THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY MARCH 20, 1907. A LAWLESS CITY COUNCIL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13856, 20 March 1907, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY MARCH 20, 1907. A LAWLESS CITY COUNCIL.

The majority of the members of the City Council at Hie special meeting of that body, held yesterday, wo in defiant and obstinate mood. In their determination not to stultify themselves, as one, of their number expressed it, they wilfully ignored their duty to the citizens who elected them and with tlio utmost sing froid-treated as of no moment the obligation? imposed on them by the- Order-in-Council under which the electric tramway service of the city and suburbs is conducted. To them it was a matter of supremo indiffcrpneo that the- city solicitors advised them that, if they suspended the- tramway traffic on Good Friday, they would be acting illegally. "A fig for the law!" they said in. effect; — "no one would have the hardihood to tako them to the Supreme Court!" Hardihood! It is on the part of the City Council that the hardihood has been displayed. Its obligations to the Crown a. ml to the public are clearly sofc forth in the Ordcr-in-Council. Its obligations to the North-TCast Valley Borough Council and to the St. Kilda Borough Council are expressed with equal clearness in the contracts it has entered into with those bodies. These it would set aside with absolute recklessness and without the smallest regard to the rights of others. But there is a limit to the public endurance of effrontery such as this. And, despite the smug conviction of the majority of tlio Council that no ono would care to take the necessary steps to enforce compliance by the Corporation with its legal ■ obligations, we have no doubt whatever that some citizen, actuated by ii sense of duty, would, if necessary, have moved the Supreme Court in the matter. We may. go so far as to say that it would have, been incumbent on some public-spirited ratepayer or body of ratepayers to tako action. Fortunately, however, a determination formed by the Mayor since the meeting of tho Council has relieved any of the citizens from the duty of forcing a recalcitrant Corporation to obey the law. The Mayor has -decided that it is his duty to preserve the Council from the commission of-nn.illegality, and he lias consequently assumed the responsibility of directing that the trams shall be run in the ordinary course on Good Friday. For the action ho lias thus taken his Worship is entitled to the thanks of the community. It will not be relished by the majority of the members of the Council, but it will certainly meet with the approval of the bulk of the citizens.