MUNICIPAL MATTERS.

Evening Star, Issue 22883, 15 February 1938, Page 1

MUNICIPAL MATTERS.

TO THE EDITOR, Sir, —“ Popoffski ” and the undersigned might go on for a long time exchanging compliments, for he now discovers I have a penchant for missing detail, while in my opinion he has rather a verbose habit of evading the issue. His first question to me is why did previous non-Labour councils withdraw the sale of concession tickets on the cars ? That I cannot say. That, in my opinion, belongs to the past. What I am concerned about is to-day, and the silly, puerile, unbusinesslike institutions that obtain under Labour’s con-

trol. You see, Labour was to he so superior; there was no wrong Labour, would not right. Does “ Popoffski 1 know, for instance, that the ticket box is never open for the sal© of concession tickets at an hour when shop girls can conveniently purchase tickets, and that many others who do not work in the city find it most inconvenient to attend at the hours the ticket box is open? “Popoffski” gives us a new meaning for the word patriotism—-evidently loyalty to the working class and professiqnal people who render useful service is patriotism. Well, that’s a new one. I suppose when the late Ramsav MacDonald and others of that ilk harassed the British Government during the years 1914-18—or, to come nearer home, when P. C. Webb, Robert Semple, and Co. were imprisoned—they were merely proving their patriotism.' Ye gods and little fishes! Patriotism. —I am, etc., Time For a Chang*. February 14.

TO THE EDITOR.Sir, —Mr Ruttledge states that “ it is not my intention to enter into a controversy regarding municipal affairs.” Someone must have given Mr Ruttledge some good advice, and so prevented him from making the mistake he did when he attempted to flay the ratepayers of the city for rejecting the £IOO,OOO loan. Perhaps Mr Ruttledge knows a little more about financial matters than he did a few months ago. or perhaps due to ignorance has blindly pledged himself to the perpetuation of the existing borrowing system, made worse under the management of incompetent Labour councillors. Then Mr Ruttledge is courageous—-quite a worthy trait. He objects to a tom de plume. I wonder whether Mf Ruttledge will continue after May to advise the ratepayers over his own signature. Why did Mr Ruttledge not, prior to the Labour majority in the council, write, and advise the ratepayers as to how they should vote, and keep them advised regarding the mismanagement (?) by the former council? As one who for over 30 years prior to being relegated to the rank of pensioner took a keen interest in union and Labour matters, and knew the majority of those men who have done so much good work in the interests of sane Labour, I never heard of or saw Mr Ruttledge at the Trades Hall. The burial of the guns, reading, .and Mr Harrison’s appointment can well be left to the ratepayers, who will not seek the advice of one who enjoys the favoured security of a Corporation position, and does not contribute to the rates of the city. Let Mr Ruttledge look after the affairs of St. Hilda and leave the city to those who pay, and pay dearly, to give Corporation employees twopence an hour more thai’r -is received by private employee.;, fue .unskilled Labour, higher rates Vor ski-#e l workers, , pay; paid holidays au above the rate-.', prescribed by the Arbitration Court. 1 have supported the Labour' cause' long before the president of the O.L.R.C. even knew of its existence, and will continue during the short years ahead of me to support sane Labour, but not a Trades Hall dictatorship, whose main policy is to squash every employer in the city and give favours to Corporation employees at the expense of the overburdened private employee. I regret that I must disappoint Mr Rutt-' .ledge by using a nom de plume. I have friends and relatives in the Corporation employ, and in view of the committee spy system in operation I must submyself Axti-Dictatob. February 14.