OPEN COLUMN.

Inangahua Times, Volume XI, Issue 1661, 3 February 1886, Page 2

OPEN COLUMN.

Our fotumn* are open to the di*ru**u>* cf all matter* of ptthlir intere*t, but we ere in uo wry idmtiflei with the ttiewe if our eurreapondenft. (To THE EdITO* INA9OABUA TIMIS.) Sir.— Tli« principle affirmed by the Council at its last sitting of sobmittinir to pnHie competition the several eoituty otfi^js i« one that command* itnelf io t>M fsivitnthle eonsideratittn n( the public. It is true that a majority of councillors urastuit dij n»A expiVw tlieuidelvtm in I fan«nH!?e to that effect, hut i\wv r»c!t r inipliud from the pos'tton they assumed in the ap|Miiutinont of rate <^i||ector, th it such is their nndoobted with. The office of rate otiootor is by fur the m<«t r-* ponsible and important under the county government In ye*r* unst it has benn tilled by an appointee at a sniaiy ! of t'l6o por annum. Ash >rl tim • »n-> it win det^rniined. owiiitf n wt like'y to tlie financinl deproaion of th« county, to invite tenders for thec>llectnr*hi|»ann theMovertil min»»r offices therewith mentioned. It proved a happy and fruitful resolve. No less than nine ten lers Were received, and strange to aav the very uer»m wh • ha* held the po*itio't tinmoleated for a nnmher of years now come* forward, either from a feeling of Kymitathy with the ratepayers in their depression, or fr«>ro a knowledge of the ac*n»l valn« i»f the work required, with an off rof i'Bo per annum, exactly one ha'f the mini he had been previomly receiving. The re« unit was astounding and will (lonbtlest nerve a* an incentive for the council to vitforoiwly pnr«UH the policy it!m«f>»mulated and from which it cannot with pr>»pri«*ty n«»w recede. So much then for public competition, no innch for difwlomiitc the real value of the wurk required to he dorm, and so much for Rowing the amount •»f "unearned increment" enj yed for years by the favored one of i jjHiiMnitn. but tneotißMerattt conticil. The ofltanf comity engineer and c>unty cl<*rk *h->nld | be Mubjftcted i<> the name treatment a* the I rate coUectonihip ha« be mi. an<! ttim »»o*>Ho will expect that the expenditure of those departments Will immediately be reduced. The exitp'iioies of the turn* rteinaii'l the *trict««t economy c<»mbuied with oflH'jijcv. Why nhouH w«« imv M»WilHnm Noontn €6 per week, when the i services of one eqimlly as efiuient intn >h> | procured for C 4 per w^k, «>r why fthouM we irive Mr Edwar-i B. f?-infen CB'»d4 per we*»k whmi we can ppkjuth theser> vichr <>f on*> that will tM>rf<>nn the same dntieK for L 6 p i r w«ek or l«w, i* i* wmply bpcaniie •• he wa j >!ly <»ofi<l fellow " f In these two department* a^one there can be a savinjf of two kuatfrftf pound* nffected by an appeal to public competition, the sarintf in worth the experiment. The efforts of eft*r* Craisr, Duncan, 'iV»»eh an'l AfGi'tley nre most oraispworthv. and their names will be ever eh«rmhed by the ' m^tefni ratepayers of the Tnangahna. May they immp^r in the jj««od work that i they had initiated. | I am Ac, Boax.