Wellington Independent. "NOTHING EXTENUATE; NOR SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1870.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXV, Issue 3042, 6 September 1870, Page 2

Wellington Independent. "NOTHING EXTENUATE; NOR SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1870.

The present election of Commissioners is attended with more interest and significance than usually attaches to civic affairs in Wellington. The gentlemen elected will be chosen to a twofold function, viz., to assist in the administration of the Town Board, and to act, with the other Commissioners, as electors of a future Mayor. It would seem therefore, but fair that those Commissioners, whom the electors chose only to discharge the former trust, should resign, and give the electors an opportunity of choosing theiv Mayor indirectly through the Councillors as an electoral college. This electoral body would then be symmetrical in its composition, and the constituencies of the various wards would enjoy a representation true and in common. The question naturally arises, which is the best mode of electing the chief magistrate. In Melbourne the ratepayers choose their Mayor from the Council. In Dunedin the ratepayers choose anyone, either in or out of the Council. Looking at all the circumstances, we prefer the latter mode. A council of nine is not above the influence of what the hon member for "Wairarapa called the other day the very principle of representative government — log-rolling. And, by thel37th section, theMayor might be electedby no morethan five. One Mayor may therefore be elected after another for no other reason than a private understanding among the Councillors. Again, a ratepayer living in a particular ward that had received some injustice, might be selected as knowing best where the shoe pinched, or as possessed of practical engineering skill, which would make his services of special value to his constituents ; who might in short make an excellent Councillor, but who would never make a good Mayor. The choice being virtually confined to the Council, for they are not likely to choose an outsider, a little log-rolling, or something even more objectionable, might raise him to the Mayoralty. Thus the electors of one ward might send a man into the Council whom the electors of all the wards voting together would never choose, yet by this vicious principle, that man may become chief magistrate. This term, by the way, suggests another consideration. The Council may be conceived at any time to be composed of men, good enough in every other respect, but not one of whom could preside on the Bench. If municipal institutions are to be a reality and not a sham, we must have a Mayor's court established, and offences against the municipal law

punished by the elected head of themunicipality, the fines and fees going into the city and not the Colonial Treasury. Worthily to fill that office should be an object of ambition to the best of our citizens, • whether in or out of the Council. " As the first citizen, the Mayor takes precedence on all public occasions, receives distinguished strangers, presides at all public meetings, and is the accredited exponent of the wishes of his fellow citizens. In the election of such an official, surely the people should be as fully consulted as possible. And wo should never rest contented until the law is so changed as to admit of the Mayor being elected by the people. Meanwhile, it seems monstrous that the Commissioners whom the ratepayers elected for one purpose, and with very limited powers, should act in a capacity for which they were never chosen, and assume .powers which their constituents, in electing them, never contemplated. If we turn to the 203 rd section of the act, we find that the Council have the power to levy a general rate, not exceeding a shilling in the pound, tvithout consulting the ratepayers at all on the subject. Moreover, by the 204 th section, the Council can levy a separate rate on any particular portion of the borough, of sixpence in the pound even if two-thirds of the ratepayers in that locality ohject to it. Nor is this all. By the 242 nd section, read along with the 248 th section, the Council can levy a further ra,te of sixpence in the pound for securing the payment of the principal and interest of any loan, and this rate (called a special rate) "shall without any further proceeding by the Council or otherwise be and continue to be an annual recurring rate" (see 243). The gentlemen whom the ratepayers elected as Commissioners, with the limited power of levying a rate of one penny in the pound, will thus be enabled as Councillors, to levy a rate of two shillings. It would have been, therefore, a most reasonable as well as graceful act on their part, if they had resigned their seats, and allowed the ratepayers an opportunity of discussing tho all important question of the rates. Meetings would then have been held in the various wards, and candidates would have been returned pledged to certain rates, general, separate and special. It is not too late yet to do this, and we call upon them by all that is fair and honorable,to resign the position which a very blundering act has conferred upon them, and submit the rates to the arbitrament of the poll. Such a course would be more in harmony with the spirit of representative institutions, and would better secure for the new council the support and confidence of the great body of the people. But, whether they resign or not, we hope that the number of votes recorded to-day will show that the public are fully alive to the importance of the occasion. On the character and constitution of the council much will depend. They will have many difficult problems to work out. They will havo to come at once to a clear understanding as to what they are to do, and how they are to do it. In their hands rests the future of the city It is for them to say whether it shall continue to enjoy the bad pre-eminence of being of all the provincial capitals the worst-drained, the worst-lighted, the worsfccleaned, and the worst-governed. We hope the excitement of to-day is the precursor of a more healthy public spirit in the city. We hope the ratepayers are now fairly aroused to a sense of their duty. We welcome the turmoil of city elections, with alltheir concomitant "sound and fury," as infinitely more pregnant with promise of good than the deadly calm of apathy and indifference. Had the inhabitants of the city understood their true interests and discharged the duties devolving on them as citizens, the city of Wellington, from its natural advantages, had not only been the seat of government but the San Francisco of the Australasian colonies. For want of dock accommodation sho has for the present lost all the extraneous advantages of being the best harbor in tho colony, and for want of municipal and other institutions, she has failed to realize all tho advantages of her central position. Let us hope that a brighter day has now dawned. Let us take the excitement of to-day as an auspicious omen. But wo cannot hope for public spirit in the future if we fail to support those who have most exemplified it in the past. As citizens good and true, Jet the electors to-day sink all mere persoual predilections and support those progressive and energetic men who claim their suff rages on the ground of past services and proved aptitude for public business. Let them return them too by euch significant majorities as will give future aspirants to public honors the ! assurance that public and not private considerations sway the ratepayers at our muni-cipal elections. The public spirit 'eroked to-day we would not willingly let die, and wo think it could not be more usefully exercised than in attempting to get our Municipal Corporatio)i Acts so 1 modified as to admit of the Mayor being chosen not for but by the people.