away in general discussion and in the consideration of the local Bills. By great bad luck there was less talkativeness than usual, and Mr. Carroll found himself with the afternoon on his hands. There was nothing for it but to hunt out the most harmless Bills for discussion, and the House was therefore set at two trifling measures. Even so, no doubt, Ministers' hearts were in tholi mouths • at their daredevil courage in not adjourning. In the evening private members' Bills were to come on. By a further piece of ill-luck: the' second of the private members' Bills was that embodying Mr. Russell's proposals to reconstruct the Legislative Council. The prospect of handling this Bill without the guidance of their chief apparently appalled Ministers, and it was therefore necessary to arrange that MR. Sidey's Public Health Amendment Bill, the first on the list, should occupy the" whole. evening. , ' This .measure could easily have been disposed of in an hour, but the discussion was prolonged until well on to midnight. The day was thus practically wasted, simply because Sir Joseph was away. Perhaps the country can afford that waste; but can the Ministry afford to let its feebleness and helplessness be made so plainly visible 1

Councillor Ballingeh's resignation of his office as a member of the Wellington City Council will be generally regretted.. Ho has proved himself a useful' member, and especially on committees and away from the limelight of the public'meetings of the Council he has done good work for the city. _ The. reasons which have led to his decision to retire are familiar to our readers. The subject of Councillors in their private capacity having business relations with tho Council was very fully discussed some time ago, and a decision arrived at by the Council. With the general principle underlying that decision we do not think many people will disagree. It. is i true that those who sorve the city

as Councillors give up a great deal of time to the duties of the position, and in most cases they do it at a loss to themselves and to the', advantage of citizens. But it is desirable that there should not be the slightest room for the suggestion that any Councillor can use his position to secure an advantage over his business rivals in dealings with the Corporation. To permit such a condition of things to exist is but the beginning of the great -jvils which have become associated.: with public life in America. We do not wish to suggest that anything wrong has been done here;, but the City Council was quite right in safeguarding citizens. Probably, as Councillor Ballinger suggests, it went too far, and will in consequence deprive the city of the services of many good citizens. That he is to some extent correct in this view is proved by the fact that the city is losing his services. -Coming on top of the death of Councillor Devine, also an old and experienced Councillor,.it is no light loss. Councillor B.illinger's action, however, may have a good effect in again directing attention to the important issues underlying the question which he discusses in his letter published elsewhere, and may assist to secure some equally sound but less drastic safeguard of the public's interests in substitution for that decided on by the City Council.