TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3148, 30 July 1881, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1881.

The report to which we gave currency yesterday concerning the resignation of his seat in the Municipal Council by Mr J. Leonard turns out to be perfectly true. Mr Leonard was elected at the last Municpal general elections for the North Waid, ;but having polled the least number of votes of the three elected candidates hie term of office was only for twelve months. Aβ those elections took place last September Mr Leonard would only have had another two months in the Council, when he could have retired into private life by the simple process of not offering himself again as a candidate. By the course that he has taken he will put the bornigh to the needless expense of an extra election, because his successor merely take* the vacant seat to hold on the terran upon which it was occupied by him, Thus, whoever succeeds Mr

Leonard, will only sit in the Council for about a month before the : ext orf/a; ry ejection. It U a pity, therefore, th-t Mr hag sont iv his resignation. :.nd we trust that his friends may induce Lim to reconsider the step he has taken. -.Vc have no knowledge of the exact re-.if-.mß that led him so suddenly to retire f on; the Council, but it is no secret, th ,t he has long been dissatisfied with the manner in which the business of the borough is couducted. Like others who have entered the Council, and after a short time retired disgusted, Mr Leonard has found himself in a hopeless minority ; he has found he can bring about no improvement, and being dissatisfied with himself he resigns. All who have tuus retired frorathe Council have confessed that everything of which the ratepayers have such good reason to complain owes its origin to the system of " fixing-up ,, all business in secret committee. Councillor after Councillor has endeavored to break up this pernicious method of doing public business, hut each one has been defeated. We will give an instance of how matters are arranged in committee. At the last sitting a question was raised as to the dismissal of the two Corporation laborers Ready and Spencer. The Municipal Engineer, who appears to be generally in attendance upon the committee, stated that the matter was referred to in his report. The report is read, which etates that the two men were dismissed for incoordination, and the engineer explains that the " clerk of the works" reported the men on that charge. The letter of the said " clerk of the works " is next read, which states that the men, having given such information to the Press that may prejudice the price of contracts, he recommended their discharge. A letter from the two discharged men was next read complaining of the cause of their dismissal. This last was treated with almost contempt. One Councillor said " these men have come to us for justice, and if they cannot get it from this committee I shall bring it up in the Council." That Councillor waa coolly laughed down, by the remark that the whole thing was settled. For it is well known that there is a rule, as binding as the laws of a secret society, that whatever transpires in committee shall not be made public, and that whatever is resolved upon in committee sball be agreed to by the Council. This rule applies to all Councillors whether they attend the committee or not, so that thoueh a Councillor may have been absent from town, when he takes his seat in the Council he may ask no questions, he may not dissent from a recommendation of the committee, he must agree with all that has been done in his absence, under pain of being considered an insolent mischief-maker. And Councillors who kick against this rotten system are very soon made to know that unless they work in with it they will be mere nonentities, they will be made to feel that they are perfectly useless, and before long they will resign their seats, or quietly acquiesce in the method of doing the work. Rather than be nothing in the Council, perhaps, Mr Leonard has resigned ; perhaps there are other reasons. All we can say is that we hope his successor will be as good a man, and endeavor to serve the ratepayers as faithfully as he has done.