MR. HISLOP ANSWERS MR. McKEEN

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 190, 10 May 1938, Page 17

MR. HISLOP ANSWERS MR. McKEEN

“So far as raiding the funds is concerned, he has voted in favour on every occasion in the last seven years,” said Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, who is standing for re-elec-tion to the mayoralty, in answering Mr. It. McKeon’s criticism of the -Wellington City Council’s administration of its electricity department at a ’Citizenss’ ticket candidates’ meeting at Brooklyn last night. > The speaker said that since he had been mayor a considerable amount of money had been taken from the funds of the electricity department. During the depression’ it had been taken for meeting the unemployment situation, and on every occasion Mr. McKeen had voted in favour of the action. Since then in the last three years, £15,000 had been taken a s part of the department’s contribution to a building fund which the council was accumulating to provide the staff with better accommodation than it had at present. The staff’s working conditions would not be tolerated by any employer. Then £20,000 was taken as the electricity department s contribution to general city improvements which it was planned to make before the centennial celebration. Further additions would be made to that fund next year. Whatever Mr. McKeen might .say, not a single amount had been taken from the fund contrary to his vote. When a reduction wag proposed in the commercial electricity tariff Mr. McKeen moved that the committee’s recommendation be referred back with a view to a reduction being made in the domestic rate. That, however, was a mere gesture, because the total reduction the council could afford to make, spread over all the accounts, would have given a reduction of only a fraction of a penny each month on the average account. Transport Policy. Referring to transport, which had been under discussion earlier in the meeting, Mr. Hislop said that nobody had decided the trams versus buses controversy. Due heard of places where trams were being replaced with buses because buses were more suitable to the conditions, but one was not told of the extensions that were being made to tramway systems. In making such a decision a hundred and one matters had to be taken into consideration. One thing was certain. Ko sane person could support the scrapping of the Wellington tramways to-morrow, they had been kept in good condition and the city could not afford the waste of scrapping them. However, a decision would have to be made in years to come, and it was his intention, if re-elected, to have a sub-committee set up to decide on the best transport method or combinations ot methods for Wellington. Mr. Hislop said the best answer to criticism of past councils was given ny a look about The city. If one looked about freely? frankly and broadly one W'ould see many improvements, that had been made over the previous live or teu years. Everybody in every part of the city would see improvements that. had been made, while the general services had been maintained. That had been done with a proper regard to the interests of the ratepayers and all others who contributed to the general revenue of the corporation. ~ If one looked through every page of the '“Herald” and listened to every speech one would not. find any attack by the. Labour candidates on the general administration of the city. Mr. Hislop dealt with his opponents’ statements on housing on the lines of previous speeches. Provision of Flats. The proposal of the Town Planning Institute for the accommodation of people who must, or choose to, live in small flats i was strongly supported by Mr. M. G. C. McCaul, citizens’ candidate for the city council. Nothing had yet been done for that large class, he said. The housing survey showed that 16,848 persons were affected. The institute suggested that a public utility company be established jn each large centre with capital provided by the Government and the municipality, the initial directorate to be appointed by -those two authorities and the company to have power to issue debentures to the public. The company’s object would be to erect multiple-unit houses and small flats for rent to people of moderate means, . surplus profits to go to the tenants. It ■ would fill a want, would not clash with Government or "private activities, and would be co-operative in the best sense, i He was sure it would have the support of all parties and all persons interested in the city’s welfare. Labour candidates told only half the ; story in putting their case, said Mr. T. Forsyth, citizens’ committee candidate for the city council. The administration of the last three years had not been seriously criticised except in regard to the tramway dispute. Mr. W. N. Broadley, a Labour candidate, had stated that ‘‘the tramwaymen are the lowest-paid men em- 1 ployed by the city council,” but the motor- 1 men averaged earnings of approximately : £325 per annum, and tramway employees i were higher paid than other city council i employees. The tramways accounts for t the year showed a net profit of a little t more than £lO,OOO. and the men had | been offered increases totalling approxi- j mately £15.000, but that bad been refused. ( Mr. McKeen, who was a member of the | electricity committee, had stated that “the . anti-Labour councillors would not hesi- | tate to extract every penny-piece of pro- ( fit from this department for the sole pur- ( pose of relieving the large ratepayers or , commercial users and not the slightest f sympathy or benefit would be given to the j domestic users, who helped to make those j profits possible.” The net revenue for the ( year just ended was as follows: Domes- . tic users, £98,000; commercial users, £157,000. The net cost to the domestic ; user was about Id. a unit, whereas the , commercial user paid more than three. , times that rate. ; Union Secretaries. 1 ■ Mr. R. L. Macalister, candidate for the ■ city council, said that he favoured the ' construction of baths at Brooklyn if local residents assisted the council. Happy Valley Road should be improved, he said. The Labour councillors’ ideas for housing were dangerous. The city should make land available for the State to finance the erection, of houses that people could own, and private enterprise could do the work if finance was available. Representatives of all sections of the community should be on the council, and not trade union secretaries only, as the Labour Party proposed, he said. Discussing the platform of the Labour candidates for the harbour board, Captain S. Holm, a candidate for the board, said there could not be much wrong with harbour administration if they had to resort to making the proposals they did. • There was no shipping trust, as they alleged in proposing changes in the board’s constitution. Captain Holm quoted the constitution of the Port of London Authority in support of the present method of representation. He agreed with Mr. J. Roberts, Labour candidate, that many members of the board were landsmen and did not know as much about the port’s affairs as seafarers, but Mr. Roberts himself, and other Labour members of the board, were just as much longshoremen as the rest. Hospital Board Candidates. "My interest is in the patients of that institution and the heroic band of women who. wait on them.” said the Rev. F. J. Usher, candidate for the hospital board. In recent years very few complaints had been received about treatment, he said, and most of those came from people who never would be pleased, which showed the quality of the attendance. Referring to the proposed auxiliary hospital in the Hutt Valley, Mr. Usher pointed out that j the district it would serve was one from ■ which many industrial and other accident cases came, and those patients 1 xhould have, a better service. Further- I more, residents of that area contributed j one-quarter of the cost of providing bos-

pital services. To spend money on the central building without doing something for people outside was not right. Air. F. Castle also spoke in furtherance of his candidature for the hospital board. To explain a statement that the board had suffered large deficits while he was chairman, he pointed out that those deficits occurred in two years during the depression when the board was paying large sums for relief. He had no regret that there had been debit balances then because nf the reason for which they had been incurred. There had been an attempt to subor'diuate the isfeue of hospital overcrowding in the ambition to have an expensive mod«i’Zi block for AVellington city on a site tltut was extremely difficult to use for a modern hospital. Surgical needs had influenced the decision to build a hospital of: high quality’ when the need was an extension of the aceoinmodation for patients and nurses.-'- Citizens' candidates really understood tlie issue. Asked what the position would be if the. citizens' candidates, pledged to providing a hospital at the Hutt, were, after the election, confronted by a contrary Government attitude. Mi*. Castle said that state of affairs would have to be met if it arose. Neither the .Government nor the commission considering the question could instruct the-board. The decision would be made according to the judgment of: the board members, who represented the electors. If the Local Bodies Loans Board rejected the board's application for a loan it would be another matter.

The chairman of the meeting, Mr. J'. I. Goldsmith, solicited th? votes of electors on behalf of Sir Charles Norwood, who Is standing -for the harbour board, but who is away from New Zealand recuperating from iilness. Others who addressed the meeting were Mrs. Knox Gilmer, and Mr. R. A. Glen, candidates for tlie hospital board, and Messrs. M. M. F. Lnckic. and AV. Appleton, candidates for the city council.