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Bay of Plenty Times, Volume 49, Issue 7675, 21 April 1921, Page 3

atioiis, the same rate as last year would realise about £IOOO more. He would not increase the rates. Mr, Bobbins ha! stated that if elected he would get down to bed rock, but he did not state what rock. His opinion was that as an administrator Mr. Robbins was a failure. When ae took office the electricity loan of ,04600 had not been raised. The debentures had been hypothecated to the bank and the borough was paying 6 per cent. He had altered ‘bat by raising the loan, and thus piovidmg for a sinking fund. Mr. Robbins had claimed to have looked alter the peoples’ interests, but lie was partly responsible for the £JJO that had had to be written off’, because he did not sec that people paid their rates.

. Regarding the supply D f electricity to Te Puke Mr. Bobbins had been trying to make capital out of that. While on the council he—Mr. Give- was going to work in the interests of the ratepayers. Te Puke had not much to complain about, lamanga had treated Te Puke extremely well. When they were short of poles, we had given them poles, we lent them our meu to elect them, we lent them men to do their house-wiring,, but he did not favour guaranteeing a temporary supply The council, however, was quite agreeable .to Te Puke having cun eat while we had it to spare. Iwo transformers bad arrived, and he believed one was lor the town. As soon as it was connected up Te 1 uke would uot be able to get a unit as the town would require all the current available. Mr. Dive then diew attention to other short-com-ings of Mr. Bobbins and expressed the hope that if elected he—Mr. Bobbins would look after the affairs of the borough a little better than he had done in the past. Mr. Macmillan had accused him—Mr. Dive - of having adopted his policy. He did uot think that Mr. Macmillan with the widest stretch of imagination could think that, because be did not know whether Mr. Macmillan had a policy dr uot. He claimed that no mayor had looked after the finances of the borough better than he had, and challenged anyone to disprove it.

Mr. Macmillan in bis opening remarks, expressed bis amazement at tbe statement of Mr. Dive that he would give the figures of the council’s operations for the past year on Tuesday night, and then expect the people to vote on Wednesday, not only on his administration, but on that of the council as well. It was the first time in the history of the borough that such infomation had not been forthcoming till the eve of the election. The Mayor of Auckland had, given similar information early in the month, and he—-Mr. Macmillan- -four years ago had given the information on April 12th to enable candidates to prepare for the election. Mr. Dive, on the other hand, had laid before the electors just as much as he thought fit until the eve of the election. Candidates should be able to go to the borough chambers and get full details of tbe working for the past 12 months, but the information was not available. Mr. Dive had now told the people what his intentions were. It was a complete change of front.

Mr. Macmillan then dealt with various matters on the lines of his Town Hdl speech. He disagreed entirely with the proposal to invest the money set aside for depreciation on the electricity account. It was not a good buisness proposition. The council should get as much profit from the electricity department as possible, and after providing for interest and sinking fund and keeping the works iu perfect order, the people should get the benefit of whatever was over by reducing the general rate. Mr, Robbins had made a very strong point of abattoirs, but was apparently not aware that when the population of a town exceeded 2000 abbatoirg had to be put in. It was no use him making a virtue of necessity. There was no choice iu the matter. Mr. Robbins had stated emphatically that there was no need to worry about the money, the Government would find it. The Government would -do nothing of the kind. The money could be taken by the council out of the district fund, or raised by way of special order, but there was not one word anywhere in the Act that the Government would find the money. It was nonsense for a man to come before the electors and attempt to puU wool over their eyes. The council had to find the money-

Messrs. Tanner, Turner, Fox. Keam. Bovd a-nd Wrigley, candidates for the council, also spoke. Manv questions were asked, and in-swen-ti bv Ihe various candidates, and the meeting closed at 10 oclock with a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Crabbe.