The Globe. THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 370, 19 August 1875, Page 2

The Globe. THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1875.

The public meeting for discussing the Christchurch Drainage Bill, which was held last night at the Oddfellows’ Hail, cannot be termed a success. The resolution proposed by Mr W. Wilson, and seconded by Mr Andrews, was declared to be carried, but, according to his Worship the Mayor, not onethird of those present voted on the question. The proceedings were very noisy, and many of the assembled crowd seemed to regard the whole affair as an evening’s fun, and did not even pretend to take the slightest interest iu the question that was supposed to be under discussion. Each member of the City Council who addressed the audience did so under the disadvantage of continued interruptions from the partisans of Councillors opposed to his views, and those speakers who did not belong to the Council fared much the same. Public meetings in Christchurch are not as a rule very edifying spectacles. The “ lar- “ rikin” element is very noticeable, and the conduct of this portion of the audience is usually disgraceful. With regard to the meeting held yesterday, it is hard to arrive at any conclusion as to what the majority of those attending it really required. Many ol the speakers declared that they had not seen the Bill under discussion, a statement that appears almost incredible when coming from the mouths of men who have been arguing over the drainage question for months! Flat contradictions were the order o) the evening, and we must leave our readers to decide for themselves, which set of speakers they may choose to believe. As an expression of the real

opinion of the ratepayers of Cm! tchurch we consider the meeting was utterly useless. Many of the audience had left the hall before the resolution was put, and the whole number of persons that voted on the question would represent but a fractional part of the ratepayers of the city. The resolution, as carried, is to be forwarded to Sir Cracroft Wilson for presentation to the Assembly, and may therefore be the means of delaying any action in the matter of drainage for Christchurch and the suburbs. If this is the case, we presume that the object Messrs Wilson and Andrews had in view will be carried out. “ Delays are dangerous” is an old and true saying, and applies very forcibly to the case of the required drainage for this city. If we are to go on in the present style of carrying out drainage schemes, each suburb doing as it seems right, and the sapient City Council working its own sweet will, we shall suffer for it. When the hot weather comes on again, and sickness is rife in City and Suburbs, the ratepayers may perhaps awake to the fact that immediate action is requisite in the matter of drainage, and that precious time has been wasted through the tactics of a small party of obstructionists.