THE CITY MAYORALTY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6492, 11 April 1908, Page 10

THE CITY MAYORALTY

MB HISLOP AX-NEWTOWN. CRITICISM DEALT WITH. The Eon. T. W. Hislop addressed a largelv attended meeting in the Victoria Hall. Adelaide road, Newtown, last night. Mr X Tanks was voted to the chair.

Mr Hifiloj) paid ho had now addressed many meetings and apparently the questions which had been dealt with by him were. not yet understood. He, therefore, wont over rom© of the old ground in ordefr to familiarise his hearers with matters /that concerned them.

? THE GAS COMPANY. In regard to the Gas Company, he had no quJarrel with Mr Nathan, ae had beeai alleged. It was simply a divergence of opinion, except that Mr Nathan desired that Mr Aitken should be Mayor whilst the negotiations for the acquisition of tho gasworks were going on. The natural inference was that Mr Nathan regarded Mr Aitken a very much better man to deni with than Mr Hislop. He asked them, however, if they were* desirous of seeing the city built up by the possession of its own privileges and not exploited by any company, to ee© that Mr Nathan did not get his own way.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT. If Mr Aitkon wore a pood business man then he would see to proper management of the city's affairs. Yet what did they find ? He had had a return prepared that day by tho City Treasurer to show the cost of municipal affairs during Mr Aitken’s regime. Tee first year Mr Aitkon took office his cost of genera! management was G 1 per cent., and in 1905, the last year Mr Aitken carried on business, the cost had risen to 7 3-aths per cent. Last year, in his (Mr Hislop’s) management, the cost had gone down to 51 per cent. That was one of tha tests which he pnt to them in respect to business management. If Mr Aitken was a .business man, then he (Mr Hislop) did not claim to be one. There was in tho speaker's cost included the engineer's department, as against a special engineer then managing the whole of the tramways m Mr Aitkon's time.

LOCAL INDUSTRIES. Local people should, .Mr Hislop considered, have pr6ieron.ee m city works as against outside firms. For instance, in regard to the trams, Air Aitken went ontsido and contracted with a foreign firm, and not only that, but the rails laid down wore Belgian, and the city was now suffering therefrom. He believed that if they had had a competent engineer 'in tiio first instance and followed out the policy of the last three tears, the city tramways would have been exceedingly better in construction n and duration. Then ■ cement contracts were let to foreign firms, instead of to local people, and the same applied to the construction of the tramcars, which ho (Mr Hislop) had proved could bo better manufactured locally than imported. In this respect the Oily Council had made a great advance during toe last three years and gave encouragement to local industries. What sort of business management was it which went to the ratepayers and borrowed .£45,000 with which to wash up deficiencies on previous loans, and then asked for .£12,000 more to still make up a shortage? Mr Aitken had gone on irrespective of whether the Council was making a surplus <n- a deficiency, and that being so, either he did not understand the accounts or was satisfied with the form 111 which they were presented. If Mr Aitken. as Mayor, showed the same indfnerence in regard to the acquisition of the gas-works as he did with respect to Miramar, he asked then where the city would be in the matter of eventually owning these works. .

THE ELECTRICAL SYNDICATE. He- maintained that the recent acquisitma ot the Electrical Syndicate’s works for £luo,ooo was a good deal for the city. A few people still said that tho Council had paid too much for it, but they had to remember that it cost the company penny of that, either in cost of machinery or in interest on the enterprise before it began to pay, and, the shareholders were only getting 20s in the pound out of the realisation of the work. The city was making out of it a good deal more th.au the 15 per cent, the company had made, because it had every month exceeded the income of the company for tho corresponding month of the preceding year, and during tho past six months the city exceeded the income of the company by .£IOOO. In ten years' time these works would be worth -£300,000. In addition it must bo remembered that The city had not only added to its income by another -£12,000 through this means, but that consumers had benefited to the extent of .£3OOO by reductions. That, he thought, had been good business management. (Applause.)

THE YOUNG MEN'S MEETING. Mr Aitken had addressed a meeting of young men the other night, and promised them i aJI sorts of things, yet he had in his time proposed to fence round Kent torraco reserve like a tombstone, so that no person could get into it dead or alive. Mr Aitken had promised them recreation grounds, yet during his five and a half years' office as Mayor he did nothing in this respect. Mr Aitken appeared to be as ignorant of recreation grounds as he wax of the drainage of tho suburbs, being oblivious of the fact also that the ratepayers had already authorised a £IOO,OOO loan for this purpose. Mr Aitken, in promising the young men recreation grounds, forgot that two new grounds had already been constructed, two more were under construction, whilst ‘he Conncil was prepared to start at Kilbimie immediately the ono in Dnppa street was finished. "Isn’t it humbug,” remarked Mr Hislop, "talking about these things when during his five and a half years' term Mr Aitken actually did nothing in regard to them?” On the motion of Mr Baylis, a vote of thanks and confidence in Mr Hislop was carried by acclamation. '

Mr Aitken mil address a meeting at Northland in the Primitive Methodist .schoolroom, at 8 o’clock, on Monday night. A committee will be formed to work the district.

Mr Hislop will- address meetings at Northland on Tuesday evening, and at Kelbnrne on Wednesday evening. The executive committee will meet in Turnbuira auction room on Monday evening. THE MIRAMAR CONTEST. Mr C. J. Crawford, who is again contesting the Miramar Mayoralty, notifies that the dates and places of his meetings will bo advertised in. due course. AT EASTBOURNE. A notification is inserted in another part of this paper by the returning officer regarding the Mayoral election at Eastbourne. Nominations close at noon on Wednesday, the 22nd inst.