The citizens will have the opportunity today of expressing by their votes for the Town Board whether they still desire Dunedin to be the worst managed, worst paved, worst lighted, worst drained, least cared for, most neglected town of its size that boasts a British origin.
It would perhaps be well to indicate a few of the leading matters that require immediate attention on the part of those who undertake the responsibility of administering to the civic wants of Dunedin.
The town requires to be resurveyed, lighted, and paved, its permanent levels laid down, and the footpaths made and cut away where necessary.
A city surveyor to regulate the condition on which buildings may be erected, public baths, and a public market are urgently required.
Drays, water carts, and other vehicles should be licensed, and the regulations on which they are to be allowed to ply for hire, laid down.
Provisions should be made against fire, the roads should be made and kept in repair, and the frightful nuisances that impart to the city, at times, the odour of a foul receptacle for filth and impurity, be abolished.
The present Board, which in lieu of seeking, as it might, extended powers, was too lazy to exercise those that really were at its disposal.
The Board knows that the old survey marks of the town are partly lost, partly obliterated, and yet makes no effort to have them resurveyed. In parts of the town even the line of the street is lost, and buildings are known to infringe it. In other blocks owing to the starting place of measurement being lost, allotments are marked off partly by guess, and partly by arrangements with neighbours.
When the Board has redressed the wrongs we have enumerated, we will read it another homily and present it with another catalogue of subjects that should engage its attention.
Meanwhile, we have only to hope that the citizens will today cast off their usual apathy, and send men to the Board who understand the duties required of them.
