OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18988, 30 April 1927, Page 14

OBITER DICTA.

(By K.) Mr Archer, whom we all congratu- j ; a te, is a little disappointing. He in- | tends to celebrate his re-election, t«> he j sure, by inviting everybody employed j by the' Council to a social evening, | while wc others gnash our teeth out- ! side the Barracks'. He intends, also. , to extend the Electricity Department, to so in for selling road-metal to revolutionise the milk supply, to turn his attention to fish and fruit, to provide a woman's rest-room, to plan towns, to improve rivers, to build houses, and so on. Those, however, who had imagined that all these good things would be put in hand at once, must have been chilled by the sight of the strings attached to the programme. He "has no intention whatever" of municipalising everything—which means, for one thing, that I shall not be able to ask the City Auditor to write these notes—and he is " not at aii anxious" to establish a municipal milk supply. Nor does he intend to bring in the Golden Age " in its totality alt at once." He is even opposed to carrying out any part of his programme should that necessitate "an economic departure." If I were a Socialist I should certainly give a hoot or two for this pusillanimity. Very oiher would have been the story, entirely absent the strings, had Dr. Thaeker been elected Mayor. The Doctor, of course, always occupies a conspicuous position on the results board, but he chose the wrong end on this occasion. The only fiy in the Red Feds' ointment is the fact that Mr Archer owes, not his election, but his absurdly large majority, to the Duke of York. This turns the glorious summer of their victory into a winter of discontent, or at least an autumn of peevishness. For thousands of the Mayor's votes came from people who were afraid that he would not treat the Duke, as he said he did, as " a cobber." " I did not crawl to the Duke," he said, "I didn't lick his boots, but I did not insnlt bin. I treated him as a man and a cobber." It is pleasant to know that Mr Archer has made our democracy safe for Dukes, but to some of his friends those extra thousands of votes wbieb. this earned for him will always seem like tainted money. Mr Archers reference to his Royal Highness may allow the telling of the story—it may be a chestnut—of the lady who engaged a new maid. The maid was Welsh, and her mistress at first found great difficulty in remembering her name. " Now what was your name!" she asked during the first day; "I find it most difficult to replied the maid; "all my other pals do." In the meantime,, however, Mr Archer, whom wc have always with us, is less important than Mr and Mrs Hiram Q. Babbitt, who left us in a fans and will never leave Detroit (Dl.) except to spread bad news about us. Which is to say that the American tourists who came to these goshdurncd parts on the Franconia and Cannthia, and who were hurt because some New Zea-

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