LORD MAYOR'S CHAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20842, 8 April 1931, Page 9

LORD MAYOR'S CHAIN.

FOUR POUNDS OF GOLD. INCIDENT OF SYDNEY LIFE. Tho Lord Mayor of Sydney, Alderman Jackson, is up to the present meeting all tho requirements of the office. It is never safo to predict continuance of such conditions any more than it is wise to declare that a new Premier will, in six months' time, bo all that tho electors' fancy painted him. Prophecy of this kind never has been fulfilled' in Sydney, and probably never will be, observes a coi-respondent. Mr. Jackson wears the robes and chains of offico with dignity, and with his rough shock of hair adds a picturesque note, suggestive of tho popular sketch of the novelist who has just concluded his 200,000word novel.

Mr. Jackson displays a full chain on great occasions. The lump of gold suspended from it attracts much attention. It weighs 41b., and is of the pure metal. A former Labour Lord Mayor, Mr. J Mostyn, was recently inveigled into comment upon this, and related a story how tho chain might have held him down in harbour silt. Ho was receiving a dignitary landing at Farm Cove on the decorated punt provided for the purpose, and an altercation arose between himself and tho then Premier as to precedence.

The Premier was of Mr. Mostyn's party, but that did not matter. Mr. Mostyn, who is a short man and not stout, stood for the city. He admited that his temper was overstrained, and the incident might have closed with a descent of the two into the water, but happily someone intervened. The sensation was averted and even the quarrel was not suspected.