The Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1904.

Evening Star, Issue 12163, 6 April 1904, Page 4

The Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1904.

It would be idle to deny that, 'speaking generally, the Drainage Drainage Board Board axe not in touch with Hatters, that vague yet appreciative sentiment termed public opinion. Apart altogether from the want of confidence in the Board and their methods, a a clearly indicated in the most recent elections, it is matter of common talk in the town, and must be webAxtown to members, that there is a <EstinctSglmg of uneasmegff abroad that no assozatezAoi theirs so fax j&RDB- been- able; to- tdk, I!aDiet«jjpestistt.^f

net Is this feeling warranted? but Does it exist? If it do exist (and the repeated declarations of the Board and their officials intensify rather than dissipate it), then, in, the interest of the community, it is eminently desirable that it should be ended. It is absurd for members to sit around the Board table week after week and declare that they are there as guardians of the ratepayers’ money, that they are doing what they believe to be their duty, and that they do not care what anonymous critics say, and go forth. We do not doubt that the majority of the Board think that they are correct in the position they take np on these points, but we submit that these are not the all-important ones before the pnblic just now. As a representative body the Board shonld be thoroughly in harmony with the bulk of the citizens, bat it would be the veriest travesty to affirm that they are. Under parliamentary forms an adverse vote would definitely settle tho question one way or the other, for, where these obtain, outside popular opinion is promptly reflected through its qualified representatives. But, constituted as the Drainage Board are, this tost cannot be applied, and the ratepayers and citizens can only vent their protests through the Press and on the platform. Judged by these standards, however, there can be no room for doubt as to what the dominating sentiment is. We ' have seen no associations formed to support the Board, no votes of confidence in them carried by municipal and other local bodies, no thoroughly representative volume of unquestioned approval of their policy. This beiim so, we emphasise our previously-expressed opinion'that arbitrary and dictatorial assertions to the effect “that tho Board will do what they tnmk best In the interests of “ the people,” or “ we are not going to be dictated to by certain gentlemen here,” axe entirely beside the question, and manifest a strange inability to appreciate tho gravity of their position. That position, rightly or wrongly, justly or unjustly—we offer no judgment at this juncture on the merits or ethics of the problem—is that the Board do not enjoy that measure of confidence which they shonld, and that their explanations and answers enhance rather than allay the prevailing mistrust. Members chatter somewhat volubly about going to the engineer, examining the plans, and getting the details from the office, etc., overlooking the fact that such advice ignores the very root cause of the popular unrest. The answers given to remarks of the Mayor cf Dunedin Last evening will sufficiently indicate what we mean. There was a complete absence of the faintest shadow of intention to admit that the Board had done or presumably could do anything that was not for the good of the community. The reasonable suggestion, in view of the widespread scepticism, that a competent authority should be appointed to say whether a complete scheme of drainage represented by plans was in existence, though eventually carried, was met by criticism such as tLe jodowing : —“There had been three engineers already, and no end of amateur “ engineers and ratepayers’ associations ; let the Board get on with their work and carry out their scheme.” "Surely it is contrary to all forms of rational controversy to quote testimony in support of a particular line of action which that testimony almost unequivocally condemns. It is because three engineers and amateur engineers and ratepayers’ associations ” have pronounced agamst what are believed to be the Board’s ideas that so much dissatisfaction exists. Even now wc would ask the Board to cry a halt, and think out some plan whereby they may gain that support and confidence that they as a pnblic body ought to possess, and without which they cannot hope to carry out their statutory functions.