The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1911.

Evening Star, Issue 14638, 7 August 1911, Page 4

The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1911.

JJjjRDJG the last few days unpleasant rumors have been current A Painful in the City, pointing to Incident. th» imminent exposure of - an. act of ifrave impropriety on the part of an individual some what prominently associated with the municipal government and publie life of J>mwdin. . The matter has been i suddenly clinched by the pnhlkai turn «t a fraalc admiision of gui't \ iff the person implicated. He owns that fitt May, 1910, as a member of a public Osdly, he did an u improper" act—to wit, ■. acceptanco of a sirit of cloth« s■s!& : a «*t o f £Q *» tiu » . x &- ■-"iiiraurd of « voti or a complaisant attitude

—arid, after expressing deep regret, he announces his intention of resigning all his ■public offices. This, no doubt, as he says, is the beet reparation he can make ; and iu tho circumstances we shall refrain from accentuating the personal seriousness of the offence. Permanent withdrawal from municipal and public life, with the relinquishment of natural arnoitions. is no light punishment; and though sympathy would ha out of place we can recognise that in this case, as in so many others, the way of transgression is salutarily hard. Putting aside personal considerations, however, wo must express an earnest hope that the. publicity rightly and necessarily given to this deplorable incident will serve as a warning to other citizens whose, appreciation of the essentia' principles of civic government may be of an imperfect nature. Whether the utterly indefensible action which has just been exposed is entirely singular, as regards the history of Dunedin local bodies during recent years, we cannot say ; we only know that there have been some other rumors, though sensational developments have not eventuated. Independent honor and integrity are the soul of good government, and it is of the most vital importance to the civic welfare and to the national life that no footing should be found in our representative institutions for tha shady practices which have made a world's scandal of municipalism and local government in the United States.