The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1911. THE LIGHTING CONTROVERSY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1034, 25 January 1911, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1911. THE LIGHTING CONTROVERSY.

The Wellington public will be very charitable indeed if it forgives as zeal the.'unseemly heat of the Hospital Board's discussion upon the personnel of its Lighting Committee. Upon the tone adopted by Messrs. Fitzgerald and Hindmarsh in their unwarranted attacks upon Messrs. Gardiner and Robertson we do not care to offer any comment beyond the-opinion that the public is'not-yet ready to accept stupid personalities either as' sound argu j mcnt or as evidence of the fitness for publio service of those who resort to them. Tho question involved is a very important one. Our readers will romember that on December 20 last the Lighting Committee recommended the rescission of a decision to renew the Gas Company's contract in view of a specially favourable offer by the City Council to supply light ior the Board. The question was held over, and the Committee was so enlarged that five out of the seven members of; it were members of the City Council. At yesterday's meeting of the Board Mr. Gardiner mcved for the further enlargement of the Committee with the object of lessening tho weight of .City Council influence upon it. Wo, are very sorry that his motion was lost, for it is guite obvidus that the Committee will be unable to free itself from bias when called upon to decide between the City Council and tho Gas Company as tenderers for service to the Board. Neither Mr. Fitzgeraldnor Mr. Hindmarsh supplied a sound answer to tho criticisms of Mr. Gardiner and those who 'supported him;' and there is no relovarioe ■ whatever in Mr. John Smith's deprecation of the suggestion of unconscious bias in "men who had served tho interests of the ratepayers, and held their confidence, for tho last twenty-five years."

It is really very depressing to find that thb Board as a whole is utterly ineapablo of grasping the principle that is chiefly involved. it is the business of tho Board to use every legitimate means within its power to obtain lighting and hoating at tho lowest possiblo rate. But it is equally clear that tho City Council niust take care to avoid supplying heat and powor at a rato that is unpayable. What, thon, is tho duty of a member of the Board who happens to be a member also of the City Council ? Most people will think that his safest course is to avoid having anything to do with the arrangement of any lighting contract between the two bodies. Certainly his worst course would be that which Messrs. Hindjiarsh and Fitzgerald have chosen to adopt. Wo are quite sure that tho ratepayers will not feel at all grateful to a Councillor whoso idea of helping the city consists in enabling another 'public -body to obtain lighting and heating froni the city at a figure that will mean a loss to tho rate-paying public. So far as the Board is concerned, the , City Council must be treated, when it tenders to supply lighting- and heat, as being simply a trading rival of the Gas Company. What would be said :if the Board contained amongst its members shareholders or directors of the Gas Company, and the Committee appointed to deal with lighting were almost entirely composed of these 1 Quito apart from •that aspcct of the position, it is highly, undesirable that the City Council should indulge in cut-throat competition at tho expense of the ratepayers. As wo pointed out on December 22, it is not private cuterprise alone that will suffer if ratepayers aro to be fought with their own money. It is deplorable, as we have said, that the Board should have failed to realise _ the impropriety of packing its Lighting Committee with agents of a concorn (the City Council) interested in the supply of lighting,. and wo trust , that the question will be raised when tho Council resumes its meetings. In any case, it is quite time that' th 6 general question of the city's trading concerns was thoroughly overhauled. We aro not' satisfied that they are sound, or that sound principles lie behind their administration.