Unhappily, the views of those who seek to represent the public on administrative boards are by no means as strict as they should be. A degree of laxity or of confidence is admitted which should have no place on such bodies. There is a feeling that it would be ungenerous and ungentlemanlike to insist on a strict business observance of rules, especially in regard to finance, as suggestive to the officers that they were, if not actually suspected, at least doubted.

All such scruples are out of place. In the case of the South Perth Roads Board, while regret may be felt for the members of the Board on whom the burden falls, no weak sympathy or personal feeling can be allowed to supervene. If a good cause for consideration can be made out, the Government  might, perhaps, hereafter be appealed to to help the erring members of the Board. But what should be the action of the Council admits of no doubt ; and their duty was properly represented by the resolution that the late members be sued for the deficiencies in the rates due to the embezzlements of the late secretary.

On Monday, also, the Perth City Council received two reports from select committee appointed to consider and report upon the lighting question and the Waterworks Board.

The report of the lighting committee, amounting merely to an approval of an offer from the Gas Company to install incandescent lamps in the city and add to the generally lighting conveniences, was adopted. This is a step in the right direction. The success of the incandescent lamps in St. George's Terrace justifies the steps taken by the Council.

The other report was of more interest, and the course the Council decided to take with it led, we regret to say, to the resignation of Cr. Haynes from the City Council. Cr. Haynes has given much time and work to this question, and it is unfortunate that a difference between a minority and a majority of the Council, as to the time when the report should be considered, should have presented itself in so extreme a shape to his mind. Moreover, when he re-considers the position, he will surely see that it was right that the members of the Council should have the evidence taken by the committee before committing themselves to an approval of its recommendations. Some of these last assuredly ought to commend themselves to the sense of the Council, but there are others on which it would be essential to see the evidence on which they were founded, as they, at first blush, seem open to argument.

The suggestion that the catchment area of the Canning reservoir should be protected from pollution is excellent. While if the committee find that accounts of the Waterworks Board are not explicit enough, it is right that they should propose an improvement. The paragraph that the Government should take steps to change the management of the waterworks from a nominee into an elective board, while good in itself, suffers from the objection that no one has been able to suggest what basis should be taken for the elective system, and over what area it should extend. On this point it would seem that we shall have to wait until an arrangement is made for the creation of a Board to supply the entire metropolitan district.

But there are other matters on which much light is required before the Committee’s suggestions can be adopted. For example, the charge that the building trade is hampered by the Board is not so clear. And, again, when it is urged that the Board should in place of cutting off the water in case of unpaid rates or charges, simply issue summonses, so new a principle, and one which would so weaken the finances of the Board, requires much consideration before adoption.

The suggestion to accept the City Engineer’s advice to put down five bores to tap the very second-rate fluid in our artesian basin, must be carefully examined before it is approved. The water smells badly and tastes badly, and is held to be accountable for the great prevalence of diarrhoetic attacks, especially among newcomers, in the summer. According to the opinion of many medical men, its use is highly deleterious and mischievous to those who are not accustomed to its use. Further, as regards another paragraph of the report, if the price of the water be reduced below the certainly very high charge of two shillings, and it is lowered at the request of the Government, and there is a deficit in consequence, the Board would call upon the Government to bear the expense. And so we might run on. Indeed, that the report demands ample consideration at the hands of the Council goes without saying, and it should certainly receive it.

The account we gave in yesterday's issue of the congested condition of the Museum and National Gallery—and it is an open secret that the Library is in very little better position—must come as something of a shock to all.

In every direction and in every branch of these institutions, we are told, vast numbers of specimens have to be stowed away for want of space, in boxes or in paper parcels, in different rooms, or have to lie at Fremantle with no chance of being unpacked until more accommodation is provided. But that we have Mr. Woodward's word for the state of things which prevails, it would be next to impossible to credit it. A column of this journal is taken up with the mere enumeration of the exhibits which should be in the Museum and Gallery and cannot be placed there for need of room.

Birds, beasts, fishes, articles of pottery and glass, fabrics, works of art, are all excluded, the ground being the overcrowded state of the present accommodation. The position is the more felt because, acting on the promise of the previous Ministries, the committee of the Museum have continued to collect specimens for this national institution, which, in any case, is most imperfectly supplied in many branches of displays and information.

On the other hand, the foundation-stone of an important addition was laid by the Duke of Cornwall and York, on his visit last year. And it may be mentioned here that it is a practice, which has very much to commend it, that a Prince should not be asked to lay a foundation- stone unless means are forthcoming to push on with the building. Acting on the faith of this understood stipulation, the stone was laid, but then the building was dropped. This is not as it should be. But the main reason why the work should be pressed on is that, even were the buildings then contemplated completed within a year, there is almost enough on hand now to fill the galleries. In Mr. James we believe that we have a Premier who is fully alive to the wants of these admirable institutions ; and we may expect with some confidence that provision will be found for such necessary adjuncts to our development. For it can never be forgotten that these institutions offer the working man his best chance of instruction for his family in matters which lie outside the actual primary school course. And no money spent on education brings in a better return.