MUNICIPAL REORGANISATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue LXIV, 13 September 1902, Page 4

MUNICIPAL REORGANISATION.

As announced in our' issue of yesterday, the Reorganisation Committee of the City Council presented on Thursday evening a report on tho Engineer's department. As tho l-eport was considered in committee ita contents have not yet been made known. We were able, however, to indicate a. few of the chitngeß recommended. The cpmmittee's report, when it is published, should bo read with tho Engineer's own report of the work of his department for the last three years. A summary of the latter appears in another column, and tho two documents should, together, supply tho public with detailed information concerning the merits and demerits of the department in the immediate past. The Reorganisation Committee has still the Town Clerk's department to deal with. Without going into particulars which are, as yet, only partially available, and without/ attempting to criticise the work of individual officers, we am safely say that greater ellicieno.y is undoubtedly required in both departments. Efiiciency, to be wortny of the no mo, must be combined with economy. There should bo no M'aste, no unnecosaary expenditure, and no "soft. billets" in either department. But it should be thoroughly understood, and our municipal electors have not yet fully grasped thjs principle, that economy is not necessarily synonymous with cheese- 1 paring. Cutting down salaries and decreasing Htufl'N in seldom vcally economical, while it is almost always detrimental to efficiency. In any reorganisation that may take place, the Council should make, certain that adeqtnvte and capable staffs arc provided in both tho Engineer's aud the Town Clerk's departments, and also that thu salaries paid are sufficient to ensure this. We have little doubt .that tho City Corp'bra.Uou has sutFered actual loss iv tho past, because its departments have been run on penny-wise-and-pound-foolish lines. A titep was token' in the right direction when the Council decided to appoint a, new Town Clerk at a. higher salary, and wo tnißt tha* Mr. Palmer will, as we have every reason to expect, justify the wisdom of the change. There were among us some shortsighted eoonomisto who objected to tho increase of salary, but they were, we firmly bolievo, a small minority. Until we reulise in this city and countiy the economic truths that ability muj-t ho paid for at a high rate, and that ability in management means a | large saving on all operations quite out of proportion to the additional remuneration it demands, wi» shall never make real and i lasting prpgresg. To acting upori these doc- J trinos the most progressive municipalitiou and countries owe iv a, large measuro their success.