RATEPAYERS’ ASSOCIATION AND CITIZENS’ LEAGUE.

Evening Star, Issue 22783, 4 May 1931, Page 14

RATEPAYERS’ ASSOCIATION AND CITIZENS’ LEAGUE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —If it were not for the fact that highly important issues are at stake at Wednesday’s poll the doings of the City .Ratepayers’ Association and the Citizens' League during the past ten days would form the “ plot ” for a comic opera that would outdo Gilbert and Sullivan; hut, in the interests of good municipal government, their methods of “rigging” a ticket must ho openly exposed. Jn the ‘ Star ’ ot the 3(ith ultimo I made some trenchant criticism which has elicited no reply from this body, which purports to represent the ratepayers of the city of Dunedin, and has the effrontery to instruct the doctors how to vote. The Citizens’ League, .1 am credibly informed, is not a properly constituted body, hut consists of one or two councillors and a few citizens who came to light just before the nominations closed. If there be a chairman or a secretary regularly appointed can they deny this direct statement? The City Ratepayers’ Association, on the other hand, was duly and properly constituted in 1927. One of the chief planks of its platform was to endeavour to bring about the ward system of election, and to this end a petition signed by some 2,501) electors was presented to the City Council. A majority of councillors have always been opposed to tins system. That plank, however, has remained fore* most in the policy of the City Ratepayers’ Association to this day. 1 now challenge the chairman of this body to deny, if he can, the following statements:—(l) That there are at present resolutions in the minute book stating, inter aha, that a ratepayers’ ticket of not more than six candidates bo submitted to the electors. (2) That every such candidate be pledged to vote for the ward system of election. (3) That the City Ratepayers’ Association ticket now consists of twelve candidates, of whom not less than six are members of the City Council, a body steadfastly opposed to the ward system of election, and' further that six councillors on the ratepayers’ ticket are opposed to this plank in their platform. The City Association convened a meeting at which some five members of suburban ratepayers’ associations were present on the evening of the 29th nit., the day of the closing of nominations. Will the chairman publicly explain at whoso invitation the meeting was swamped by gentlemen purporting to represent the Citizens’League, and. further, why each of these had precisely the same voting power as the delegates appointed by the suburban ratepayers - associations? Further, will he deny that when going through the list of candidates complimentary references were made to _ the ability of the writer as an organiser, etc., but that his name was struck out because his calling as an hotelkeeper would offend the Prohibitionists? After the ticket " was selected the Citizens' League promptly set about selecting a ticket of its own, which I predict will bo circulated in thousands before polling day. Then, for the second time since the Ratepayers’ Association has been formed this nondescript body lias “put it well across them.” All this savours of methods generally associated with “ Tammany’” in the United .States, and it is right and proper that such a state of affairs should bo made public, so that electors may know just what is going on. Tammanyism with a vengeance, representing methods which are not in the best interests of our fair city. Electors will bo well advised to scan carefully the official list of candidates as recorded in the returning o'/fiecr’s advertisement, consider the merits of each candidate, and make up their minds as to whom thov shall vote for before going to-the ballot box. Above all, they should beware of the two tickets i have exposed so damagingly.—l am, etc., Arthur A. Paape. May 4.