THE MAYORALTY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 174, 16 April 1908, Page 8

THE MAYORALTY.

, MR. AITKEN AT NORTH KILBIRNfE. Mr. Aitken addressed a well-attended meeting at the North Kilbirnio Stato School last evening, Mr. J. B. Lane, occupying tho chair. . . Tho chairman said that the person to hold the office of. Chief' Magistrate would need to liavo integrity and-ability, and, in his opinion; Mr.. Aitken had those qualifications. Mr. Aitken said tho-Wellington City Council, as a Council, not himself, as Mayor, passed a resolution to construct the 'tunnel through Moimt Victoria into Kilbirnio from the town side: ■Hejwell remembered tho occasion, for the'.-next 1 "day, and for days afterwards, 'people told him' that; it was very much_ too . early to cut the tunnel through. Ho did not-believe that there was a single individual in Wellington- who would now suggest that it was, too. early,' as it was found to bo of such' very great convenience- arid importance that he did ,not know how the peoplo could liavo, got along without it. . At that time, it was; understood- that, there should bo '-a. footpath through it. That was clearly and emphatically stated at the time, and lie imagined that be,said so then. "Now it seemed that thero was\ some doubt as to how tho'footpath had .been omitted, and the "Wellington ' City,-Coiiiicil ' .should have sccii that faith was kept with the ratepayers. Ho did not know whether tho tunnel, if it had been made •• for. traffic,'-'-iss 1 well/as tramways, .would liayo. been able to-stand tho . strain, 'but, if- it ; y.'ero .unable to,'do this, a traffic entrance'had I to-.bo found .through.: tho front doer(froni' Kciit Terrace), instead of .through;.the, ,'Lback door "■ (via Oriental Bay).;'lt' it'were* not necessary now, it oertainly 'v/ould'be "so in. a'year's' time. .'A ..voice: "Ifcr'is-"-necessary now. ■ Ho could-not; say., if it-wero practicable, continued. "Mr. 'Aitken, but tho time had como 'when'.'they had'' to find : a way into Hataitai 1 without" climbing the hills. Thero should be a- tunnel :at iJ another spot at. a much lower level than tho present one, and .surely.,thoir,:.engineer, iwh'o was a very-cap-able man,, could; face'tho difficulty. There •was the question of, expense,, but could thoy .show him any. other means? .

.' Tho suburbs touching Eosoneath needed tramways," and. they .should be constructed tlirough/ Majoribanks and Hawker Streets arid Grafton Road, and the connection should be mado" between 'Constable Street arid Kilbirnie. ■ The' Council could not have included : Mclroso.; without making special terms, "and negotiations for amalgamation tfero, then proceeding.-': Had that not- been tlio; case,--,the' line, would ;ha\\e proceeded further than _it ,did .at present. The trams' .wont to Miramar and Scatoun, but Maranui ip-as cut, off:: ; '. Certain ;steps;had been, takori in'tKo matter, and tho time had arrived when it should ibe vigorously ; taken up. There was no doubt that Matanui slfould bo linked; to Eilbirnie. (Applause.) .Tho speaker 'urged- the speedy prosecution of; water ' and drainage., services. No one "v/ould pretend ;that ,the roads and footpaths wero all that could, bo desired. ■ -lie' Council had certainly-, attended to the matter, but ;riot sufficiently. Thero had'-.been a habit of.

half-forming footpaths, .but thoso days had , gone'pdstj and'proper channelling dionld.be, * put down; asphalting, also, . was a matter 1 for'attention. The question'of lighting was not one.that should bo delayed. Somo of tlio , otreets : .wero;. vory . dark and! dismal, and ladies out at night, '..without, escort,' must j ;fear and 1 tremble.'. In somo localities, thero r, was' iust'enough'..light'.to. show .the darkness, and such• a 'stato of. things should bo dono , away with' at an early date. . Every', lamp was worth two policemen, and'ho contended that ho part of, the 1 city should have dangers ' for any .person,' malo or fomala. Speaking ( at Kilbirnic, •••ho drew attention', to tho fact '] that their park had been neglected, and it' ' should bo attended to. The spoil from tho c tunnel should havb ; been used to extendvthe j park, although somo of it had helped in' ] r'o.ad-makingi .If.iclectod, he.wquld deal with. ■ these matters .fromj,- the ,central .hall of tho -1 city. .' : (Applause l .)y] ; ';( . v ,. ; ... i a -■:• . ; • At: the bonclusign-.fpf/.rtho.,: address,: the speaker,^answered 'a number :of questions. ] Replying to a , question 'regarding work- .\| mon's'.homes,'Mr. Aitken stated that he had , advocated that-this ;questioii .bo faced,.'.espe- j cially . in consideration of waterside workors. . KR. HISLOP AT KELBURNE. , The Hon. T. W. Hislop . addressed a meet- i ing in the Church Schoolroom, Kelburnc, last i evoningj Mr. R.' C. Abbott presiding. 1 again protested against the at- .] tifcudc '• of I' the' Dominion towards him.. He i stated-that, contrary,' as', he' believed, to j nowspaper • etiquette, " the Dominion had i quotod certain assertions, mado' by, a corren- '• pon'dent o'f another journal ; to the effect that ] he,- as Mayor,' had refused to give a reception i to So-and-So, but had given a publiq, reccp- 1 tion to somebody else. Beth statements wero- ] untrue j. and aycre refuted in, tho paper which i ; first. published them, and ono might havo j expected: that{.the. Dominion would publish j tho correction, but it : did nothing, of .tho • kind. JTtiis.' matter is preferred to below.) Mr. ' Hislop :'went:.;'on. to urge that if 'Miv ' Aitken know of anything' wrong in connection'Vrith, the'irivestmont of the sinking funds, he. should say so: '.'. He must know, becauso 1 ho. was onb of the Sinking Funds Commis- : sionors. , ' But if Mr.' Aitken was aware that the charges that had'been made in order to • asdst. his candidature were unfounded, he ought to como forward in a manly way and say' so. j After reviewing ■ somo events 'of Mr. Aitken's mayoralty • on lines< already familiar, Mr. Hislop saicl-lib would defy tho 1 other side to find such "mistakes in his own 1 administration. -On'previous occasions any- 1 one who had carao forward'to -oppose'him -for' I the mayoralty had'called', upon him .'at', the < outset in: a courteous and friendly way."• Mr. > ■W'ilford two. ycaro aj;o, 'but neither Mr.-v Aitken, norany of =his' friends acting "on ' ,his behalf, had . dono so, on, tho preoent' occa- ; sion. Thero ■ seomed : to bo' an air of mystery • about it,- but his opponents had-failed ', to. : justify-.their-attacks upon him. Referring 1 to tho. Kclburrie Tramway, Mr. Hislop said that when'the time came that tho'lino could bo.taken over it' would be for them' as citi- ' zons to , consider whether' it would pay'them and the Corporation to tako it over. lie felt sure that it would' pay, because tho prosperity ,of tho district depended so much' on,cheap, transit,'and the only way to bring •down the,cost was to havo ; tho services publicly owned. , It would then pay well enough if.it earned 4J jpr cent., whereas under tho agroemontji' which -, was', made before- Mr.' Aitken. came into office, tho company was practically:guaranteed 7 per cent! Ecduccd fares, - when the tramway ,was municipally ownod, ~would .make it i pay better. | At tho-conclusion of' the-address sqme questions wereiasked. -Mr. Hislop,, in reply, stated that ho thought there was a class of workers that needed immediate relief in tho matter of .housing, but who could, not. live far out, of the ''city. . There were sites' in the 'town' that could, be utilised for building houses for, such, workers... He .was quite in favour of the . municipality acquiring areas, of . land, 'with'a view to .utilising them in this way in the future. . , The. Council's hands had! been full of great works, which the people', insisted on having, dono, and they had• to-, iTegulate their borrowing according to the istate af the money- market,. He was in favour :, of municipal .markets, but. tho Council ' had not yet been able 'to agree as to a site. Ho: noticed that his opponent had boon working out a. scheme for warm water baths. Some time ago a local appeared in some of the papers stating that 'Dr. Mason and tho Mayor of Wellington had mot in, the Turkish Baths at Christchurch,. and had evolved a scheme for warm baths'for Wellington. It was true that that scheme had not -got very j far; but there was such a schome, and the source of the necessary heat was in view. He was waiting with great interest for his opponent's scheme to be' disclosed. ■ A vote of thanks and confidence was carried, and a: comraifctee formed to work' in Mr. Hislop's interests. THE ROLL CLOSED. Although the municipal electoral roll closod at 5 p.m. yesterday, Mr. James Ames and his staff of half a dozen clerks are still as busy as ever. Thoir task now is to complete the alphabetical arrangement of tho names on the supplementary roll, number them all and preparo. the copy for tho printer. They were working'last night until a very late hour, later even than the hour which has been usual with them during the last few days. The came in ►very fast yesterday. One canvasser brought I in a batch of 1500 names just before o - Mr,, -tern -{rgßjugd-lagk

night'to give an'estimate of tho total mini bar of names on the main and supplementary, rolls, but it is certain that it will bo considerably greater than over before. The supplementary roll that was compiled for the reccnt Harbour Board election brought +ho number up to 21,527;

NOTES AND COMMENTS. , Mr. Hislop is piling up his record of inaccuracies. Some days ago wc exposed the remarkable error- made by him in his estimate of the tramways not profit for the year ended March' last—an estimate made less than a week before the close of the year, and 'with 11 months' returns in hand to guide him. The astonishing- feature of the miscalculation was that one professing to keep so close a watch on the tramways management should be so far astray in an estimato made less than a week before the year closod. On Monday evening last Mr. Aitken exposed the injustice done him by his rival in accusing him of making an agreement with tlio Kelburno Tramway Company which was disadvantageous to the city. Mr. Aitken showed that ho was not in office when the agreement Avas made,, and had nothing'to do with it,' and Mr. Hislop had to retract his aspersions on this account. Last evening the Mayor was again inaccurate. As ic-

ported above, lie accused us of reprinting portions, of a letter from our morning contempprary and failing to print his cntradiction thereof published next day. What we reprinted was- a referenco to the letter referred to arid our morning contemporary's remarkable comments'thereon. -This was cn Saturday, April 4. On Monday, April 6 — the earliest issue thereafter—wo published Mr. Ilislop's version of the matter, whiVu lie accuses us of suppressing. Mr. Hislop is no doubt feeling the strain of tho election contest, bnt such inaccuracies are not calculated to strengthen the confidence of tho electors in his candidature. Possibly be will confess at his next meeting that he 'has again'erred—possibly, also, such of our tontemporaries who publish his unjust and unfounded accusation against Tnii Dominion will do us the justice of publishing this refutation. - •