SOME QUESTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 91, 18 April 1921, Page 8

SOME QUESTIONS

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Tlie Labour Representation Committee has chosen a full ticket for the municipal' elections, .and published their .platform. I should like to have some information on these matters. First, on their candidate for Mayor. How long has he been an elector of the city ? Can the party tell us why they selected a man who knows nothing aboutj municipal affairs and has not been in Wellington long enough to have any experience worth talking about. I notice the party is advocating that the city employees shall have direct representation on the ■committee* of the council. Let me ask how can they get that without, the consent of Parliament ? Does, the party think that Parliament will amend the Municipal Act to allow it to be done? As far as I know, no one can. legally sit on a committee of the council unless he is elected a councillor What is the sense of promising * the city employees something you cannot give them? Surely they know it, and will resent being bluffed. Besides, the city employees have their votes now as electors, and to give them direct representation in addition would be to give them two votes to other people's one. Do these L.R.'C. candidates understand that they are advocating the Tory principle of plural voting? I have known Mr. W. T. Young'in the old days fight hard for the one man, one vote" principle, and cannot understand why' he is now advocating a system of plural voting. , If the present City Council has done wrong, must not the Labour men on it take their share of any blame as well as the r other councillors? On housing, for instance, I understand Councillor Glover is on the Housing Committee, and surely if the work has not been right he is to blame as much as others on the committee? Does the party want us to believe that their candidates are perfect and can do no wrong? Thai is too ridiculous to be accepted as fact. Can the party tell us why, on occasions, their representatives go .on the public platform and tell the electors things that are no£ at all correct? Is that playing the game? Just recently a councillor, for party reasons, told outside the council that the City Council was paying an extravagantly high figure for coal. At the council meeting Councillor Forsyth asked if the figure-stated by his brother councillor was correct, and was told "No," it was just about half of what was stated. '

I want to know why Councillor Glover slated what was wrong. Finally, I want to ask this party how it can be seriously in favour of proportional representation i.nd yet ask the electors to give it all tho representation. I am not concerned i'bout what the 'party's Mayoral candidate would'do in the way of receiving ficnerul Haigh. There is no need to ask (uiestions on that score -"as Mr. P. Yvaser, M.P,,. proved what such men are capable of doinj? when the Prince of Wales visited .Wellington.

I have been a worker all my life, but find that I cannot square my ideas of Labour principles with the sort of thing the present L.R.C. is giving us.—l am, DEMOCRAT. 18th April. ■; ".. TO THH EDITOR. Sir, —Would'the candidates .kindly, inform their hoped-for supporters if they are in favour of~ (1) Putting the city milk supply under the management of experts from the Government 'Dairying Department, so a-s 'to ensure its proper, practical, and economic handling and distribution? (2) If they are in favour of continuing the cycle track from Cour-tenay-place to Kilbirnie, instead of setting apart so much of the roadway for a promenade that is unnecessary, and that cannot be spared for such a purpose ? These seem to me to be important questions that many thousands of the citizens aTe interested in, and they should bs a.nswered publicly, so that we shall know who_ to vote for on polling day. Number lis the biggest question.before the citizens, as the milk supply amounts to a million pounds a year, and No. 2 is essential, because the small space left for heavy and' fast traffic is insufficient, and at times even now is I dangerous. What will it be in the future?—l am, etc., WILLIAM CODY. 18thApriL ■ |