THE MAYORALTY.

Evening Post, Volume LII, Issue 155, 21 November 1896, Page 5

THE MAYORALTY.

MB. BELL AT THE SKATING BINK The was but a moderate attendance at the Skatjng Rink last flight, when Mr. H. D. Bell, a candidate for the Mayoralty of the City, addressed the ratepayers. Mr. J. &■ W. Aitken occupied the chair. Mr. Bell, who was received with .applause, said that be wished to combat the statement which had been made that he 4id not perform an engagement entered into by him with the citizens in respect to the drainage scheme. The alleged promise was that wherever the drains were, at the time qf the report, in accordance with the City bylaws, the City and' not the individuals should pay for the private connections. * The' statement published as an advertisement in the Post of that night by Mr. G. Fisher, was made either in gross ignorance or in wilful misrepresentation. For the purpose of winning this election by means which Mr. Bell would not dare characterise from a public platform, this wilful misrepresentation was being spread abroad. The exact performance of the alleged promise he had made was contained in section 7 of the Wellington City Drainage Empowering Act, the proviso of which read as follows :— " Provided always that nothing herein contained shall authorise the Council to charge any owner with the cost of constructing and laying any new drain in place of, or making ' •any alteration or addition to, any drain which in or subsequently to the month of J uly, 1890, was laid in accordance with the bylaws of the city for the time being in force." It was as a member of the House of Bepresentatives, as he was not then Mayor, that in 1894 he had seeu that that Act contained the promise be had made to the ratepayers. (Applause). As to the tramways, Mr. Bell declared that he was absolutely in favour of their municipalisation. (Applause.) If he were Mayor he would enter into no negotiation for the renewal of the tramway lease, while he would also see that the City and the proprietors each complied with the terms of their contract. He was altogether in favour of the City controlling all its work. He had no business relation with Johnston & Co. except the relation of landlord and tenant; and he was altogether surprised to hear that he was the nominee of any of the proprietors of the tramways. (Applause.) In 1892 and 1893 when he was Mayor the Council had cleaned the city from its terrible scourges of typhoid and diphtheria. That work was forgotten now, but it was done, and done properly. (Applause.) He confessed that he wished to have charge of the completion of the drainage scheme, which would require very great 'care and attention at the end of the work. The financial position of the Corporation was this year very grave. There were various things which showed that the City would have to face a serious deficiency this year. The £8000 of the unexpended City loan might be made to bear v more of the costs of city im-

provements. The first duty of the Corporation was to keep in repair the main streets, tbe second duty the by-streets, and the third to oonstruct new roads. The overdrafts on all the accounts of the Corporation were over £26,000, and the efforts of tbe Council were directed to paying off the overdrafts, and not to improving tlie city. What was wanted was that the city should clean up its accounts, and be prevented by » statute from oanying on the dead - weights of overdrafts. Let the overdrafts be abolished, and the power of overdrawing taken away altogether. (Applause.) There was nothing worse that tbe city could have than a Mayor with a policy, who hampered the real business of the City of keeping the streets in order by attempting to carry out his own fads. There was no better endowed city than Wellington. The City's money should be first of all put intp the streets. The maintenance of the streets was the first consideration. No man who elected him would have anything to expect from him. He bad no object to gain in seeking the office .except to serve the city in which he had lived so long. He came to contest this election under as great a pressure as was ever put upon any man. He resisted as far as he could ; but he had a right, nevertheless, tp offer himself for election. The matter was put before him as a public duty, and if elected he would do bis best to serve tbe ratepayers in the futui-e as he believed he had served them in the past. (Applause.) He wanted to see a business man in the Municipal chair who had no desire to advance himself, politically or socially ; and he wanted to see unison in the Council. (Applause.) Replying to questions, the candidate s&id that he wpuld if elected insjgt that tbe conditions of the contract between the tramway proprietors and the Corporation were strictly carried out. A vote of thanks and confidence was proposed by Mr. John Beck, seconded by the Rev. W. A. Evans, and carried unanimously. . MB. G. FISHEB AT NEWTOWN. Bpeaking at St. Thomas's Schoolroom last evening in support of his candidature as Mayor (Mr. J. A. Capper presiding), Mr. Fisher commented upon the article which appeared in the Evening Post of the 10th inst., headed " The Tramway Scandal." The article, he said, created in the minds of the ratepayers an unsavoury feeling. It appeared to have been written either vindictively or without knowledge. He preferred to think the latter. It referred to " a scandalous gift of £300 of the ratepayers 1 money to~the lessee of the tramways." Anyone would have thought from this that the interests of the City were being sacrificed in a mdiat culpable manner. The original re- | solution passed by the Council was to the effect that Mr. Hall's application that the Council should pay half the cost of raising a portion of the tramway line be entertained — only entertainedjthey would hotice^ — subject to the City Engineer's approval of the levels, the work to be done to his satisfaction, and the estimate of cost to be approved by the Council. The resolution was therefore strictly non-committal. There was no mention whatever of any sum of £300. The language used in the Post's article was to him most repugnant. He declared that there was not one act of his in the Council of which he need be ashamed. (Hear, hear.) The writer of the Post article was not lair in his quotation from the tramway agreement. He should have quoted clause 6, which provides that if the Corporation at any time raised the permanent level of the streets, the Corporation should bear the cost of raising or lowering the tram line. The Corporation had altered the level of the streets, in one place raising the street 9in. In others, the levels £ad been lowered, and if Mr. Hall chose he could call upon the Corporation to defray the whole cost. But he did not desire to act too stringently. He claimed credit- for having prevented, by bis casting vote, an act of spoliation which was contemplated • in handing over to a syndicate for a period of 21 years the rights for an electrical tramway system. He declared that at the time the proposal was made to the Council there was no syndicate existing, and what Messrs, Johnston & Co. really proposed to do when they obtained the concession they asked for was to take it to London and sell it tor whatever it would fetoh. That right belonged exclusively to the citizens pf Wellington, not to Johnston & Co. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Fisher referred to the drainage question, pointing out that both Mr. Bell and Mr. Brandoa during their term of om'ce as Mayor led the public to believe that where there were existing connections any alterations required to those connections should be done out of the drainage loan (hear, near), and householders would not be put to additional expense. Yet Mr. Bell, when he got into Parliament, introduced a Bill which provided exactly the opposite. It was an unjust thing, He regretted that the Wellington Streets Bill, which provided that existing private streets might be declared public streets, had not an opportunity of passing last session, as it was unfair to take rates from those unfortunate people who lived in private streets, and give them nothing in return. There had been much complaint lately about the condition of their public streets, but he thought they would agree that even if they had the money— which they bad not — it would be inadvisable to repair the streets until the drainage works were finished. The expenditure had been exceptionally heavy during the current year, £7500 alone going towards flood protection works in .Kent-terrace, the relief works, and the Thorndon Baths— the latter an extravagant expenditure— but if returned again he would take care that these finances were husbanded a little closer in future. The city had undoubtedly grown, but there had been a reign of drnamentat Mayors. The head of a city like Wellington required to be a man with a firm grasp of its affairs. It had taken him the whole year to pull the threads together, and it was for the ratepayers to say whether tbat work was to be thrown away. He thought he was fairly entitled to ask them to return him again to office. As they were no doubt aware, there were to be festivities next year on account of the Queen's long reign, and it was supposed that the Mayor of the capital city of this colony might be knighted. He hoped nothing of the kind would come to him, because he would not know what to do with jt. (Laughter.) He | sought no knighthood, but if returned he i would continue to devote himself to their ! interests. (Applause.) On the motion of Mr. Watson, seconded by Mr. Hayes, a vote of thanks and confidence was passed to Mr. Fisher,