ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 174, 20 April 1935, Page 10

ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Halt Called For Easter Week-end THURSDAY’S MEETINGS Municipal and local body election campaign meetings were continued on Thursday evening, when citizens’ committee candidates addressed electors in the Oddfellows’ Hall, and Labour candidates conducted open-air meetings in Green Street and Garrett Street. A Labour rally also took place in the Post Office Square at noon. No further meetings are to be held until Tuesday, when citizens’ committee candidates will speak at Hataitai, Labour meetings will also be held that evening. x Mrs. E. M. Chapman, a Labour candidate for the Hospital Board, has been ordered to rest by her medical adviser, and she will therefore not be able to take part in the campaign. POLITICS QUESTION Council’s Wage-cutting A crowd of about 200 attended a Labour Party meeting in Wellington on the corner of Garrett and Cuba Streets on Thursday night and heard addresses bv eight candidates. The speakers were Cr. P. Al. Butler. Cr. P. Fraser, M.P., Mr. A. Parlaue, Air. J. Tucker, Mr. J. Collins and Mr. J. Hay, City Council candidates; Airs. L. Gibson, Mrs. Al. Oatham and Mr. L. Hennessey. Hospital Board candidates; and Air. G. Ward. Harbour Board candidate. “We are not concerned with personalities in this battle, but only with the policies of this party and the opposing party,” said Cr. P. Al. Butler. City Council candidate, who maintained that Citizens’ Committee candidates as well as those of the Labour Party were connected with politics. There had been the Civic League, then the Ratepayers’ Association, and now there was the Citizens’ Committee, and one found principally the same personnel on each of the three tickets, he said. They came always to oppose Labour in the interests of the national governing parties. Nothing in tiie administration of the people could be apart from polities, and the "other people” could not cut themselves adrift from the national politics which they served. Air. Forsyth had stood for Parliament as a Reformer and a few years later was asking for votes in a civic election saying he was not a party man. Mr. Appleton was a member of the Legion or of the Reform Party, and now, in opposing Labour, be said he was not in politics. The City Council's wage-cutting under tiie Government legislation was cited by Air. Butler as an example of the majority being politically under the Coalition Government. When the legislation was being brought down a civic election was in progress, be said. Labour candidates’ opponents promised to reduce rates by 10 per cent. The people did not think of what that meant. For small business men and manv others it was to mean a reduction of only 2/- to 2/6 annually, but in tiie aggregate it was a considerable sum to the city. Labour, and also Air. Luckie, who was standing against Air. Hislop for the Mayoralty, opposed it, saying that it meant either wholesale dismissal of employees of the council or drastic worsening of wages and conditions. ' In that election Air. Hislop had made definite promises that he would not dismiss one man or reduce wages, he continued. - In the new City Council. Cr. Appleton gave notice of motion for 10 per cent, reductions in wages and salaries and later Mr. Hislop moved to set up an estimates committee, which consisted of persons other than members of the Labour Party. This committee curtailed the estimates of the city to such an extent that men had to be dismissed and it advocated a 10 per cent, wage cut. Cr. Fraser asked for a minimum wage of £4/6/- a week to be made, but the Alayor now claimed the credit of that. Actually a net wage of about £3/14/- became the minimum. Tiie dismissals and wage reductions were an injustice not only to the men but to the economic interests of the city generally. Before the election, Air. Butler said, the Mayor had said that the City Council was working on its minimum expenditure and for the life of him he could not see it reduced. However, services were curtailed, and now there was £289.000 of work left undone in the citv as a liability for the future council. NEWTOWN MEETING

Labour's meeting at Green Street, Newtown, on Thursday night was attended by an audience of about 50. The speakers were Cr. T. Brindle, Mr. J. Hay. Air. J. Read and Air. J. W. Ranson, City Council candidates, and Cr. R. AlcKeen, ALL’.. Harbour Board and City Council candidate.

Points in the Labour policy and in the present state of national polities were dealt with by Cr. T. Brindle. The City Coupcil as well as national institutions should be concerned in looking after the many instead of after the few, lie said. There was no justification for the statement that Labour would increase the rates considerably. The Labour City Council iu Christchurch had decreased rates. The charge that had often been laid against Labour candidates was that they were not business men. But the test of a business man on the council was whether he would apply the same rule to the business of the people as be would to his own. This had not been the ease in Wellington. Labour voted for questions on their merits. It had always been opposed by the same elements under different names.

Bathing facilities and electrical matters were dealt with by Mr. J. Hay in a short speech. He referred to the lack of facilities and accommodation on the beaches. There were with :i few exceptions only four walls and a few nails on which to hang clothes. These services at the beaches should be free.

“I can’t tell you half of the things that have been said to me by working class people.” said Mr. J. Read. “It is a downright shame that any civilised community should be reduced to such an extremity as they have been in the last three years. Now is the opportunity for you to wipe away the work of this period.” The housing problem provided another mark of the poverty and the degradation of the people. Houses which bad been intended for one family were now housing two. three, in some cases four, and in one instance live families. Labour was prepared to act 011 behalf of the down-trodden people of tiie community. It would help to reduce the

oppressive burden bearing down on the common people at the present time. The marketing of fruit was dealt with by Air. J. W. Ranson. He referred to unsatisfactory conditions of trading and packing now in use, and assured electors that if they returned Labour a thorough investigation would be made. Labour was in sympathy with a further extension of municipal trading. This was a part of its policy. A municipal market was the only control and the only safeguard in the interest of growers, distributors and consumers. The most satisfactory way to deal with the matter would be for the City Council to take it over in the same way as it had done the milk supply. Citizens’ candidates had once promised at elections that there would be no reduction in wages or dismissal of staffs, said Cr. R. AlcKeen. It did not carry out. these policies when elected. The speaker went on to attribute the depression as being directly due to those in control of finance, whose advice had been adopted by various Governments throughout tiie world. The solution of the whole of the economic and social problem to-day was through finance. Transport matters were also dealt with by the speaker. The tramways had shown a deficit of £973, although the tramway system alone showed a profit of £3OOO. The loss was due to the buses. These were too heavy and top unwieldy, and their oil costs were tremendous. They brought in Sid. revenue per bus mile, but they cost 1/4 a mile to run. LIBRARY LOAN Reference by Councillor Gaudin Reference to the proposal to raise a loan of £60,000 for the erection of a new central public library was made by Cr. W. J. Gaudin, chairman of the libraries committee, during his address to electors at the Oddfellows’ Hall on Thursday night. Cr. Gaudin is a member of the Citizens’ ticket for re-elec-tion to the City Council. The loan for public works which was before the ratepayers, might or might not be worthy of their support, said Cr. Gaudin, but the proposal to raise £60,000 for a new library was in a different category. A public citizen had left a large legacy for educational purposes. It had not fallen due yet, but the council had decreed that part of it would be voted to She library, and it would be a short-dated loan. All knew the library was a necessity. The presetn building was 40 years old and had served its purpose. The work had outgrown the building, and the increase was not confined to the fiction department. Last year the council bad raised in rates under £6OOO to conduct that work. He commended the proposed new central library as an amenity nay, necessity, which no city of the size of Wellington should be without. Cr. Gaudin said it was gratifying to see a revived interest in the municipal elections, and lie thought people were waking up to the fact that it was their duty to see Unit tiie men elected had the knowledge to carry out their work. It had been his privilege to represent the citizens on the council for many years. Experience was important. The city was a big business, the turnover in all departments last year being one and a half million pounds. It required careful and serious management. Expert men were in charge of the departments, but it was necessary for a leading policy to be laid down. Discussing the profits that had been made in the various departments of the council’s enterprises, Cr. Gaudin said the tramways had shown a credit balance of £l3OO in 1934. The tramways had shown a deficit of £9OO this year, but during the year the council had restored the five per cent, cut, which took £BOOO of tramway revenue, so that, comparing the situation with the previous year, the council was £7OOO to the good. The increase in receipts was £5OO during 1935. That showed careful cutting down of expenditure. There had been general talk of lowering tram fares. The speaker 1 did not stand for running city services at a loss. He did not think that services such as tramways should be a charge on the rates. They found that a city like Christchurch, which hail been quoted, drew £37,000 on the rates. He recognised that that tramway system was controlled by a board., but he considered it was the duty of the council to make ends meet. The electricity department was in a far better position. It had finished the year with a balance of £13.000. Wellington had one of the lowest domestic rates, and under the present management the department was flourishing. These concerns required men of some capability to preside over them. The councillors were like the directors of a company, and the electors should see that they got men who would carry out their duties satisfactorily. The citizens’ candidates for the forthcoming municipal elections will address electors on Tuesday next at 8 p.m. at the Realm, Hataitai. and on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Alethodist Hall, Alolesworth Street. Addresses will be given by the mayoral candidate, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, and by City Council, Hospital and Harbour Board candidates. ELECTION DAY STAFF Work For 700 Men at Auckland By Telegraph.— Press Association Auckland, April 18. A staff of about 700 men will be required by the City Returning Officer to man the booths and count the votes at the Municipal Election on Alay 8.