The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-02-17 00:00:00

WIRING FOR TIIE TELBGRA M.

People grumble about the heavy district rate which
they have to pay, and which is levied by
the Town Council sitting as the Local Board
for the district. No doubt it is somewhat galling,
especially to the poor man, to be obliged
to pay the SUMS which are periodically demanded
by the collector, but then, unfortunately there
is no help for it. The representatives f the
people, entrusted by the people themselves with their
interests in the Lo.xxl Parliament, having decided to
drain the town at a heavy expense, and having further
decided to discharge the sewage into the sea, have
necessarily incurred an enormous debt, which must
sooner or later be paid off; and Although it has been
arrangeel to liquidate it by the repayment of the loan
within a period extending over 30 years, still the very
fact of a system of drainage having been introduced,
has caused so many expenses to be incurred that no
one knows when it will be possible to discharge them

High as the present district rate is, the inhabitants
need not be sanguine that it has reached its highest
pitch, for with augmented expenses an round, the
next rate will probably be to the tune of 2s. 6d. in the
E, because it is the opinion of competent judges, within
and out of the Council, that the last two rates have
been quite inadequate to meet the expenditure which
has been incurred during the periods respectively
represented by them. The good folk began to con-
gratulate themselves when they found the bet rate
was only Is. rid. as against the previous one of 25., and
Out being fully initiated in municipal mysteries, it
was very natural, perhaps, that they should be a bit
hopeful--but let them wait until the next rate is made
and then tell me how far my notions on this subject
are wide of the mark.

I know that it is one of the privileges of an Eng-
lishman to "pay and grumble," —if he can't look
pleasant at the mane time, so much the worse tor his
peace of mind. Of course, the rates being legal, if
people don't pay them freely, they will be, and
frequently are, compelled to do so, if they are
occupiers; but what seems to me the most absurd tart
of the affair is, that they should be so inexpressibly
ignorant and stupid as to bully the collector because
he calls for the money. They cannot consider for a
moment, or they would surely never adopt such an
insulting and senseless course of action. A man more
widely known or more repected than Mr. J. Matthews
it would probably be hard to find in the town or its
vicinity, and yet, because, forsooth, he happens to be
the collector of rates for the Local Board, he is daily
subjected to the most annoying and insulting treat-
ment. As a paid officer of the Board (and very
badly paid too by the bye), he is bound to collect the
respective rates as they are made, and has no more to
do with the making of them, or of the disposal of the
, money after 'tie collected than I have; and yet people
rate him soundly with moat unbecoming language, as
if he were next door to a criinival.

All this is too bad. No doubt it is very annoying to
have to pay considerable sums of money for which one
can see no adequate return, and frequently no return
at all, either to oneself or the public at large—but then
If these people must give vent to their feelings, let them
do it to those who are the authors of these heavy
burdens—those whom they have sent to represent them
in the Council, and not to the olilcers of the Board,
who are as powerless to defend themselves against such
thoughtless attacks, as they are perplexed to gather in
the rate when 'tis wanted.

Now each Committee of the Local Board has a I
separate chairman, it is to be hoped —and in fact
expected—that the municipal business will be more
regularly conducted. In times gone by, and not very
far remote, am many of the older members know well
enough, frequent and grievous have been the com-
plainte, and 'unions has been the delay by reason of too
much of the committee work havinic been thrown on
the shoulders of the Mayor for the time being. A man
had need have a mind like an encyclopedia, and a brain
like an intricate machine, to be able to keep pace
effectually with the multifarious demands which are
continually being made upon his time and attention as
the occupant of the civic chair; to say nothing of his
private murtirementa. as,' 'tie therefore
essential that there should be committees with efficient
chairmen, to whom may be entrusted the temporary
oversight at least, of such matters as may properly
belong to such committees to enquire into.

The salutary system to which I allude, has at length
been introduced Into this municipality, and now it is
to be devoutly hoped we shan't hear any more com-
plaints of committees not being called together—of
public matters not receiving proper attention—of
divers complaints and representations being dis-
regarded, and of other shortcomings which cannot fail
to follow in the train of a raw and incomplete
municipal system, such as has unfortunately existed in
this borough. I am glad to be able to notice a
difference in this respect, and if some of the younger
(I speak municipally) members of the Council will
only speak out plainly anent public matters, now
they have got the chance some of them have been
sorely longing for, they may be able to satisfy, to
some extent, the scruples and grumbling' of that class
of individuals who regard it as their special privilege,
and one in which they seem to glory, to snarl and
growl at anything which turns up. Persons of this
class abound in most boroughs, and in Behipork
regret to say, the genus la by no means extinct.

Exactly three months ago I was bold enough to
draw attention to the, not only disgraceful, but unsafe
state of that building, which if not in appftroAce
palatial, should at least be an ornament to the bniettgh
Long long ago (nearly two years I should think) the
worthy Surveyor made a most startling stateinee.
touching Its dilapidation. The Valuing committ:e
has since examined and reported thereon, itnd the
Surveyor's specification of the required work warn on
Tu .a.y laid before the Council.. Now the work Is
really to be done, for the fiat has gone forth. Just in
time, for had the work been much longer delayed, some
misty morning, when in conclave assembled, the whole
shop would have been tumbling about their ears.