THE MAYORALTY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 866, 5 October 1888, Page 33

THE MAYORALTY.

RETIREMENT OF MR T. KENNEDY MACDONALD. > '• Absolute confirmation of rumours which were' current was furnished last eight week at a meeting of Mr T. Kennedy Macdonald’s Committee in connection with the Mayoral election. The meeting, which was held in the Athemeum Chambers, was a very large one, the room being full. Mr R Gardner .occupied the ohair. ' ; ' . Mr Macdonald, who on rising was greeted with cheers, said they left off on Tuesday night with the idea of resuming that (last), evening to discuss the whole; position in connection with the Mayoralty. Since then, however, very much to his astonishment, that morning, au entirely new feature «as put .upon- the mattery, and . he was .asked, whether he-was aware that in the event of his candidature being successful the . city would be disfranchised on the Harbour Board ■as far as the Mayor was concerned. He at -once took the neeossary steps to inquire into the. question,' and placed in communication with'the offices of Mr Travers and Mr Skerrett, requesting those gentlemen to furnish him with opinions - on the point: ' The' point .itself - was this The Mayor, as they knew, .'was a member of tho Harbour Board by the Wellington Harbour Board Act. It did net say ex officio, but that the Mayor sh uld be a member.' They would remember that some little, time ago attention was called to the fact that: Mr W. K. .Williams, h member of. the Board, was a lessee under .the ’Board,''-.and a: legal opinion was obtained -from the Crown Law officers, with the result that Mr Williams was declared disqualified and vacated his seat. The point; bad not struck him (Mr Macdonald) before, fur he looked on the. Mayor as ex-officio'a, member cf the Board, and that hL'private interests would not affect the matter. .He was, however, himself in the position of a lessee, : hav-. ing purchased at public auction the leases of land near the Queen’s bond situated at the corner of' Hunter-street and; Customhouse*. quay. Mr'Macdonald then read -the legal opinions.he hadYeceived on the point.. .The ■opinion’ from Mr Travers’ office (by Mr Izard) was that clearly lie could not hold a seat on the .Harbour Board, for although it was provided that- the-Mayor should be, amember of the Board, section 43 of the Harbours Act, IS7S, prevented any person sitting on the Board, who had a contract with it, such as a' lease would be. Mr Skerrett’s -opinionwas of .the . same tenor. . The. onlyway it suggested of getting put of the/diffi- . culty was by the Board’s, acceptance of a surrender of the lease’, but in Mr Skerrett’s opinion there was no. power on the part of the Board to accept such a surrender. The meeting would agree with him (Mr Macdonald continued) that these opinious were pretty clear, and practically-meant that if he wei e elected mayor the city would cease to be represented on . the Board by the Mayoi. Now he had held, and .held very strongly, that in this contest one of the drawbacks to. Mi; Duthie—and the main drawback -in bis opinion—was that Mr Duthie would, if elected, be filling the dual office of chairman of the Harbour Board and Mayor, the effect of which'wouia be that the city would ; cease to be represented on the Board by one member. Mr Duthie explained on the previous night that bis term of office; on the Board -expired in February, and that he would hot agaiu offer himself for election to the Board. He did not know; whether the .’meeting bad considered the Board and the interests of The city.in connection with it, but he had, and he held equally strong, opinions upon, that point. The Board at present • consisted largely ."of merchants, gentlemen who were vitally interested in-fix- : ing The inward • and ouitward, wharfage, and - the arrangements - for - carrying, on the business of the wharf. It was very necessary, and proper' that there should-be due - representation of all interests on such a Board, and Parliament; had provided for that by giving the.’city the right of elect - ing two members, and by putting upon the Board' representatives of. the country aud suburban districts, the shipping interests,: ■and the Chamber of Commerce,, and three to be nominated by the Government.. In the past, merchants had had an entire.preponderance, and the Board had had a large sum of. money to spend, and- thCTeisult. bad,been that they had seeD vast improvements going bn in connection with the wharf and shipping arrangements —improvemeots.tbat w.ere satisfactory and proper. But they were .now coming to a state of things when the executive powers of the Board would be shownThe loan money was about done, and the Board had got to see its way to making Ordinary expenditure come within revenue. ; The interest upon deposits was ceasiog, and that position had to be.faced. Many important questions,; also, remained unsolved —for instance, that of the unreclaimed foreshore at. .Te, Aro, about which Mr -Duthie had 'been 'asked., on 'the; previous -.night: ft was extremely unsatisfactory that the interests of the city as a whole -should be committed to the Board when it And the City Council differed ■ there were many things which should be carefully guarded, and - under no circumstances should the city lose its- representation oh the B jarJ. They had seen trouble between the two bodies in the . past, and if he was not mistaken they, would see it again; in the'future • therefore the interest of the city on that Board should be carefully preserved. If he continued his candidature—and the good offices of people in 'all parts of the ..city had been such that he might fairly count on their support to such an extent as to return him at the bead of the. poll (applause) - the city would, in the respect he had mentioned, be disfranchised on the Board; but he thought it'would be improper on his part to ask them to.adopt such a course, and he would not be prepared to .accept it himself.; The first duty, of a. man seeking public position was, he held, to .be just; not only to himself,.but also to those whom he peeked to represent ; and he coulo not with any sense of self-respect ash them 1 to return him as ’mayor, if by- so doing they would divest themselves of the right ,pi speaking on the Board - in the most powerful manner by the voice of the may or. H e felt that so strongly that if his best

friend asked his vote under the same circumstances he would say “My vote shall go to the'stranger who is free from the drawback -you. suffer from.’- The matter had therefore reached this stage, that he was not able to give them those services ho had expected to give them, and which they were desirous of his taking up. He had since the previous meeting carefully considered the other matters he laid before them, namely the loss of au appointment which was offered him by the Government (that of Bropevty-tax valuer), , and in reference' to which strong opposition had been promoted not by Mr Dnthie, but by members of Mr Duthie’s Committee and others interested in that gentleman. He had considered that question, and that of the cost of fighting a bitterly contested election like this. In the latter connection he wished to say that a number of gentlemen who formed his Newtown committee, having heard that the other side was prepared to spend a yery large sum of money in the election, and being desirous of giving him every encouragement, had.oome forward.and, told him that so far from their requiring payment ever individual of them had come to the determination to assist him to the very best of his ability, and to work for; love and for good feeling toward him. (Applause.) They assured him that he might rest certain that whatever money was going tb.be spent by the oth’er side, it weald coat him au infinitesimal sum. (Applause.) -- He could hardly say how pleased and gratified he was at this. : It was something.lor,a map to be esteemed for business qualities, which would make him valuable to the citizens in a public office ; but it was something far better for’ him to know that he was liked personally to such an extent that out of kindly good feeling ■< toward him a large, number of that class with whom, moie than with most people, time was their daily; bread, were prepared to sacrifice their' time freely and unselfishly for bis benefit ; aud he should never forget, it. - (Applause). Well, alter hearing Mr Duthie on the previous evening, he carefully considered this matter—whether lie was not bound in honour to submit’ himself entirely to. their service, . no matter what the, election might cost, and see it out to the bitter end. He had just made up his mind i to this: when the'other matter of. the lease disqualification, cropped up. ' That put a . complete. - stop to his candidature*. ho regretted to say ; but it did not put a stop . to an election 'for, the office of Mayor if they desired it. There were several features in the policy enunciated by Mr Duthie that demanded .serious attention ; and while Mr Duthie.would make an admirable Mayor by virtue of 1 his business .experience, his - shrewdness, and his hospitable qu ilities, there were points upon which his views might be challenged, and although he was unable to meet Mr Duthie on the battleground and fight it out with him, he was not in any sense going to place them in-the position of retiring in that gentleman’s favour, (Applause.) They _ would be good enough to understand that in the; most distinct manner. If . the muuioipal policy upon -which he- was at., variance,-with Mr Dnthie was of sufficient import-; ance for them to bring out another candidate,' they had two months in which to do it ; and he believed -they would bti supported by a largo section- of the ratepayers. He would be willing, if they/ thought it wise, to attend a. public 'meeting, and put before the ratepayers as a body the reasons which .had rendered- it necessary for, him to retire from the contest, and the reasons which induced bim.to publish his programme, which had appeared iu the jpapers. r (Applause.) He regretted that the ward elections for the Council should be allowed to go. by. as-they; were going, without any expression of opinion from those who were seeking office. . To him it was incomprehensible. The ratepayers had an opportunity now which would not occur again, possibly, for- many years’, < -f putting those .who sought to represent; them thfouah the-'municipal catechism: They were allowing that chance to drift by, and they, would regret it. . (Applause.) He hoped that before the sth of October there would be meetings in the various wards, and - that-, every candidate would' be forced to .express his views on the matters he (Mr Macdonald) and Mr Duihie had touched upon. Ho deprecated this lackadaisical spirit as fatal to .the welfare of the city and of any community. Tne energy and ability of a community was evidenced, he took it, by its interest in all questions that affected its welfare ; and judged by that standard the inhabitants of Wellington were amongst the most apathetic on the face of the globe. (Applause.) It seemed to him-that am ng the people, who cou-idered themselves the leading citizens here the most unpatriotic feelings existed. (Applause.) Mr Duthie had referred to the fact that the city had very little attraction for the stranger and the visitor, and that was true —it - had little attraction- for any. body or anything. - Naturally one of , the most beautifully situated cities in the world, nothing was done for it. Men came here ami made money, but never dreamt of doing anything for the city .and the people, by whoso ■ assistance -I:ey had '. made it,. / He; urged the people to make up th«-ir minds that the men Who wished to occupy public Positions should, serve them for love, and pointed out that the power to do this .was .with, the people alone. Look at the Thorndon recreation ground, for instance—a work that was necessary : and impoitant. That would cost £SOOO, arid it. was within their knowledge that rhere were ; in Thormlon numbers of men who' had made enormous sums of money, out .of 1 the people of., the city, and half a doz n of whom coul-l easily find all the money tout was required for the purpose, and present it as a- gift to the city. But no ! they would bice 1 the unfortunate ratepayer by emptying the city chest j there was• no chance of -their finding a £SOO Cheque in their pocket-s to start .a subscrip--tion list to accomplish theobject. Y ( Applause,) He himself would like to see a-subscription; list opened for the purpose, and ho would rather speud £SO in that ,way than spend it in touting for votes in this election. In conclusion, Mr Macdonald said it was with deep re-: gret heabandoiieda fight in'which, hehad been assured of such a large measure of success as lie had in'this.' -From one end of the city to the other he had been favoured with pro ; in is es, of support, - which to his mind meant success, aud be bad felt with pride that the

support thus offered was not that of “leading citizens,” but'of the mass of- the people. (Applause.) Aud after all said and done the welfare of: the mass of the people was much more important. than that of .those; . who arrogated to themselves, the position of leading citizens. He had had no personal interest to serve in the election; he had come' forward, as they knew, at the request of many hundreds of ratepayers. There was then no sign of' any other candidate. He had thought that Mr Samuel Bro wn would have snbmitted hirnself to the ratepayers, aud he confessed he was anxious to show that gentleman the real opinion of the ratepayers an to his leaseholds scheme: .He was convinced that at the ballot box the people would, in spite of the/newspapers, have endorsed the verdict given at the Theatre Royal. (Applause.) TO him (the speaker) the interest of the oity was far more important than his own interest. The city had been exceedingly kind to him ; its citizens had enabled-him to build up a business of which he was proud, and it was bound to him by many, personal ties. . He should not forget those ties, and whatever he could do at all times for the interest of the -city would be done. At some not very distant date he might have an opportunity of serv." ing them in some other capacity should they desire it ; and~if that did come about they; could take his word for it they would .never be served by one who would be more unselfish or be actuated by more patriotic feelings toward the city. Prolonged applause.) Mr. J. Burne thanked Mi Macdonald for' his speech, and deeply regretted that . his candidature had been withdrawn. ' If there should be a contest for tho Uouseof Representives next year, Mr Macdonaldwould, he was sure, stand as good a chance as anyone. (Applause.) He felt sure the general desire of. those who felt confident that they; could return Mr Macdonald as Mayor would be that he should address a nublie meeting, and he moved that Mr Macdonald be invited to address a meeting on municipal affairs. . Mr Fraser Jones and several other gentlemen warmly supported the motion, and expressed regret at Mr Macdonald’s retirement. - - - . _ _ _ . The Chairman, in putting'the motion,.said that though Mr Macdonald was forced to retreat,./there was such a thing as .a glorious retreat to gather strength; and Mr Macdorikld . retired with a strong body at his back, ready to come into action again when occasion, happened. ( Applause). The motion was then carried unanimously.; Mr Macdonald said lie'would take the Theatre Royal early 1 next' week.. Ho remarked that ; the City was under grave disadvantages in not haying a town hall,'and stated that in futu e he intended to supply the want as far as possible. The new; hall iiyjthe Athenaeum (the Ex-, change Hall) he intended to place at the disposaL of the people, free of charge,- for any public meeting called by the Mayor at which public questions were to be discussed. ( Applause.) '■ ■. ...Mr M. • McCredie moved—“ That 'this Committee, while approving of the decision which Mr Macdor.ald has come to. in retiring from the; contest, in/■ consequence; of ; the. lessee disqualification-. pointed out, expresses its deep sympathy with Mr Macdonald, and regrets the great loss, the city has sustained in consequence.” . In making the motion Mr McCredie said he'ffioped attention would be drawn to the unfairness of this disqualification, which did not exist in connection with the City Council. . This was carried unanimously. Subsequently the meeting formed itself into a committee to make all arrangements for obtaining the Theatre for Mr Macdonald. The proceedings terminated with three cheers for Mr Macdonald. ‘