First Ever Council Meeting
FIRST COUNCIL MEETING. HISTORIC OCCASION. BRISBANE, Wednesday 18th March, 1925.
As was befitting such an historic occasion, the first meeting of the Greater Brisbane City Council today was held with great ceremonial.
When the Mayor (Alderman Jolly) took his seat at the Central Technical College Hall, he looked down upon a remarkable gathering, representing all classes of the community. On his left were the Home Secretary (Mr. Stopford) and members of Parliament, aldermen, councillors, representatives of all Professional and commercial interests, who had attended by invitation. The bright colours of the ladies' dresses lent variety and charm to the scene.
The Home Secretary, in installing Alderman Jolly as Mayor, said that the creation of Greater Brisbane was a form of local government of the most advanced kind in the Commonwealth. He also read a letter from the Premier, expressing to the council the good wishes of the Government. The Mayor, addressing the gathering as the first Mayor of Greater Brisbane, expressed the honour be felt at being called upon to fill the position. He was anxious from the outset that they should establish and maintain a high standard of dignity in the conduct of civic affairs, and that in the days to come it would be looked upon as the highest honour that could be conferred on any citizen to be elected an alderman of the city. Their first duty would be to visualise the ideal city of the future, and then proceed with a definite purpose to carry it into effect. The marked progress that Brisbane had made in the last three years indicated that in the not far distant future it would be as big as Sydney and Melbourne were to-day.
It was of importance, therefore, that they should lose no time in preparing for the big city of the future. While they might have high ideals they must, at the same time, be practical, and he trusted that the business of the council would not to any extent, be conducted on political lines. He was satisfied that the success or otherwise of the Greater Brisbane scheme would, to a great extent, depend upon the appointment of efficient officers, and though they were undertaking a task of great magnitude he was confident that they would be able to surmount all difficulties that confronted them.
The council then proceeded with business, and elected a deputy Mayor, Alderman H. Russell being chosen without opposition. Alderman Fihelly offered the felicitations of himself and his colleagues in the Mayor, and expressed the wish that the council's work would be good and enduring.
