BOROUGH AFFAIRS.

Northern Advocate, 5 December 1910, Page 4

BOROUGH AFFAIRS.

THE Borough Council meets again this evening, and it is to be urgently

I hoped our civic grandfathers will do some work. This is :he month of December, and the amount of work done by the municipal governing body since January last is practically nil. The apathy and lassitude of the Council is tiresome. For the past six months they have been merely carrying on a game of "make-believe," keep-

ing up appearances like the insolvent grocer who fills his window with empty biscuit tins. When Mr Steadman was elected mayor he was going to do great things. He saw what the town needed, but he ha& apparently got so accustomed to the old condition of things that he is getting into that groove of "don't lare" like the rest He is a busy man; but if he is too busy to do the work he undertook to do he should hand the job over tc someone else. If he won't make a

move on his own account, some of the

councillors should give him a forceful push forward. The ratepayers are wanting to know what has become of the year's rates, and what is to be done during the fine weather. The

drainage contract is approaching completion, and it is apparent the roads cannot/stand another winter, to be in a worse condition than they were last July and August. If the Mayor is too busy defending a man for damaging a sofa or a wheelbarrow cr some such trivial price of property, he should stick to that part of his work and not keep the town back. If he wants to be mayor he should do something to warrant the appointment and to earn the confidence the ratepayers had in hint. Time goes on and nothing is done. The Christmas holidays are almost here, and another meeting of the Council is not due till January. It will then be only a few months from the Borough elections, and a big blank in between. Mr Steadman has, perhaps, been unfortunate in the illness of the town clerk at the very time he talked about doing some municipal work. Still, unfortunate as that has been, it need not have stopped all progress. So far our mayor has done nothing but talk, and the councillors, we are sorry to say, have encouraged him. There are two or three urgent

jobs awaiting his attention. The gazetting of the abattoir site is ""he first, and then he can get to wonc to give the residents some value fo'. the rates that have been paid.