EXTRAVAGANCE AND ECONOMY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6551, 1 December 1879, Page 2

EXTRAVAGANCE AND ECONOMY.

A favorite method of "retrenchment" among individuals is to deny themselves one thing and to indulge in auothcr. They stop their daily paper, and on the strength of it drink a bottle of wine at dinner. Our Municipal Councillors deal somewhat in the same way with Corporation funds, but the}' begin at the other end, and first perpetrate the little extravagance and then the little economy. A few weeks ago they voted a £200 honorarium to the Major, and then they reduced the wages of the Corporation laborers. We have nothing to say against a grant to Mr Vautier, provided the borough can afford it. We cau recognise to the fullest our Mayor's public spirit, and no Mayor

in the colony is better entitled to some salary to defray the expenses he froni his official position liece'ssArili' incurs. But Mr Yaiitier is not in need of the inoney — it is combat" atively nothing to him — and we cannot approve tho granting of, an honorarium or salary tp liim )V;hen tl\.c money has to be saved at tike 'expense of the Corporation laborers. The workmen icel Severely the small sum of which they llavc each been deprived. Were their work permanent and certain six shillings a day would not be bad pay for imskillcd labor, but they , are sometimes unemployed; and. at other times wet weather prevents them earning anything. That which means little to Mr Vautier would mean a good deal if distributed among the borough laborers.