CHALLENGE ISSUED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 130, 3 May 1938, Page 7

CHALLENGE ISSUED.

CITY COUNCIL ELECTION. ELECTRICITY CHARGES. A challenge to Mr J. Hodgens, M.P., to produce within three days a copy of a City Council minute, signed by the town clerk, to the effect that a recommendation for a reduction in electricity charges, similar to that brought down on May 11, 1936, has been defeated by the council, was issued last evening by Mr AV. B. Tennent in the course of his address in connection with the municipal elections, in the Opera House. Mr Tennent further intimated that if Mr Hodgens could produce the minute he would contribute £5 towards the Labour Party’s fighting funds. “The impression seems to have been created that I sm at loggerheads with Mr Hodgens,” said Mr TennenU “Nothing is further from the truth.” In any sound proposal he would support Mr Hodgens just as readily as he would support the Mayor or any other councillor; but he? did object to what Mr Hodgens had been saying and writing alxwt the electricity department. Mr Hodgens’s statement that the present system of transferring reserves from the electricity account to the general account was done for the advantage of the big ratepayers could not l>e founded on fact, while his advocacy of a reduction in electricity charges instead of transferring reserves was merely “drawing a red herring across the scent.” Mr Hodgens had said that he had consistently advocated reduced charges in the council, but that he had always spoken with a lone voice. “That is not correct,” said Cr. Tennent, who then issued the challenge as stated.