The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-11-14 00:00:00

THE LATE MAYOR
To t 144 Editor.

Bei—ln graceful compliance with custom, Mr.
d on Tuesday tut returned thanks to the
(Me of the magistrates, the other Court officers, and
the police, and, doing so, stated in effect that he did
not intend regularly to diacbs•ge the duties of magis-
trate during the next year, but that he did not think
himself justified in practising as solicitor before the
Borough Bench. His farewell recalls our thoughts to
the services which have been rendered to the borough
by Mr. Welsford for two years past, for though the
honou: of being chief magistrate is great, there are
many things which help to make that honour dearly
paid for. it is needless to remark that two years' loss
of practice before the magistrates in his own town--(in
Mr. Welafonl's case extended to three years) is not to
be made light of in the profession to which Mr.
Welsford belongs, and it is a sacrifice which we shall
find few of our local politicians willing to equal. But
there are other sacrifices which the outgoing Mayor
has had to make in the very act of rendering the
greatest service to the town. A strong fashion for
sanitary measures, which became a rage, and almost a
mania, with some of us, and which extended to almost
the highest authorities in the land, has prevailed, and
Mr. Disraeli's "Saainia aaninstem, cratasa annum,"
was echoed by every thoughtful man. From those
who wept at the bitter bereavement which took from
us Albert the Good, to us who were nervously anxious
that our watering places should have the very best
arrangements possible,. all were ready to lay out skill,
and time and moLey in the blessed pursuit of health
and health-givingness. The brilliant mayoralty of
Mr. Robertson was greatly devoted to this end,
although the visit of the Prima of Wales helped to
add a lustre to that. The majority of the Local Board
pinned their faith to Sir John Conde, for what could
men with other professions and trades know about
engineering? P. 25,000 was soon nearly run through,
when it became evident that to do all the engineer
expected would require far more than even that
gentlemen used to a Government purse, estimated,and we had to retrench. Mr. J. K Robens
inaned to direct the attention of those high
uence to the fact that the money was being
drained away at an awful rate, and he
propounded the moderation scheme which has
since then proved so successful in averting a ruinous
outlay from our funds. Gradually has dawned upon
the public mind the idea—shocking heresy to a certain
professiont—hat sanitary measures are not necessarily the
exclusive province of the engineer ; gradually we have
perceived that his mechanical way of dealing with the
matter does not always rem 0.. c the physiological diffi-
culties, and gradually we have learnt that the wonder-
ful powers of dilution provided by Nature in air, and
water, not to say in earth, often remove dangers which
the engineer only intensifies. (inc after another has
started up with their panacea for the evils of close resi-
dence, and plan after plan has been exploded, till at
the present time, ,uttliter, scion., is waiting for
something to turn up." let the Government Board
seem unable to do aught else but expect Local Boards
.to tarry out at enormous cost, just the latest fashion
in the engineering world. Farms being proved to be
of very partial success, and our district to be unfitted
for them, some clarification or precipitation scheme is
to be adopted, and to that end a further great outlay
lobeis made. But the Government Board itself is

weakened by the country's want of faith—may we say
the Government Board'e own want of faith ?—in the
efficiency of any scheme. Was the time then, a fit one
to embark the diminished credit of Weymouth in an
experimental scheme that we might be made an
"awful w " for other toying to avoid our
example? Mr. elsford, as Mayor, and the majority,
we may almost say the whole of the Council, have felt
that their "strength was to sit still," and although
they proposed the scheme of the weirs in the dam, it
was only with a view to delay the larger and more
ruinous plan. To destroy being far easier than to
build up, Mr Harrison's arithmetic conclusively proved
that the plan of the weir would be an utter failure,
and again the Local Board were thrown on the great
*theme which it was known would be so wetly. But
up to the present time, the matter had been success-
fully delayed, and what Colonel Hope considered a sin
of the Local Boards—" trying to do nothing," has
proved the policy of wisdom and safety. In carrying
out this policy, Mr. Weleford has over and over again
succeeded, in spite of the restlessness of some of us
who would be doing, and when he retires from office,
Mr. Welsford may take the credit greatly to himself
that a crushing debt and a doubtful scheme are not
hanging over the town. Mr. Welsford has helped to
keep at bay this first great public enemy.
Then there is the smaller but more imminent danger
of loos and injustice to the town from that monument
of mismanagement, the Park. It is needless as it
would be wearisome to repeat the oft-told tale how the
Park people had their roads made, how they allowed
them to get out of repair, and how, without their com-
pliance with legal, and we may add equitable con-
ditions, there is a danger of the immense burden of the
repair coming upon the town. So energetic was Mr.
Walker in local politics that even some of our most
clear-sighted councillors saw fit, shortly before the let
of November, to lend some countenance to the efforts
of Mr. Walker and the Park people. There was
danger that that most delusive proposal, to repair the
Park roads temporarily with clinkers, should bring the
responsibility on the Local Board of accepting these
roads. Mr. IVeleford, backed by the Town Clerk, was
the means of showing him this would have taken in the
Local Board, and Mr. Walker and the Park occupiers
were glad to have the owners, instead of the Local
Board, called on to repair. Another public enemy was
for the time beaten back , and Mr. Weleford leaves the
responsibilty of the Local Board as little increased as
he could.
But in adopting, and steadily carrying out this
Fabian policy, Mr. Welsford has had to submit to
another sacrifice, probably little appreciated. He has
not increased his poptdarity as much as a more showy
course f action might have done. Having therefore,
not gained so much popularity as he might, he has had
to undergo a sacrifice of what is honourably dear to
every public man's heart.
Then he hae had occasionally to suffer, when bitter
word.; have lowered the reputation of the Council,
when bickerings were sometimes so well-known that
the Press grew tired of suppressing the quarrels,
which Mr. Welsford was unable to prevent. Doubt-
less the thought of these influenced him when he
declared that "nothing should induce him to accept
the office again."
Over the luestion of the weirs he had the discomfort
of seem-' his own desire for economy out-bid and •
rivalled by the success of those who opposed the out-
lay m the weirs. But he has the sattsfact that
even this defeat advanced a desirable end, the saving
of expense.
And we believe that the value of Mr. Welnford's
Mayoralty is in their hearts cheerfully recognised even
by those of us who are tempted to see very little good
in a Conservative. For the time a really Conserva-
tive and preservative Mayor was required, and the
need was supplied in Mr. Welsford, to whom the
hearty gratitude of the town is one. He had his
fault..; but they were not those of slothfulness., or of
reticency, or of pride. In a time when the country
generally had been sadly depressed, and trade very
stagnant, Weymouth hen been kept from the
temptation of having immense capital outlays, and
this had been greatly owing to the industry, the
explanations, and the patience of Mr. \Veinier&
While hoping that his successor may be able by
precept and example, better to restrain the long
talkers at the Council-table, we venture only to hope,
in other matters, especially those of keeping the public
enemies in cheek, that his toed fortune may be equal
to that of the late Mayor.
Yours truly,
Discus.
Weymouth, November 6th, 1676.

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FALL INTO THE BASEBILD Hol.B.—JObll Flew, of South
well, a few days ago, while working in a quarry, (.11 16 ft.
into the lambed hole, severely cutting his head and
shoulders.
FOOT CRUSHED.—On Friday John Carter, qmploved by
Mr.Hodder to deliver goods for the railwaY coniPeni,
wits in Fortune's Well, and placed • cask of apples on a
wall near the Prince of Wales. A large 100•,e stone fell
out of the wall, and crushed four of his toca The stone
weighed about a cwt. Carter WAS the eon of John Carter,
max, who broke his leg not look ago.
Mo.'s Axcus Itamum.-11r. J. Cox, the driver of Mr.
Hancock" bus " The Prince,' on Thuniday wa. in the
Grove read, when ineunting the vehicle, hia foot caught
in the break rail, causing him to stumble ; to prevent
himself falling between the honied, ha jumped to the
ground, but pitclwid badly, and broke two bones of his
sack. Dr. XcLean set the limb, and the poor man is
programing favourably.