AFTER TEN YEARS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15922, 7 May 1912, Page 6

AFTER TEN YEARS.

Timaiwt did honour to a remarkable man last week when it entertained Mr James Craigie on his retirement from tho office of Mayor. He is not the onlyMayor who has borne the burden of municipal leadership during an unbroken period of ten years, but there are few who can claim to have worked such wonders in tho development of the communities to which their services havo been given as those that have made known tho na,m«s of Timaru and Mr Craigie throughout the dominion and even further afield. In ten years the municipal income of the " capital " of South Canterbury has increased from £II,OOO to £29,000 and tho capital value of the. borough from £600,000 to £2,500,000. These are startling figures, but they are typical of Timaru's recent history. Abattoirs, underground drainage, the completion of a water system that has a storage capacity equal to four mouths' supply and other notable undertakings that exercise a direct influence upon the health and comfort of the citizens are among the fruits of ten years' .progress, and to-day the borough is a model for the rest of the dominion. No single man, of course, could have worked this wonderful revolution with his own unaided hands. Timaru has gono forward because all its, own people and their neighbours have put their shoulders to the wheel. They have displayed remarkable resourcefulness and signal optimism, and it has been their good fortune to secure as their leader a man whose zeal and capacity havo fitted him admirably for the task. Happily, Mr Craigio will continue to sorvo his own beloved town and the whole country in public life, and if the pressure of his political duties during the next ten years leaves him little time to extol ttie charms of Caroline Bay ho will. bo able to content himself" with tho knowledge that his fellow-citizens in the southern town will not stray from the path of progress into which he has directed their stops.