May 20.
Naroratty the new form of the Municipal Gazette did not go unnoticed yesterday and before the morning was very old it had been re-christened as above. In_ its new and enlarged guise the Municipal Gazette may prove a formidable competitor to other weeklies, even without syndicated illustrations from the primal fount of illustrated journalese. As an example of the fine old British spirit of compromise, it is unexceptionable, hovering nicely between the camps of those who would have common reporters admitted to Council meetings and of those. who think the Councillors should only be heard in subterranean sound-proof chambers. In appearance it still retains the old sedate form and unemotional diction. This should be seen to by the Council's editorial department. For a beginning, a little "'pep"', the correct expression we believe, might be introduced by a few snappy headings: the references to private detective agencies, Point Hotel licence and the returns of communicable "disease all suggest themselves for treatment in this way. This would be for the convenience of the hurried business man, who has to get his news from headings, and would no doubt increase circulation—a point on which the Council evidently is keen, as shown by Municipal. Notification 2993, announcing that the Gazette can be posted to all foreign ratepayers who do not already receive it through the usual channel of distribution. There cannot, however. be many of the former, so the Council's postage bill should not be much increased.
The piece de resistance, or perhaps it should be called the story featured this week, is undoubtedly the correspondence over the Lyceym Theatre. Leaving aside for a moment the question of public safety, it is impossible not to feel that the theatre trustees are entitled to sympathy. There are weak points in their letter of December 16, 1921. Because there has never been a fire in over forty years is no reason that there never will be; and if one does occur, the fact of the audience being' entirely foreign is no guarantee against panic. But the A.D.C. Committee appear to be on very strong ground in reference to the number of alterations and improvements they have carried out under the supervision and with the approval of the Chief Officer of the Fire Brigade if he were going to condemn the whole building, the Committee may well ask, why did he not say so Sooner instead of letting them spend all this money? Furthermore, they may well complain of the freedom which he permits himself in writing three times directly to them on matters connected with the theatre, in a style which suggests a commanding officer to his subordinate. Twice the Committee have returned a not unmerited snub. In the third letter Mr. Pett, unfortunately for himself, makes two serious mistakes in his allegations—which the Committee cannot resist pillorying, although one doubts if they much improved their own case by doing so. In the end the matter is settled by a personal investigation by the Watch Committee and a unanimous vote of the Council. What the theatre trustees will now do is on the knees of the gods. Why not sell and build elsewhere? If, as they aver, the theatre is easy to get out of, it is awkward to get into, and abominable to get away from, especially on wet nights.
With this correspondence and several other matters too numerous to mention, the Council altogether reveals itself, in this first experiment in laying bare all its actions, in a most paternal mood of solicitude for public safety. One hesitates to suggest that it might not have been quite so bold but, for the fact of Mr. McColl and his voluble pen being safely on the other side of the world. The Commissioner of Police reports ''a marked increase in casualties due to persons attempting to board or alight from tramcars and trailers whilst in motion or falling off when travelling on the steps or platforms of these vehicles', and suggests sliding side doors, closing automatically before the tram starts. The Council evidently thinks this ''a. good ideeer'' as Mr. Salteena says, and embellishes it with several ''doggy"' notions of its own. What will become of the Tram Company's dividends, if these reformations are enforced? And what of the travelling public, who, clamorous now because the trams they get into are crowded, will be still more incensed when forbidden to get into crowded trams.
Tu conclusion, the Council are certainly to be thanked for the new Gazette. It will not satisfy the Bolsheviks of course, but it certainly gives a good guiding idea as to what goes on in the hierarchies. "And as a revelation of the multiplicity of Council concerns and the appalling amount of literature which Councillors have to wade through on the pettiest details, 'Simms' Weekly' may not be without its uses in earning a little sympathy for a perspiring and often unjustly criticized body of wholly unremunerated public servants.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.