The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, DECEMBERS, 1885. THE GERALDINE COUNTY COUNCIL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1437, 5 December 1885, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, DECEMBERS, 1885. THE GERALDINE COUNTY COUNCIL.

At the last meeting of the Geraldine County Council, a notice of motion was wiven to the effect that the Chairman should be paid an annual sum for his services. Considering the frequency with which the Council has been threatened with abolition on account of its expensiveness, this idea is a bold one, For the last three years there has been <in undercurrent of dissatisfaction ain'ing at abolishing the Council altogether, on the ground that it is unnecessary ; that its work could be done by the Road Boardß, and that it involves extra expense to keep up two rating bodies for doing what one could do. In the face of this dissatisfaction and discontent to suggest any increase of the cost involved in administering the Counties Act looks like tempting those who aim at abolishing the County Council too far. But, when all the facts are considered, we think that to give the Chairman some remuneration for bin services is ouly just and proper. " The laborer is worthy of his hire " in matters of this kind as in anything else. In these pushing, practical, money-grabbing days, time is money, and the man who gives his time to the public ought Co- be remunerated for it. This i 3 a principle which is recog Dised by the Counties Act, and several counties have acted upon it by paying their Chairman. I'lie Ashburton Coun'y Council pays its Chairman LIOO a year —at least it used to do so fire years ago. The County Chairman of Ashburton Mr W. C. Walker— was certainly well worthy of it, and no one begrudged it to him, but we do not think he ever deserved public remunera? tion for his services so well as the present occupant of the chair of the Geraldine County Council—Mr John Talbot, We have had our differences with Mr Talbot : we have never had any occasion to look on him as a great friend of ours, and therefore any tribute we may pay to bis worth proceeds not from friendship but from a sense of justice. To do him justice, must admit that he is an extremely useful man to the district, and that if the Council deeiuVe on paying him an honorarium it will be no.T thing more than his public services justly entitle him to. There is not perhaps in New Zealand a man who devotes more of his time to public business. He is Chairman of the Temuka Road Board, Chairman of thp Geraldine County Council; member of

tlie Harbor Board, of llm EuucuUon Board, of the High Sehooi Board, of the Cliaritalde Aid Board, of the Farmers’ C'-operaiive Association’s Board of Directors; Chairman of the Temuka Linseed Company, a Justice of the Peace, and Chairman of the Waitohi School Committee. Strictly speaking, the fulfilment of so many public duties would not entitle him to be paid hy one body more than another, but in other places Chairmen of County Councils are paid for merely filling that position only, and when we see this so we see no great objection to the proposal which will be submitted to the next m«eting of the Geraldine Council. We have said that strictly speaking the fact that Mr Talbot fills so many other positions gives him no claim to being paid by the Council, but, at the same time, it must be remembered that all ids public services are rendered within the County ; that it is the class who pays the County rates that are benefited by these services, and therefore they need not complain if he receives some remuneration for them. Ho has been Chairman of the Temuka Road Board for years ; he represents Mount Peel on the Harbor Board ; in fact, there is scarely a part of the County which he does not represent somewhere, and consequently it would be only a gracious act on the part of the body which embraces all to recognise his services in a substantial manner. Even though the. fact that he occupies other positions gives him no title to consideration, still it must be admitted that they strengthen his claims greatly ; and if people look at it in this light we do not think there will be many to complain. Mr Talbot gives an extraordinary amount of time to the public—he must be nearly half Ids time from home—and there is no one more regular in his attendance at meetings. For the last four years that we have known him we do not remember that he has been absent from more than one nieeling of the Temuka Road Board. No one could attend belter to the positions he occupies than he does, and if the Council pass a resolution giving him an honorarium it will be nothing more nor less thpu what he has well earned. i ->.*«— PRICE OF WOOL. Fn our last issue we pointed out that while the ruling price of wheat in this conn try was 2s 6d to 2s 9d it was sold in Melbourne at from 4s to 4s 3d per bushel. We have now to direct attention to the price of wool. According to a telegram received last Thursday, wool realised from lid to Is per ibat Messrs Goldsborough and Co.’s sale of wool held last Wednesday in Melbourne. Now, so far as wo can ascertain, wool ranges at from 4-|-d to per lb here. The highest price obtained at the first wool sale, held about a week ago, in Christchurch was There is something in this which we cannot understand. Melbourne wool is not superior to Canterbury wool ; the difference in the-freight to England is in.-dgnificant ; and there is no reason why (here should be such disparity in the prices given at the two places. Yet the fact remains—the price of wool in Melbourne is double what it is here. This is most extraordinary. We have attributed the high price of wheat to Protection ; we have held that the development oi local industries in that colony has increased the population, and that it is able to consume all the wheat grown there. Can this bo the case with wool also ? Has Protection raised the price of wool in that colony as well as the price of grain ? It appears to us the only explanation of the mystery! There is something extraordinary in wool being double the. price that it is in this colony in a neighboring colony ; there must he something wrong, and wool-growers should at once investigate the cause of this anomalous stale of affairs,