DUNEDIN NOTES.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2762, 12 April 1910, Page 5

DUNEDIN NOTES.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

The next election in which the citizens of Dun din art! to indulge is that of Mayor. For lhe office of chief two candidates have announced themselves—Councillors Cole aiid Tapley. Ai this hour of writing, however, it is not certain whether we are not to have a third candidate and herein lies the main interest of the coming contest. A requisition is to be presented to Mr Walker, the present Mayor, asking him to stand again. From my point of view there is no reason why lie should uot. I have no very great faith in the "rolling" office doctrine.. Tn other large centres the same genii- • m\n fills the office for two, or more, yars in succession. If a city is fortunate enough to secure a good man it is wise to keep to him. Unfortunately for Mr Walker, however, Dunedin has more than once expressed itself in favor of the rolling office business and he, personally, has subscribed to it. Last year he was publicly asked : Did he believe the office should be a roll ins; one? And would he "run" again? To these queries lie answered " yes " and "no " This, therefore, should settle the matter and 1 hope Mr Walker will have the courage to act up to his profession. As far as the lequisition is concerned, it means nothing. It is just a compliment such as has been paid to other popular mayors as well as to Mr Walker and I trust he won't be misled by it. The trough is that so many men get what is vulgarly termed " swelled head " after they have been in the chair a few months and take the courtesies that are extended to the office they temporarily hold as personal to themselves. The gasworks inquiry has ended, tha report has been handed in and we are just about where we were—as most people said we would be. No one is to be hanged and no one, so fur, is to be sacked. But someone ou»ht to be (not hanged but sacked). The ghastly and expensive and disgraceful muddle known as the gasometer contract was due to the inexcusable carelessness, indifference or ignorance of a person in the employ of the city. This was shown beyond ques'iou on the very List day of the inquiry but this information could have quite easily been secured without one. However, as the commission cost less than £SO, the citizens need not greatly bother. They have waffl&d infinitely more than this more than once. A the san.e time it does seem strange that a public body should have to spend a lot of money and hold an inquiry in order to discover which of its employees is incompetent. A private firm would have discovered both muddle and man, and rectified the one and sacked the other, in next to no time.

The Domain Board which has charge of the Ocean Beach, St. Clair Baths and Sandhills has recently brought a lot of criticism upon itself for causing the police to prosecute three young men for bathing during prohibited hours. It is against the Board's by-laws to bathe in the surf after seven in the morning and these yqjng men were caught bithing at eleven. There was no charge of indecency but merely that they had been guilty of a breach of the bye-laws. A good deal of feeling was expressed over the matter and the young fellows determined to engage counsel and fight the case. The Press commented sharply upon the action of the Board. It wanted to know how an act could be legal at 5 minutes to seven and illegal at 5 minutes past, also how the Board could justify the prosecution of people for doing in the surf that which, had they paid to go into the Board's baths (which are open to the public gaze), they could have done a& long as they liked 1 Although the magistrate dismissed the case " without prejudice " a section of the St Clair residents contend that the Board must in fairness test the legality of their by-law in the Courts.

Mr A. R. Barclay, the former member for Dunedin North, has caused a mild sort of a sensation by an illustration lie has made public in the press of the way the Government's new succession duties work out in practice. Put briefly, the facts are An old man who had no relatives but had been kindly treated by some neighbours, in order to mark his gratitude for their sympathy, left a sum of £SO to be divided between them. On this amount the State claimed, under its new schedule of charges, nearly £B, whereupon Mr Barclay girds at the Government and calls out "extortioners," "scandalous," '• What do you think of them ) Is this helping the working man ?" etc., etc. Well, it does seem a " bit stiff" but please to remember th. t had there been a wife, or child, to inherit there would have been no charge at all. And as a correspondent in the ; Daily Times' pertinently savs, most of us would not mind being left money, by a stranger even though the State did get a bite at it on th \ way.