ALL FOR £100 A YEAR.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3103, 29 April 1879, Page 2

ALL FOR £100 A YEAR.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — Anenfc the proceedings of tho noble representatives of our municipality, permit me to remark that I am somewhat doubtful of the Councillors having had their heads screwed on properly at their last meeting. I arrive at this conclusion from the decision come to by the Council in respect to the payment fo be given to the man whom, iii their infinite wisdom, they purpose to employ as a jack-of-all-work. I could not possibly enumerate the multiplicity of employment this devoted gentleman, if they can find such a man, is to represent, but it is diverting to know that he has to begin at inspecting costermonger's wheelbarrows (carriages), and ends in a graud tour of the precincts of the town, for the purpose of measuring stone to the satisfaction of the diamond crackers. For all the multifarious business required, with responsibility and the most unpalatable employment, the Council cannot award a day labourer's wages — he shall c'en have six shillings and five pence per day; not even the carter's wages ! and for this 6s. sd. a man shall be found who will serve the corporation faithfully, a skilful accountant, a safe purse bearer, admirable in tact, and most pugnacious in other matters. Sir, I am a poor man, but I don't think I shall apply, for, if I succeeded in obtaining so important an nppointmen 1 , I shonld'nt be at all particular in the measurements, I should have to be dragged to inspect a nuisance, I would fraternize with the express drivers and ride occasionally on tho cheap, nnd I might save a great deal of trouble in calling for rates by giving 1 ample time to the ratepayers to pay their rates at the Town Clerk's Office in the e-ood old way. Seriously, Me. Editor, I don't see how I could at all do the thing square for the price. With a small family of six, and neither of us strong (my good wife and myself;, and rents rising rapidly, 9| 1. per head would'nt do much, to bo sore there wouldn't be much cooking; but in the matter of appearance in dress when collecting rates ; I might be taken for a loafer ; who'd pay their rates to a seedy-looking msin, or care for remonstrances about nuisances ? I might pass with the stonebreakers, inspector of carriages— never. Perhaps one of the gentlemen Councillors would loan me a discarded white bell topper, I could decorate it with a little black crape, and perhaps, if it was just intimated to the burgesses that Ralph Thinijimy, Esq., had been appointed to tlo this, that, and the other ad infinitum, the thing might possibly be possible, and, en passant, work economically. Sir, shall I knuckle down or jack up ? please add a not- for the guidance of a man whose poverty, not will, might consent. — I atn, &c,

Odouriferocs. New Plymouth, April 25, 1879.