MAYORAL ELECTIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 94, 20 April 1912, Page 3

MAYORAL ELECTIONS.

THE CITY CAMPAIGN. MR. M'LAREN'S CANDIDATURE. Mr. M'Laren, the Labour candidate for the Mayoralty, addressed a meeting at the Druids' Hall last night. Thero were about sixty people present, including a fair proportion of jvomen. Mr. T. C. Teeter presided. The candidate, in the course of hiR ■ address, said he was not standing as a kind of Sandow, the one strong man of the community. He simply wanted to state facta, so that the , public might know in what respect ho -was titted for the position to which he aspired. Ho had ueen a member of the City Council for eleven years, and the same care he had exercised as councillor he would exercise if he was elected Mayor. A city was more than a company ; he believed it would be better to regard a city as a living organism, every part of which was intimately related to the other, part. All the' progressive municipalities of the old world had concentrated attention on the care of the children, consideration of public health, and the creation of better conditions for the masses of the people Business methods should only be made a means , to that end, and not themselves be made *the end that was aimed at. In his judgment, the function of Mayor and councillors \va6 to .set out the plan on which the city should proceed, and leave the. details to the responsible officers. The more they upheld those officers and saw they carriea out their administrative duties, the better it would be. for people as a whole. IMPORTANT WORKS. Replying to the remarks of his opponents, he said that the City -Council had not been behindhand in assisting technical education. There were not many important works in Hand, but during the past ten years many important works had 'been undertaken, and he had had pleasure in taking his part in seeing them carried through. There was now to be considered the matter of the water supply to Wadestown, ,the duplication of the Wainui main, and the carrying out of street improvements. He had always been in favour of duplicating the Wainui main, and in regard tb street works," he thought they should extend the work of paving to the full width. One important matter was attention to, the public health, and the safety of the people. J3e hud always carefully considered- proposals for -the -creation of righte-of-way, with the idea of preventing the creation of congested areas. They had far too much of that sort of thing already. As to public health, 'he had a good idea of what was required in regard, for instance, to the provision of air space, and he had already succeeded in preventing the, bylaw being amended in a way that would have been injurious to the health of the people. FIRE BRIGADE REFORM. Improvement was wanted in Regard to fire brigade matters, and he hoped to see all electric wires placed underground. (Applause.) In the meantime fire brigade ladders should be instituted, and the circuit should be cut off so as to prevent the occurrence of such accidents as had lately taken place. CITY FINANCES. As to the finances of the city, he said that the receipts last year amounted to £209,085 and the expenditure to £207,096. The receipts included : Rates, £151,894; rents, £28,003; sale of water £11,398. Of the expenditure, street works, drainage and lighting cost £63,905, waterworks £35,380; interest and sinking fund, £50,934. In addition the sum of £5556 had been spent in the widening ox Willis-street. It was evident, ho considered, that good business had been done so far as the general account was concerned, and the city had acquired laud which would become more valuable as" the years went on. He believed that it was good policy for the municipality to acquire land, and in that connection he pointed to Germany, where there are 1500 towns and villages which, on account of the possession of land,' pay no rates at all. The position in regard to the fcratuway service was not, iv his judgment, altogether satisfactory, and he believed they would have to make a careful scrutiny into its working. He believed that 'would best be done if they had as few authorities as possible being concerned in the investigation. He would give every assistance to the- Tramway Board in making its investigations, so that th» position of affairs should be disclosed in its entirety. Last year, he added, there was an increase in ■ revenue of £5000 and an increase in the working expenses of £7833. It was evident that great care would have to be taken* of the expenditure. Some loss was, of course, caused by the tramway strike. He regretted that -affair, and he declared that during that trouble" he, wa& not swayed*' in any degree by passion or heat, and tried to preveht it occurring. He thought the depreciation fund of the tramways should not be devoted to new works until all repairs -and renewals had been carried out. OTHER MUNICIPAL MATTERS. He did not agres with the investment of the city's sinking funds in the city 'a own debentures. As to street-widening, he said the total expenditure in this connection was £175.768, and the Tents fioin tho properties acquired gave a return of £3 5s per cent. •on the capital outlay. He took v - deep interest, hehe said, in developing, the various city institutions, educational, social, and artistic, and in this connection he believed that the City Council and Harbour Board and semi-public institutions should combine in assisting local industries, even though that* might mean a slight increase in cost. Ho was in favour of establishing ir.b' standards of employment for corpoiation employees. He had always been in favour of the establishment of markets, and 'he contended that the £926 a- year derived from, the Royal Oak site, which was originally set aside for a mavket site, should be invested for that purpose. The people, he safd, knew him, and what he had done or. attempted to do during the last eleven years, and he was quite content to leave the issue in the hands of the public. During the eleven years he ,had been in the council not one of the Labour unions had sought to dictate to him in the slightest degree. He was standing as a Labour candidate because ho believed in the virtue of /service. ( Applause. ) At the conclusion of his address Mr. M'Laren was accorded a vote' of thanks and confidence. At a meeting of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, held last evening, a resolution was unanimously passed to support the candidature of Mr. i>. M'Laren for the Mayoralty, inembero pledging themselves to ui-e their beel endeavours to further his interests. ASPIRANTS AT HATAITAI. The four candidates for Mayoral honours attended tha annual meeting of the 1-lataitai Municipal Electors' Association iabt evening, and delivered briei addresses. Mlt. BISS. Th^ first wan Mr. A. S. Bias, who St'/id the tunnel uueetion yavn the council ho murh trouble* a» it did tho u*hi>l elation... Uii W, it, i&jgrt£JU*' City En- j

gineer. had recommended the council, when tho tunnel was cut, not to widen it for vehicular traffic, but he had proposed to make another tunnel for that 1 purpose by tho Wellington College grounds. This might not suit sill tha Hataitai residents, but Mr. Morton had had to look to the future. Ho could not help pointing out that the i council had. to act very gingerly in tho matter of tramway concessions, for the system appeared to be losing over £2000 this year. iVlr. Biss strongly supported the Ratepayers' Associations in the city, and said tho council gained by coming into contact with the members. Replying to a queetion, the speaker characterised the fire alarm system as obsolete if the bells only rang at Kilbirnie, as stated, and not at the Central Station. (Applause.) MR. WRIGHT'S VIEWS. Mr. R. A. Wright, addressing the Hataitai Electors' Association, said lie would like to promise all the association would like, but he had no intention of making rash promises. Regarding the tunnel, the initial blunder was made at the beginning. He had wondered why the job was not completed at the time. Something would have to be done sooner or later, and, if elected, he would nave the matter gone into to see if the blunder could be remedied while considering the revenue of tho council. The fire alarm system should undoubtedly be connected direct with the Central Station. Referring to tha report presented to the City Council on Thursday night, the candidate said that wrong balance-sheets had apparently been given out in the past. Where were the financiers of those days?' Every trading concern of the council , should pay ita way, or the system of municipal enterprise would go. If tho association's engineer differed with Mr. Morton regarding • tho tunnel, said Mi*. Wright in reply to a question, it might be necessary to call in a third engineer. ACTING-MAYOR SPEAKS. In his address, Mr. John . Smith, Acting-Mayor, said that because he had not put hit? heel down to crush a certain councillor he had been termed a weak man. This was not so. He had had no hand hi the depreciation fund blunder. The balance of power- was too strong for tho minority, and they had to submit. He had voted steadily in the direction of making the fund a liquid one. (" Heai", hear.'') Had he had' his way the tunnel would have been at ■ a lower level. It was 1 proposed to, over come the traffic difficulty by extending the Conslable-street lin«, as there- was not the money for another tunnel.' The council was -in the hands of. experts in the matter. Gradually the council, was placing fire motors in the outer districts. Mr. Smith said he was not the youngest man in the field, but he was never more active in his life. (Applause. ) MR. D. M'LAREN'S ADDRESS. The Jast speaker was Mr. D. M'Laren, who spoke of the necessity for having continuous and, complete records of th» various departments of the council for purposes of .administration. He thanked tho association for its invitation, but he would nob 'support the Hataitai district againet another; he stood in .tilts interests of Labour. He would give every attention to an independent t«port concerning the tunnel. All assistance should be rendered in the matter of tiro prevention, and finances should be stretched, if neceeaary, for x this desideratum. •If elected, "he would act just as he had during hi& eleven years as a councillor. (Applause.) A member of the association asked Mr. M'Laren if, in the event of a strike like the recent tramway trouble, ho would be ah absolutely free agent, or waa hb bound by a. caucus ot tho Labour Party. ' " The candidate sad he was j^lad ot the question, a& he could reply to a misrepresentation. There was no such thing as a caucus in municipal government. W'th regard to any Labour trouble, he had never once had any direction or dictation from any, Labour body in existence! In the tramway strike ho exercised absolute freedom of judgment, and was as cool as any man who had anything to do with the matter. All the candidates were thanked for their addreett'S. OTHER MEETINGS. A meeting of electors was addressed by Mr. J. Smith, at the New town Library, Mr. J. P Luke presiding. A motion of thanks and confidence was eairied unanimously. Mr. R. A. Wright delivered an address at Ingestre-stroet. He expressed the hope that citizens would generously support the establishment 0 I au art gallery.