CORRESPONDENC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7383, 18 July 1885, Page 3

CORRESPONDENC.

*• CITY COUNCIL. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, The thanks of the ratepayers are due to those gentlemen of the City Council who are endeavouring to place the financial affairs of the Council on a sound basis. I fail to see what benefit any delay will givo. We will suppose another twelvemonths have passed, and £10.000 fpore added to the >)ebt ; the Council's position for retenchment will not be improved. The councillors, as business men and trustee* to the ratepayers, are bound to regulate the expenditure of tho city by its net income.—l am, fzo., Ratepayer. WASTING THE PEOPLE'S MONEY. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I think it is more than time that the ratepayers of this city spoke out in plain words their sense of the gross mismanagement of the city funds during tho past two years. Fancy being over £30.000 in debt for merely street repairs, not taking into consideration the loan at all. In the name of goodness where is it gone ? What has our Mayor been about ? A practical, shrewd man where his own interests are concerned, why has he allowed this gross outrage to be perpetrated on the ratepayers, whom he promised and swore to protect? Surely he must have known that this money was being squandered all through, and yet he has taken no steps to prevent it. It was done in a day. And even now, when some of our energetic councillors were prepared legitimately to face the grim enemy, he votes against them. What are we to think of this? Are wo to think that the interests of a few incompetent officials are greater in his opinion than the interests of the whole city of Auckland ? I think the reverse ought to be the height of his ambition. And further, what are we to think of those milk-and-water men who allow themselves to lie under so grave a charge as this wasteful extravagance ? By their action they undoubtedly saddle themselves with the blame. Would they act thus in their own bußine»s ? When it came to the removing of fifty poor labourers, that never cost them a single pang, I suppose had it been 500 with all their families turned into Queenstreet, or Hades, no emotion would have emanated from their callous adamantine breasts. Mr. Editor, the house must be put in order, and a Warwick is wanted. Why at adopt Parliamentary tactics? When a Premier and his satellites are defeated, or cannot manage the affairs for whioh they are selected, they retire and make way for men who are capable of grappling with the difficulty. And they do it gracefully. True and patriotic men never fight for the loaves and fishes. Whenever a body of men aire seen straining every nerve for the aggrandisement of themselves and friends, the gods look down in «.nger, and a terrible retribution is sure to follow. We docile ratepayers are now waiting peacefully in the hope that our honourable Council will rise to the occasion, and prove themselves worthy of the confidence we have trustingly reposed in them.— I am, &c., Heavy Ratepayer.