ADVICE WANTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 238, 8 October 1936, Page 9

ADVICE WANTED.

BY ENGLISH BOROUGH.

APPEAL TO CHRISTCHURCH.

AUCKLAND AS «CAPITAL." i • Southend, one of the most ancient of the English boroughs, is in trouble and has turned to Cliristchurch for advice. The Southend Town Council wants to reorganise itself. It finds that its work is becoming too much for it, and that reorganisation on modern lines is essential. Hence the appeal to Christchurch (states the "Star-Sun"). Explaining the council's predicament and the need for assistance, Alderman R. T. Smith, who visited Cliristchurch some months ago, refers to a complaint that does not belong to Southend alone. "Our council has a tendency unduly to debate small matters," he confesses in a letter to the town clerk, Mr. J. S. Neville. Mr. Smith asks for a copy of the standing orders of the Christchurch City Council and any other useful advice. Mr. Neville is not the sort of man to be deaf to an appeal of this nature. Already he has dispatched a bulky letter to Mr. Smith. In addition to a copy of standing orders, he lias sent information as to how the council deals with its correspondence and the functions of council committees. ' Mr. Smith also enclosed in his letter reprints of articles he has written for the "Southend Standard" on his tour. His comments on New Zealand arc most interesting, and show that he kept both his eyes and ears open while in the Dominion. Only in one important particular does he go astray, and that is when he describes Auckland as the "capital and seat of Government of New ' Zealand." Impressions of New Zealand. Of Christchurch, he lias much to say ; that is complimentary. He was particularly impressed by the rest rooms in 11 Cathedral Square and the organisation < and accounts system of the City Coun-|i

cil, which, ho admits, is "far ahead of Southend in mechanisation in accountancy." The Christchurch "Star-Sun" is the only newspaper mentioned in Mr. Smith's saga. "Somehow- tlie editor of tJio 'Cliristchurch Evening Star' obtains information as t to who is staying at the various hotels,* and he sent a reporter to interview me 011 my experiences during the war, when I was a director of a section of the Ministry of Food.. The same nigjit the interview appeared with the headline, 'Potatoes Won the War.' "Leaving Lyttelton at night by a fast turbine steamer, tho Kangatira, we arrived at Wellington, in the North Island, in the morning. The next passage, this steamer ran on the rocks at Wellington, and ripped great holes in its bottom, and passengers afterwards told us exciting tales of hardship and their rescue."