CITY MANAGEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 71, 24 March 1926, Page 3

CITY MANAGEMENT

(To ttit-Editor;)

Sir,—The two-column statement issued by the executive of the Civic League,^" Saturday's- "Post", clearly.. dempnstjcatejti the weakness.of this institution. Quotations from same read: "It does not bind its nominees with a pledge; all it has expected is that those returned shall be true to the announcements they themselves made prior to the election." -It is interesting to be told that Councillors Luckie, Troup, and others, took part in drawing up the platform of ; the Civic League: "City management -ii.-: that a comprehensive review should .be made of all the departments of the City Corporation 'by ■ a competent and' impartial \ C9!§£ mission -..,.'with aview to the better co-ordination of the various departments." This seems to me a direct cori.tradict(t<ni. They don't take a pledge from ■ nominees, and they have taken a pledge from councillors Luckie, Troup and others.' ■• ••■ A Will the executive of the Civic Leagufc kindly explain to the people of :Welling ton what they really 'mean: .1 do not expect an answer, as ray criticisms" of the Civic League in the past have not been - answered. Their attitude is like that of the Mayor, which, if I am rightly inform- , ed, is something like this: that Mr.'Stuart Wilson is only an unmitigated nuisance in this community, and not worth.takingany notice of. Not very long ago he fold myself and others that we were issuipg poison gas. They remind me of Parity ment, who in answer to one of' my- petjr tions, stated that they had no recommendation to make, and ..then proceeded to do what I asked them to do, but so far I have not been successful .in this, -regijjf^ 'with our City Corporation.. '.^2l: Just an illustration of how slowly bar Civic League:moves, the statement 'refers to an outside inquiry into' civic matteri held in Auckland in 1915. ; It now.recom* mends a'similar course of action. •: To jHJf knowledge^ a report of. this inquiry h^jt been ia the possession of the Civic Leagt*» for' the past four years.- The €ivic::Lea'gW suffers from the same disability.■'.'M-.offltf City Council, that is, the wtmtofcomp&l> ent leadership, therefore I'once mow urgr the citizens of Wellington'to move through their ratepayers' association*,' vhich num* ber over twenty in and around -this city, every one of which is a motion of want of confidence in Municipal administration ai we know it in. Wellington. The Chic League has. failed us, therefore delegates from ratepayers', asso'ciatjons -should meet, form.a platform, and insist that the Mayor and councillors put' it into.. effect. Four things are urgently needed in thir city:—(l) A comprehensive.inquiry; (2) • general manager; (3) a city plan; (4) a Port of Wellington Authority. ■• . {:';'■£. Numbers 1, 2, and 3 all sensible peppw will agree with, but No. 4 is perhaps the most important of all—that, is, to create, a. new body that will co-ordinate the woik of the City Council, Harbour Board, Government (through, the Railway .Department), Highway Boards, and all local boo* ies, such as Eastbourne, :■': atone, Upper Hutt, and county councils. It is.positively absurd that all these local authorities should be.allowed to proceed in-their eyrn sweet way. (quarrelling among themseka half the time)1, and. making an unholy mess of the administration, of the ar<;a comprising Greater .Wellington. .The suburb of Eastbourne; for.instance, would not be in such a hopeless plight as r .it. }« owing to mistakes niade in.the ferry• *€£• vice, had this been guided by «n author* ity such as I suggest. . MaDy colossal errors made by past, councils in Wellington would never' have been Iperpetrated. I cannot warn citizens too frequently that if they allow our City, Council to carry out its present policy, or rather want of policy, the good ship Wellington will go on the rocks. It. is a comparatively simple matter to give. Wellington good, government, a very much easier problem, for instance than our Prime Minister as Minister of Railways . has on his hands, endeavouring to bring back our Railways into a well-managed institution. Perliajjp one reason why the City Council so often goes into committee and hide from the people generally what ther are doing, is oiling to an old Scotch proverb, which runs something like this: "There are some folk the better o' bein' k«nt; there are ithers that are the better of no bein' kent."—l am, etc.,1 ■ > , STUART WILSON, f 22nd March,*l926. *,