THE MAYOR OF CHRISTCHURCH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10449, 1 May 1912, Page 1

THE MAYOR OF CHRISTCHURCH.

HOW HIS TIME IS OCCUPIED. DUTIES UNKNOWN TO THE PUBLIC. • Many people have an impression that the Mayor of Chnstclmrch is merely an ornamental person, who presides at fortnight!}' meetings of the City Council'. entertains the Governor and other distinguished guests, gives interviews, and sits still while he has his photograph taken ill gold chain and silk robe. Those who oome into close contact with the Mayor' know that that impression is quite incorrect. Ho is a public officer who is often hard worked and much worried, and is sometimes astonished at the conception citizens evidently form of the duties he ought to discharge. In an interview yesterday, Mr J. J. Dougall, who will retire from the office this evening, said that the Mayor's work was much more onerous than moat people believed. He was expected to be not only the chief administrative officer of the city, but also the recipient of all kinds of complaints. He had. to attend meetings without number and lie had to subscribe to the funds of every club and institution that called upon him for help. At present, the Mayor had an excellent staff of officers. That lightened his work greatly, but the efficiency of the municipal officers did not relieve him. from the necessity for making his personal influence felt upon the city's affairs. As the citizens' highest representative, he had to dispense Hospitality. He was in an unsatisfactory position in that respect, as, in order to entertain visitors adequately and with proper dignity, he could not use the Municipal Buildings, and; had to go elsewhere.. One of his most pleasant duties was to meet distinguished visitors who passed : through the city. • Hie citizens, (necessarily, wore absolutely ignorant of the enormous mass of correspondence the Mayor had to deal with. A great deal of it was merely routine, but complaints by rate-" payers Represented a considerable portion. The complaints, of course, were justified more or less. as the case might be, but each had to_be considered, and ea!ch had to be replied to. Committee work made a great demand on the time of both the Mayor and councillors. The Mayor was a member ex-officio of every committee. If he had private business to attend to, he could not look after it and also do all the committee work that fell to his lot. There was one respect in which the citizens might be more merciful to the Mayor in the future than they had been in the past. That was in asking him to preside at the meetings ;of organisations. It might not be right to say that that did not tome into the Mayor's duties, but if he was a business man the extra work it entailed, in addition to his ordinary work, left very little time for his private affaire. " I should like to say," Mr Dougall concluded, " that during my term of office I have received courtesy and kindness in all directions. I have found the Council's staff to be exceedingly capable as well, as civil and courteous. Naturally, I feel some regret at having to leave the chair just when I was beginning to appreciate in full the duties connected with it; and I think that Christchurch will be in the future even more progressive and beneficent than it has been in the past."