THE DESTRUCTOR QUESTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12560, 23 July 1901, Page 4

THE DESTRUCTOR QUESTION.

The City Council last night took the right course in -deciding to reconsider the plans and proposals until regard to the erection of the destructor. There is no occasion for ill-feeling or personal attacks in the matter, and we are surprised that Councillor, Macdonald’s action in stating the position in the Press should have been condemned as unwarranted -and disloyal. The question is surely of interest to the ratepayers and the community generally, and when Mr Macdonald felt that the Council had acted unwisely he was more than justified in laying his case before his constituents. Indeed, we do not seo what otner course was open to him. Several of his colleagues, we understand, did not realise the importance of the points raised, and had the opinion of the ratepayers not been, invited, the Council would have committed itself to an expensive and possibly unworkable system without due consideration. Mr Macdonald has at least the satisfaction of knowing that his. letter to the Press has caused the Council to reconsider the position, and we may hope that his objections to the English plans will be thoroughly examined on their merits. Councillors generally, it seems to us, make the mistake of taking the public into their confidence cn important questions too seldom. They would surely face the business of the city with greater confidence and security if they were backed by the opinion of their constituents. They do not, like members of Parliament, deliver public addresses and explain their policies, and yet they owe the same duty to the public as do Parliamentary representatives. The columns of the newspapers, which are always open to them, afford them' a ready opportunity of reaching the whole community, and if the course adopted by Councillor Macdonald was followed more frequently by his colleagues, we should have less reason to complain of the apathy of the city with regard to municipal politics.