RE THE MAYOR AND GAS STOVES.

Evening Star, Issue 9534, 3 November 1894, Page 2

RE THE MAYOR AND GAS STOVES.

TO THE EDITOR. Silt, —I have to ask a favor once more, which I doubt not you will accord (but which you have since declined). Mr Fish, at the last meeting of Council, went a long way round in making his comparisons between the two shops. It is a pity that he should find it necessary to descend to such low means to gain his ends by depreciating my premises. He said it was at his instigation that I wrote offering the shop adjoining (quite true); but he did not mention what he told me a few days after taking my premises.: that Mr Solomon had strongly urged him to take his shop in Princes street, but that he thought, being a councillor, it would not be acceptable at that time, and possibly suggested waiting till November next, when circumstances might alter matters. Had Mr Fish confined himself to four instead of forty minutes he would have saved liimsclf a lot of trouble, the councillors’ annoyance, and my time in pointing out his errors. Mr Fish tells us in his statement the measurement of my shop from trout to back is only 48ft and 14ft wide, while the true measure is from "back to shop window 51ft by 15ft 2iu {[wide. The upper floor he gives as 12ft by 10ft. but the tape measure gives 14ft by, say, lift. He goes on to say this is quite uscics;', hut it iI understand, used by the shopman as a dwelling. His salary is put down, I see, at U42 15s 4d. '1 his, surely, is not for six months. Tf so, it is, to my mind, a sweating wage. He, being a single man, was perhaps told that that the accommodation would increase the screw. But, to return, the mayor, who distorts facts in this way, is very likely to exaggerate the amount of space contained in the other shop. The public will have an opportunity of making their own calculations as to . their fitness; but the fact remains we cannot take his word as the truth, the whole truth, as we have a right to expect from the chief magistrate of this City, particularly in such a small matter as this. I stated in my letter that appeared in your issue oC the 17th inst. that the floor space at their disposal was 780 ft super, and the room above added. lam now prepared to prove that the superficial measurement is over I,oooft, Mr Fish to the contrary notwithstanding. The schemes he has brought forward so near election time have apparently caught on. I opine that the citizens may use him, but they will not appreciate such dishonesty as above shown.—l am, etc., W. G. Geddes. Montpellier, October 29. P.S. —An afterthought has occurred to me, and I must ask you to extend your courtesy that I may congratulate Mr Solomon on having better luck than myself; but, if my memory servos me right, Mr Fish was unseated by Mr Walters through painting the Town Hall, or some oilier job. How does Cr Solomon stand? It appears to me to run on all-fours ; at any rate I think a mistake has been made.—W.G.G.