THE MAYORALTY

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14327, 12 April 1912, Page 8

THE MAYORALTY

MR DOUGALL AT THE KINO'S THE AT HE.

Mr J. J. Dougall. thc present Mayor, who is a- candidate for the office at tho coming election, addressed a mooting of citizens in the King's Theatre hist night. Cr. W. 11. Cooper presided.

Tho Chairman said that Mr Dougall, before becoming Mayor, had been a member of the City Council, and had done good work on the Council during that- time.

Mr Dougall, who was received with applause, said that during hu term | of office as Mayor, he had tried to j infuse somo amount of public, spirit j among the people It seemed, how- { ever, that he had failed, for Christ- j church seemed unable to take any interest in municipal politics. With j general politics the case, was quite j different, and he really could not i understand why the people, should bo j so keen on general politics ami so i apathetic in municipal polities. The. present occasion was the first ho had j bad of referring to the great work i begun by tho late Mr T E. Taylor. Great hopes were entertained of the result of the work of thc late Mr Taylor during his occupancy of the Mayoral chair, hut it was decreed that his term was to be cut short by death | before his hopes and ambitious for the j good of the oitv could be re.ili.seil. ( Continuing, Mr Dougall said that be | only proposed that evening to consider j two" Kubjocts, the report of the Canal ] Commission and the road scheme re- | cently propounded by him. On the I Canal question ho said that at first j be was a strong advocate of the Canal. but he had since been forced to the | conclusion that the time was not yet I ripe for tho project u> be undertaken. Tho report of the Coiiiini.sion was an unbiased one, and the views of the j Commissioners should he accepted. The , Commissioners pointed out that the present railway facilities between Chrhdohuroh and LytteUon were inefficient, and wore really a disgrace. The Canal agitation really arose from the fact that the people were handicapped in the way of railway freights and fares on thc Lytteiton line. After the first public meeting the Government made a certain concession, but much more should be done. For instance. _oods should be delivered in Christchurch thesaiueday they left the ship; at present a merchant had to wait n week .before he could .get Uh goods. Tho Commissioners considered that Lytteiton would provide sufficient harlx>ur accommodation'for the next fifty. years; that was a different view from that taken by the early promoters of f he Canal movement,. The Commissioners considered that if the Canal were constructed it would mean, the ruining of Lytteiton. and that would mean a loss of considerably over a million, in addition to tlie cost of the Canal. Tho Commissioners also estimated that if the Canal were constructed to Buckley's Corner it would mean an annual deficiency of £113.000; if to Hcatbcote, j £7(1,000. That would mean the impo- : sition of a heavy rate to make up thnt : deficiency. Ho onuld not refuse to j accept the Commissioners', findings as to i the deficiency. There ivas this fact to j ho considered, that- the country- peoplo wero to a man dead against the Canal. If. therefore, Christchurch wanted a Canal, it would have to get it by itself. and he did not think the common-sense- of the people would justify them in undertaking such an entr.rpri.se without the -support of the country. It Uioroforo behoved tho peoplo of Christchurch to give up thought of the canal for tho present, and to devote their energies to tho securing, of better railway facilities between Lytteiton and Christchureh. (Applause). Really no material improvement had been made on tho line during the last twenty years at least, notwithstanding the fact that the trade, of the port had largely increased. At present ships were frequently held up at Lytteiton waiting for trucks to carry, thoir cargo away. The Commissioners mado reoonmiend.itions for extending tho railway accommodation at Lytteiton to meet the present difficulty. They recommended, also, that the Harbour Board should pay tho oost involved, but'he objected to that strongly. He thought the work of reclamation-might bo carried out by the Harbour Board, but the other works were railway works only, and should be paid for by tho Railway Department. To bring theso changes about, however, it would be necessary for the people to arouse themselves, and actively join in an agitation for the improvements outlined. The people of Wellington and Auckland worked.hard for tho good of their cities, and thereby secured large Government grants, but the Chris.tchtrrch peoplo were different. It scorned impossible to rouse them. There was the dangerous railway crossing at Colombo street. A'sub-, wny or an overhead way was wanted, yet th© only satisfaction received from the Government was that they would do tho work if the people of Christchurch paid for it. If the Christchurch peoplo did not rouse themselves from their present apathy the city would soon tako a back seat as compared with the other cities, and would rank only as a provincial town. -Mr Dougall then quoted figures to show how small an amount of Government money Canterbury had received during the last fivo years as compared with the other provinces. Ho hoped the peoplo would now back up tho recently-formed Canterbury Progress League, anel work together* strenuously ami unitedly to promote the progress of Christchurch and Canterbury. Ho behoved that, first ot all. Lytteiton should become a part ot Christchurch, and that a still Greater Christchurch Should bo constituted, to take in Lytteiton, Sumner, and New Brighton. * He did not think that Parliament would refuse to grant a Coun.•il controlling the extended area larger powers than the present Council pos;cssed. Power, he believed, would bo -rrnnted whereby the City Council would absorb the other independent Itodies. such as the Drainage Board and tho Tramway Board.

,T.-.ating with the road scheme. Air Dougau 'said that lor years past the Council bad Wen considering the question ot a. uniform system for the construction and maintenance oi the roads. During the lust few years motor traifio "had increased enormously, and a different typo of road construction was required. 'The old macadam road was quite unsuitable for fust motor traffic. The English engineers pinned their faith to tar. and their general opinion was that a tar-bound road saved 50 per cent, of maintenance, as compared with the ordinary macadam roacL Tlie roads of Christchurch could be tar-mnendiimed for JL'3O a chain: other methods would be much more expensive, wood-blocking costing £'300 a chain. In general, he approved of the late Air Taylor's scheme, although he. disagreed with thc methods proposed to be adopted to carry out that scheme. To the lat« Mr Taylor, however, belonged the credit of first placing before the people a comprehensive scheme for dealing with street construction and maintenance. His (tho speaker's) scheme was to lay down thirty miles of streets _ with tarred macadam, at a cost of £72,000.. and to tar paint a further thirty miles at a cost of £24.000. It was absolutely necessary, however, that tho tar should bo properly prepared before ibein"- used, and the ingredients should be tirotSrly mixed. He was quite satisfied that tho City Engineer was quite wund on his views on the tar macadam construction. Some peoplo asked why the scheme proposed could not be carried out gradually with rates. That, of course, might be done, but it would be a slow process, an uneconomical one,

and an unsatisfactory one. Ii the matter was not to be dealt with comprehensively it bad better be left alone. He considered that something should be rlono without delay to improve tho footpaths of the city. They required improvement really moro than the roads did. It was objected that the scheme prepared was one of maintenance and not of re-construction. That opinion, however, was directly opposed to the opinion of all the Knglish «xports on the matter; their view was that to make a tar macadam road was to make a new road, and the local authorities agreed with this. At the present time th" City Council was paying £2-1.000 a year on road maintenance, and that sum would be increased as tho citygrew. Mr Douizall then detailed •figures showing the savings to be effected annually on road expenditure, by the adoption of the scheme. Ho claimed that the schemo would result successfully and that the loan to 1.-o raised eoujd be repaid in tho ten yea i.s proposed. Christchurch was a beautiful city--it was really the garden city of Australasia —and it was for the people now to say whether they wou.d assist to enhance its beauty pud to leavo it. in a better state than it was now. Christehuroh was a lovely city, but the only people who did not seem to realise that fact were tho people who lived in the city. Visitors from outside were loud in their expressions of admiration for the city. He hoped the people would band themselves into a crusading party to do their utmost for the good of the city and to carry on the good work so well begun by tho early pioneers. The opportunity was present and he hoped the people would grasp that opportunity. (Loud applause). .Mr Dougall then replied to a number of questions. He said that a certain portion of the Square should bo reserved for public meetings. It had been said that he desired to suppress all public meetings in the Square on account of his hostility to the Prohibition Party. He wanted to give that an unqualified denial. The Prohibibition Party had never entered his head at all. All he desired was to see the south-west corner of the Square kept free for tramway passengers, and others who used the Square in thnt locality. (Applause).

At the close of the meeting votes of thanks were accorded Mr Dougall and tho chairmnn.