CITY MAYORALTY

Evening Star, Issue 22953, 10 May 1938, Page 7

CITY MAYORALTY

6R A. H. ALLEN'S CANDIDATURE ' AMUSING AND CABLE TRAMS Thrust* at Labour’s aspirations and claims were made last night by Cr A. H. Allen, a candidate for the city mayoralty, at a meeting of about 60 members of his. committees and supporters. After attending the meeting of the Citr Council Cr Allen did not address • public meeting, but met his supporters in his committee rooms in Water street.. : Mr Alien declared that there was nothing new in what the Labour platform proposed, and that there was little of what the Labour council had achieved in Which it had not been assisted wholeheartedly by. the rest of the council. Ho was prepared to admit, of course, that no . one was very keen to support Mr , Cox’s amateurish efforts at communal housing when he had a minority Labour element in the council, but it was equally true that when he brought in. his second idea of £7OO houses his seven to six majority turned him down. As far as the present housing scheme went, said Cr Allen, the anti-Labour influences in the council opposed it only oh specific counts. They thought that the purchaser’s equity .in the houses was too small, and they did not like the idea of raising such large sums of money without referring the question .of such loans to the ratepayers. Personally, he hoped all the deposits would prove sufficient,, but he had his doubts. In the’matter of the Kaikorai trams, Mr Allen endeavoured to show how the Labour councillors had ‘‘twisted and shuffled.” . When the notice of non-re-newal was to' be served on the comKon March 26, he said, the Finance nittee recommended that the-lease be not' renewed, and that the council purchase no portion of the plant or rolling stock of the company. In case that were not a clear enough indication of the committee’s intention, Cr Silverstone had declared that the council proposed to run a bus servied instead of cable trams. Beyond that, he said, he would not* comment. What' could be done with that sort of shifting and swapping about? These things were all in black and white, and no matter what the chairman of the Finance Committee or his supporters might say they could not be denied.