A COUNCILLOR ABROAD.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 125, 25 November 1908, Page 8

A COUNCILLOR ABROAD.

TRAMWAYS AND SUFFRAGETTES. Councillor James Godber and Mrs. Godber returned to Wellington to-day after a long and pleasant vacation in England and America. During his travels Mr. Godber paid particular attention to municipal affairs. He was much impressed with the palatial character of the London County/ Council's rolling stock, and also with the underground electric conduit system, which does away entirely with overhead wires. "Costly," he said to a Post reporter, "costly, 1 admit ; but with magnificent results so far as smooth running is concerned. Do they pay? How can I tell you. No one seems to know whether the council's cars pay or not. I saw car systems also 'at Sheffield and Edinburgh. I saw the systems, too, of San Francisco and Chicago ; but do not think I am boasting at all when I tell you that taken all round., and especially in regard to fares, our Wellington system will compare favourably with any of the systems I saw at Home. This is not a matter of opinion ; but rather of fact. "Markets? Well, its really very hard to say whether municipal markets are a success or a failure. In some places they are successful : in others, ghastly failures. So much depends upon the local circumstances. I was convinced of one thing, however, and that is : a municipal undertaking may be a great success at home, but it does not necessarily follow that it would be so in Wellington." Mr> Godber came out by a German boat, "not," he explained, "because I preferred it, but because I could not get a berth on any other, and time Was of more importance than the flag." With regard to politics at home, two things struck Mr. Godber most forcibly. The women's suffrage and tariff reform. Mrs. Godber addressed a suffragette meeting in London, and found her hearers most interested in the electoral rights which New Zealand women enjoy. Mr. Godber, in referring to the suffrage question, observed that it needed a revolution to shake England up, and it would come, for the suffragettes included among them most of tho ablest women in the kingdom — bright, clear-minded, gifted, intellectual women. Advanced thinkers said that tariff reform in England was inevitable, and the belief that it would be soon undertaken had been greatly strengthened by the recent acute -industrial distress. In America Mr. Godber found a general public interest in New Zealand, and a great admiration for the plucky way in which the country seeks to solve difficult social problems — problems that cause the gravest concern in America.