CORRESPONDENCE

Nelson Evening Mail, 19 May 1917, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE

CR. CARLISLE'S POSITION. (To the Editor.) Sir, —Your sub-leader and Cr. Carlisle's letter on municipal matters are, no doubt, interesting to the public just now. You have taken to task Cr. Carlisle for his vote, and yet admit he could not do otherwise and suggest that he should resign. Now, Sir. you admit that the old councillors did not put the position before the ratepayers. We know now that they kept from us the serious financial position they had allowed the city to. drift to. The ratepayers knew enough to lead them to decide on very drastic changes," buthad they known the- whole truth the changes would have been more drastic still. I now suggest to the present Mayor and city councillors that they should at to-night's meeting all decide to resign their seats and then both sides can put the whole matter before the electors. We shall then have a well-defined position before us and I am sure very few, if any, ratepayers will object to the cost of the election which will cost no more than your suggestion of Mr Carlisle's resignation would cost us. . Last month we voted in the dark with but a small glimpse of light to guide, and now let us have the daylight to vote in arid -we shall know what to do. "Very few ratepayers object to pay increased • rates if they get good return for the expenditures. ■ X am etc., RATEPAYER. (This letter was unavoidably held over from last evening.) (To the Editor.) Sir, —As a ratepayer X for one would protest against any unwarranted expense of a bye-election especially during these times of sadness and gloom. You, Sir, in your leaders seem to infer that the electors were misguided when they elected a new council and gave the old one notice to quit. I don't- agree with you. The blame rests entirely ■with the old council with not coming on the eve of the election and laying a true financial position of the city before the electors: where the money had gone, and how they proposed to raise the deficiency, and also what steps they proposed to avoid any future, deficiency. No important town or city has a council that treated the electors so indifferently as they did. I believe, sir, the electors" were fully awake to their own interests on the late election day, and had the true financial position been more fully grasped, the shock would have been greater. We put the new council on its merits.retrenchment is much needed. We have sent the new council in for that purpose, and without fear or favour we expect them to do their duty, and spend the ratepayers money as keenly as they ■would spend their own. I am etc., • W: S. MEARS." {Reference is made to these letters in another column. - (To the Editor.) Sir, —In his- letter appearing in your issue of Wednesday last Councillor Carlisle' confesses that he has deliberately broken an election pledge. j? Rom subsequent correspondence it appears that tHs particular offience is likely to "be overlooked in the heat of a controversy as to the, merits ana- demerits of past and present councils, in deliberately breaking his pledge Cr. ' Carlisle has shown himself to be lacking in that reliability which is essential to the security of constituents. Of his own free will" he pledged himself as a candidate to a certain line of action and although he a perfect right to alter his opinion concerning a matter .upon which he is pledged, in no imaginable circumstance would he be justified in acting upon that altered opinion. It "cannot be too strongly emphasised that representatives do not sit upon public bodies to work their own sweet, wills, but are"there for the purpose of giyng effect to the wisties of the electors whenever those wishes are ascertainable. Cr. Carlisle's offer to resign and - recontest his seat does but aggravate his offence. His readiness to cause the council to incur the expenses of an extraordinary election suggests that he * has also altered his opinion in regard ; to the need for the strictest economv. > Although some candidates may think: that promises, like the proverbial piecrust, are made' only to be broken,, a broken election pledge must alwavs be a very serious matter to all thoughtful electors and ought never to be allowed to pass without protest from _ all who the correlation of ciyic rights and responsibilities. In the hope that some : abler pen than mine will show Cr. Carlisle the error of his way. I am etc. ELECTORA GOOD SUGGESTION. (To the Editor.) Sir —-With your kind permission, i I would like "to draw the attention of those in power to the lands lying idle round our citv that could be made to produce foodstuffs; with very little expense We read in'your evening issue that all idle lands, suitable for cropping, ' throughout the Dominion, _ are receiving attention, regarding their productiveness. I am referring to Victory Square, Hanby Park. Piper's Park. etc. Now is the time to «*'«. AN ADMISSION. '• v (To the Editor.) gj r . J did not realise until lafit night while' listening to Cr. Carlisle at the Council meeting that I had been taking him much too seriously. We are all apt to make mistakes, and my admission will no doubt relieve the anxiety of -Poor Old