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THE SAME THING.

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THE SAME THING. THERE has been trouble at Criccieth owing to a special meeting of the Council not being held as decided upon without the Council itself being con- sulted. The same sort of thing from time to time happens in almost every place in the district. We are not going to say who was wrong at Cric- cieth, but we think it is quite clear that the DEPUTY CLERK was not to blame) except, perhaps, for not definitely and determinedly refusing to have anything whatever to do with postponing a special meeting which it had been agreed should be held when counsel's opinion on a certain matter was re- ceived. We have no doubt that the DEPUTY CLERK only did what has been frequently done before, and for him not to have acted on the suggestions made by members of the Committee would have laid him open to questions more serious, perhaps, than those which gave rise to much heat at the last meeting of the Council. What we have over and over again protested against in these columns in reference to public bodies is that far too much of their business is irregu- larly carried on 1n the streets and in other places where the business should not be carried on at all. At Aber- ystwyth, for instance, if certain mem- bers of the Council do not like some- thing that is agreed upon, it is never carried out. There is a good case in point now before the town in refer- ence to breaches of byelaws. If the same members want something done which the Council does not agree to, then the matter is brought up again and again until the wire-pullers achieve their object. It is true that if the special meeting of the Criccieth Council had been held as arranged nothing could have been done that was not possible at the forthcoming ordinary meeting, but that is not the point. The point is whether anybody, no matter who, should have the power to render a resolution of the Council inoperative. We say that no person should have that power. We contend that if a local governing body decides to hold a special meeting to consider whether or not twice two are four the individual members of the Council, backed up by the greatest arithmetician in the wrorld, have no right to interfere with the holding of that special council meeting. We know the cock-a-hoop, God Almighty person, who thinks that his judgment is everything. He is to be found everywhere. Our experience of him is prolonged, painful, and ,aggravating The whole question can be put in a sentence. When the Criccieth Town Council resolved to hold a special meeting as soon as counsel's opinion on a certain question had been obtained, no person or number of persons, official or otherwise, had any right whatever to prevent that meeting from being held. Let us suppose that the result of not holding that special meeting, which it had been decided by the Council should be held, had resulted in the loss of ^100,000 to Criccieth, would the good intentions of the inter- ferers, whoever they were,, have justified their action? Certainly not. r Well, the interference of the busybodies was equally unwarranted and unjusti- fiable, although the town does not lose sixpence and may even have been saved a few pence through an unneces- sary meeting not being held. That which is wrong, and it is verv wrong, not only at Criccieth, but all over the district, is the presumption of certain individuals-thev are well known in their respective districts that they can go behind the back of the local governing body and make arrangements on their own responsi- bility for what they deem to be the igood of the whole community. We do not want these providential per- sons. Nobody wants them. Thevare a curse to public life. Their meddling interference strikes at the root of municipal prosperity. We could easi.lv give scores of instances of their bale- ful influence, quite apart from Cric- cieth. These are known as the They," the "Old Gang\" the Following." We oppose them from first to last, even when their interference is beneficial, as it some- times may be. Our contention is that the representatives of the ratepavers should rule and that their decisions, whether wise or foolish, should be acted upon, and that nobody, under any pretext whatever, should do what was done at Cricciethj whoever it was that did it. A public body like the Criccieth Council is something more than a number of individual ratepayers, and i,t would utterly destroy the administrative efficiency of the body if individuals, however well-intentioned, could prevent meetings being held as this special meeting in question was prevented from being held. We are not going into the he "said" and" Ishe said of this question. The Council resolved that a special meeting should be held when counsel's opinion had been received in reference to a certain question. The counsel's opinion was received and the special meeting of the Council was not held because somebody had intervened who, we contend, had no right what- ever to intervene. Even if all the members of the Council had met in the streets, or elsewhere, and had unani- mously agreed that it was not neces- sary to hold the special meeting, still the special meeting should have been held. There is no safety for the people of Criccieth if the sort of thing that was protested against at the last meeting is to prevail. Suppose that only a paltry thousand pounds had been lost by not holding the special meeting, would the individuals who prevented the special meeting being held pay the thousand pounds? Wc presume not. The only security for Criccieth, and for other places all over this district,, is for the law to be care- fully observed. We know the fussy individual who thinks that he is in some sort of way the embodiment of communal sagacity and wisdom. He is a very dangerous person and is a drag on the wheels of municipal pro- gress. Our contention, and we are upheld in it by the highest authorities, is that the bodies entrusted with the administration of local affairs should not be interfered with on any ground whatever. We have no case to put for or against this side or that in reference to the course pursued by the DEPUTY CLERK. We feel sure that he did what he thought the individual members of the Council thought should be done in the interests of the town. The question is one of principle. It ought not to be possible for anybody to prevent a special meeting of the Council being held when the Council itself has re- solved that a special meeting shall be held. Whether the meeting is wise or unwise, necessary or unnecessary, has nothing on earth to do with any indiv- idual, whether an official or a repre- sentative of the ratepayers. There can be no shadow of security for the ratepayers, either at Criccieth or else- where, if the consequential sharp s'lly person can go into the street and pre- vent the decisions of the Council from being carried out. What we have to do with is the principle and not the individual case.

THE APPROACHING GENERAL ELECTION.

EDITORIAL NOTES.

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