The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3567, 14 December 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1882.

Th;ere was nothing to be surprised at in the;faet that'the Mayor, before presiding at the committee of the Council last Monday, should have armed bimßelf with the written , opinion of the; auditors on the subject of the amalgamation of the offices of Town Clerk and . Receiver of Rates." At the previous.meeting of .the Council tbe resolution amalgamating those offices was rescinded on tbe casting vote of His Worship. In exercising his undoubted right—and in that particular case bis undoubted duty to the ratepayers—the Mayor said next to nothing in support of his vote. At the committee meeting, Jbowever, he spoke with no uncertain sound. Before obtaining the independent opinion of the anditors, than whom no better judges could have been found, His Worship might have felt that he was treading on unsafe ground. He might not have been quite sure as to the extent to which he might be justified in going to give.the new order of things a fair trial. Undoubtedly there were both in and oat of tbe Council opinions prevalent that a resolution once passed— no matter how great a mistake—should be allowed to be carried into effect. His Worship, up to a certain point, was, probably, influenced by a. somewhat i similar feeling. To make quite sure of his position, however, be,requested the opinion of the auditiors which was afforded in writing. . Although the letter was quite of the character of a private communication, the Mayor was kind enough to give the committee the benefit of its contents. The opinion of both the auditors was dead against the amalgamation of the offices. Irrespective of the fact, they stated, that the Town Clerk acts as a check upon the Receiver of Rates, which is in itself a consideration of great moment, they considered that the duties of the Reqeiver of Rates, involving as they do his constant attendance upon the public, besides a large amount of clerical work, would, if imposed upon the Town Clerk, prevent that officer's atttenion to his present work, the punctual performance of which is so necessary to the welfare of the borough. Such an opinion could not possibly have been ignored by the chief executive officer of the Corporation, and, necessarily, it carried the greatest possible weight with, we trust, a majority of the councillors. The auditors, however, were not satisfied with giving merely a bald opinion. They gave a synopsis of the duties of the Receiver of Rates to show how impossible it would be-to attach them to a wholly, different office. The duties of the Receiver are more multifarious than his title implies. 'After the annual valuation is completed, and the rate has been struck by the Council, be has to calculate the amount of rates on the various properties. The number iof properties on the last valuation roll was 1978, and on each of these four rates have to be calculated, namely, the general, the special, full water, and half-water rates. That involves, of course, 7912 calculations to be made ■ and addressed to each owner of property, and tbia has to be done twice a year. He has to attend the Assessment Court to support the valuer's assessment. The Burgess Roll has then to be made up in alphabetical order for each ward, which, entails a considerable amount of heavy clerical work, and he also has to make out the defaultera'list. Following the issue of rate demands he has to be constantly at his office to receive the rates and give receipts. Besides these duties he has to issue summonses, and attend the R.M. Court in support of the Council's claim; to keep the necessary books showing his dealings with the money received by him, which, the auditors point 'out', are very different from and more intricate than ordinary commercial books. He has also to at: teHd-to any ratepayers who may come to his office for information concerning rates, and much time in this way ie occupied that must interfere with the routine performance of his ordinary work. The auditors' letter concludes with these words :—■" When we find that the Town Clerk has to attend to the whole of the borough correspondence, to attend at Council and committee meetings, enter minutes of the proceedings, keep hie books as treasurer, and also attend to the many persons who are continually in his office on borough affairs, we repeat that, in our opinion, it would be found impossible to amalgamate the two offices." It was under very little sense of responsibility, we imagine, that the Council passed the resolution amalgamating the> two offices. It was passed as an amend-, ment to a motion in favor of a reduction of salaries, with little or no consideration of the consequences. The mistaken judgment it showed, and the confusion it would have brought about, were discovered in time, aud at the Council meeting last Wednesday week it was happily rescinded by the casting vote of the Mayor.