The Mayor.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19286, 16 April 1928, Page 8

The Mayor.

We print this morning gome rather extraordinary remarks made by Mr Archer at the opening of the new Linwood Avenue School on Saturday afternoon. Mr Archer has a little habit, which no one misunde&tands, of being jocularly serious, a little trick of indulging in obvious exaggerations which he .would like but does not expect his hearers to accept. He has also the most earnest desire on all occasions to be helpful, so that it is never pleasant to complain of . anything he says or does in his official capacity when his purpose is wholly altruistic. But we are sure that most of those who read the report of Saturday's . speech will feel, after making every allowance for his deliberate extravagance, that it is a pity he would' not have the grace occasionally to consider that he may be wrong.. If Mr Archdr knows that tobacco, beer, and horse-racing are " ridiculous and un- j "necessary things"; if,.that is to say, something has been revealed to him which has been kept from hundreds and thousands of people who are as intelligent as h 6 is, as earnest, ashonest, and as' well-informed, it is perhaps permissible for him to say that' no .man who spends money on tobacco, horse-racing, or beer has any right to object to the rates. Even then, however, he will have to find some means of persuading us all that he. has 'received this revelation and is not a mere groping mortal like his fellows. • But most people suspect that he deludes himself when he feels so strongly—as he obviously must when he speaks so confidently—that everyone is wrong who does not agree with him, and it is increasingly painful, to see him indulging these moods more and more frequently on the public platform. It /would be perfectly easy, if it were necessary, to quote the' most eminent and devout persons in support of a moderate indulgence in each of the pleasures lie so sweepingly condemns, and he has'no more right to outlaw those who believe in them than beerdiinkers and tobacco-smokers would have to condemn him for putting jam on his bread, or buying a gramophone record, or eating a piece of cake, or doing anything else that is not done with the deliberate object of adding to his mental and bodily efficiency. Actually, as the history of mankind so abundantly proves, those who take their pleasures or their pains, their work or their play, their hardships or their extravagances with an eye fixed too purposefully on their health will miss the mark; but that is by the way. The point is that in speaking as he so constantly does of those who have other views of these things than bis own Mr Archer is going further in self-

confidence than anyone ever should, and very much further than it is pleasant to see the City's Chief Magistrate going. We hesitate to call him increasingly cocksure. But if there is another word that more accurately describes his present tendency we cannot think what it is, and cocksureness is never so hard to bear as when' associated with intolerance.