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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4205, 11 September 1874, Page 2

The election* for the City yesterday terminated as it was supposed they would do. The retiring Councillors in Lambton and Thorndon Wards were re-elected ; and of the two new aspirants for Te Aro Ward preference was given to tho man who had been longest a resident amongst, and was best known to, the community. Without questioning for a moment the value which might have been found attached to tho services of Mr. Moody, it it will scarcely be doubted that the ratepayers of Te Aro have made a proper choice, and that they will be perfectly and advantageously represented at the City Council. If we look to Thorndon Ward, wo may regard the result as equally satisfactory. It cannot be charged against Councillor Eurrett that he has too much to say for himself. Whatever he may have done for the advantage of the Ward, and to distinguish himself amongst the nine, it will be admitted by his most particular friends that ho is not gifted with the capability of expressing himself on any point fluently or felicitously. In giving ati account of his stewardship on Wednesday evening, rehearsing the services ho had done for the Ward, and expoundingthe views he entertained as to tho government of the future policy of tho City, lie was reticent in tho extreme. He was not without desiring that the constituency should know that in the matter of water, of sewerage, of street lights, and roads, and footpaths, he had been a pioneer ; but his services in these respects were recounted to the constituency witli so much difficulty, with so great a want of capacity to think or to explain thoughts, that on so petty an occasion the candidate would have broken down but for tho timely good help of anxious friends who were resolved that.their favorite should not have the worst of the evening in the encounter of the civic wits. The candidate who was unsuccessful, but who made a very gallant fight, did not very much more impress those who heard him. There is no doubt that, having been successful in business, and having retired from the active duties of commercial life —having plenty of time at his command, and having no desire to ask the community to recoup him in any form (anymore than his opponent did) for his services to the Corporation, it was fairly within tho legitimate range of his ambition that he should aspire to represent the Ward at the City Board. But, beyond this ambition, lot us ask Mr. Oleland, in all honesty, what greater claim had ho to tho suffrages of the ratepayers than tho representative whom ho desired to displace 1 If the plain truth must be told, we think there are few who heard them on Wednesday night who will bo disposed to say that the one was better able than the other tt> say “ bo” to a goose. Civic oratory is, perhaps, no groat thing at the best. Over the Coun-cil-table of late the eloquence of tho representatives of the City has been more exhaustive than convincing—more fiery and personal than argumentative and persuasive. It was not to bo expected, perhaps, that in a mere contest for a place at the Council-table between a retiring member and a citizen aspiring for the first time to that honor, the eloquence displayed should outshine that of the Council itself, or oxcito high and false hopes as to what might -be expected in the future. If the Council, as it exists—speaking only from an oratorical point of view—was represented by Councillor Burrett, we can only congratulate the community that in him to Mr. Oleland they escaped going from bad to worse. Mr. Cleland’s views were admirable. They were altogether unexceptionable. A* to drainage, sewerage, roads, paths, lamps, and all the other matters that render a city tolerable, and of which there is so great a want in Wellington, his views were sound, and if they were carried out vigorously tho Council would gain. But with all respect for Mr. Oleland, we do not think that the representative of Thorndon Ward should be tho mere delegate he proposed to make him. Wo do not regard it as desirable that a Councillor should go forth once a week, or even once a fortnight, to moot his constituents in the streets, cry out like Wisdom at the Street Corners, and take advice on the spot as to whether a yard or- two more or less of pavement was wanting, or whether a crossing should be established, or whether an old lamp of kerosene should be replaced by a new one of gas. This delegation business may easily be over-done. Mr. Oleland, well-meaning as he is, overdid it; and we are satisfied, therefore, that the poll should have told against him, although it is by no moans satisfactory that the Ward should be represented at tho City Board by a member w l lo _judgim; from his public appearance at the meeting of ratepayers on Wednesday night—is so ill able to explain tho motives of his action, a* not to be able to show that what he proposes is tho right thing to do.

But if we have objection to take to the apathy shown in Thorndon Ward, as to its proper representation at the City Board, what .are wo to say of Lambton Ward ? There was no contest, of course. One of the nominations was scandalous. But what are we to think of that section of the Empire City in which three citizens could be found to name, as a candidate for a seat at the Council, and nine to vote, for an illiterate buffoon, who is only great in Jack-iu-the-greeu, who can neither read nor write, and who, though probably a good man at his own hearth and homo, could only have been trotted out as a candidate for the Council to gratify some petty spite, or indulge a Tom-and-Jerry spirit of fun altogether out of place. We cannot regard it as a healthy sign that this poor joke was persevered in, and that a nomination which should never have been made was supported at the poll by nine voters, who ought to have appeared in Motley, and have been recognisable among their fellows yesterday by their cap and bells, as they individually claimed their candidate as “a poor thing, but mine own.” It is possible that the condition of the Corporation of the City has fallen to so low an estate that there may have been no occult satire in the nomination of the defeated candidate for Lambton Ward. The Mayor and some members of the Corporation have been playing such, high antics of late that on the hypothesis of the homeopathists, that like cures like, the addition of one more fool to the number would bring about a cure. But wo are unable to see the matter in this light. We can see nothing in the nomination of this defeated candidate for Lambton Ward beyond a most senseless disregard of the duties entrusted to the ratepayers ; which, if it were more commonly* felt, would be most disastrous to the welfare of the City. Wellington has happily escaped from a scandal, and wo sincerely trust that in future the electors, desirous as they no doubt are to do their duty honestly to the City, will not only refrain on future occasions from practical jokes, but will endeavor to persuade the best men in the community that, in the face of the immediate and rapidly-increasing prosperity of the capital, it is their duty to endeavor to persuade the chief amongst them and the best men only, to present themselves for election to the City Council.