THE TOWN' CLERK'S SALARY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13927, 12 June 1907, Page 4

THE TOWN' CLERK'S SALARY.

The ratepayers will havo boon struck by one peculiarity in connection with the division in the City Council on Monday night on tho proposal to increase the Town Clerk's salary to £1000. Tho new councillors, with ono exception, to whose action somo of his constituents will probably bo disposed to apply harsh tonus, all voted against the proposal. Tho majority consisted entirely ofj members of tho Council nt the time of tho appointment of the Town Clerk, with the addition of tho one new councillor to whom wo have referred. Tho minority included 0110 of tho okl councillors bolides seven councillors who were not members of the Council of 1905-7. There were two absentee. l ;—one of them on leave in Australia; the other whoso presence at a sitting of an ecclesiastical court on Monday night in preference, to the performance of his public duties, coupled with his departure from the meeting of the City Council on the previous Wednesday ni«lit. when the report of the Finance Committee came, on for di.?eiissioii, suggested a, disinclination to record a vote that might have turned the scale in favour of the minority. It will bo seen, however, that the proposal was virtually carried by the votes of the old councillors against those of the new. While wo have no doubt that the minority expressed the views of the bulk of tho ratepayers', the fact that nearly all of the councillors who havo sat at tho Corporation table for the whole time during whjch'tlie Town Clerk has hckl his office supported the proposal for an increase of his salary is, wo confess, not a little impre.i?ive. It implies at least that thoy have formed a very high opinion of the value of the services the Town Clerk has already performed and of his capacity for the performance of such other services as may be required of him iri the position of Acting City Engineer. But this only emphasises the justice of the protest which was entered by one of the new councillors against the adoption of a. course that involved the present Council, in tho first few weeks of its existence, in tho necessity for dealing with this matter. For if the electors in their wisdom had seen fit to return another one or two new councillors it k almost absolutely certain that a proposal which was supported by the majority on the ground that it was in the best interests of the city would have been lost. We are not convinced by the arguments that wero employed by the majority that it is really in the interests of the community to maintain a. system under which the offices of Town Clerk and City Engineer are combined in the hands of one person. Moreover, our view is plainly confirmed by the reservation the. Town Clerk made in the letter addressed hy him to the Council on Monday, in which he excepted the engineering work in connection with the waterworks extension scheme from that to he undertaken by him. Nor is there any likelihood that any work." of magnitude will be entered upon hy the Corporation in the very near future. But, when' we have said this, which' seems to us to constitute a valid objection to the proposal that was adopted on Monday night, we frankly and unreservedly accept the decision of the Council since it is the result of the votes of the members, who are most fully competent to appraise the Town Clerk's services.