SPECULATING A SPECTACLE. More Municipal Mistakes.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 48, 1 June 1901, Page 8

SPECULATING A SPECTACLE. More Municipal Mistakes.

MAKING a speculation of the spectacle of the landing of the Duke and Duchess of York at the Queen's Wharf, and at the laying of the Town Hall founda-tion-stone, is a mistake which should not have been committed by our City Fathers. This, however, they have done by allowing whole blocks of seats to be sold to business men who are avowedly out for "plums." The City Council has allowed nearly 1000 seats to be sold, at an average of just over 4s per seat, and it takes but little thinking to prove that the seats are worth a higher average than that. * * * It might be said that the average obtained was one that was left to the discretion of the professional auctioneer But, surely, that auctioneer had his instructions from the Reception Committee ? It had been openly said that seats within sight of the place of the official reception would freely sell at from one to two guineas each. Many people held, on the other hand, that those prices would be exorbitant, and that the anticipation of such a price being realised was far too sanguine. But, m the light of the auction night, when, withm weeks of the function, over 30s each was offered for the pick of the seats by a private citizen, the anticipation was no great exaggeration after all. • » • When the excitement pertaining to the coming of the Duke and Duchess gets worked up — say, within a week of the great event — and when many strangers with money to spend are withm our gates,' it will be found that "any money" will be offered for seats. And the speculator, and not the Corporation, will reap the benefit. The city goes to all the expense and enterprise to erect stands and seating accommodation, and the speculator comes along and skims off the cream ' It is the eternal triumph of the middleman. The Council should have put a handsome reserve upon its tickets for

the best seats, and should also have restricted the number of seats to be sold to any one person.

There is nothing that more quickly gives rise to scandal than to allow a suspicion to gain currency that a public movement is in the hands of speculators. The City Council and the Reception Committee have committed this mistake. It has been alleged that the speculator can obtain as much space, in addition to that already given up to him, as he likes to apply for If so, it only tends to magnify the initial blunder There is bound to be a big demand for seats, and the authorities having the matter in hand should have had the courage to wait for that flood which is to lead to the speculator's fortune.