CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10409, 22 March 1910, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE MAYORALTY. To the Editor. Sir, —No one will dispute the genera! principle that the office of Mayor should be a rolling one provided the qualifications of conditions are fairly equal But your leaderette of last evening indicates that there is a marked disparity between the two aspirants in the matter of experience and fitness to d.reet our municipal and harbor affairs al the present important juncture. Mi Paterson. you say "has not yet gi/en any proof of hi;; .Mayoral capacity, iiut he' has made a useful. le\-el-ht';'deil member of the Borough Council and Harbor Board." Mr Milligan. ou the other hand. "lias made such an excellent Mayor that he seems to have grown to liis post. . . . When a busy trades man has well and truly done his duty to the citizens, it is not easy to thwart him when he displays anxiety to prolong the obligation. .... It v."as not the intention of the chair s present occupant- to offer himself again were it not- for the important Harbor Board affairs with which he has become so intimately associated L nder all the circumstances no other man in the community has any such title as lie to sit in the chair of that body." Quite so, Mr Editor. A\ hy. then, your lachrymose conclusion —"But- a time must, alas! come for a halt to be called, or the occupany of high public position would be monopolised to the detriment of the occupants and the people and the stifling of natural ambitions." Has Mr Milligan's five years occupancy of the Mayoralty been to his detriment or to that- of the people of Oamaru? And if not. why must a halt be called _iil"*order that Mr I'aterson may gratily an altogether premature ambition Mr Millignn being admittedly the best man to direct the Harbor affairs at the present- moment, why should his position on that body be put- in jeopardy? Mis rejection as Mayor would involve that risk, and it would certainly be undignified to attain the Chairmanship of the roundabout method mu suggest. As you .say. "the duties 'if the Mayoralty immeasurably exceed the honor and glory or emoluments attaching to them."' Mr Milligan may therefore be credited with laudable and patriotic motives in placing his valuable services once tm.r" at the disposal of the ratepayers. Mr Paterson bases his candidature on the belief that the position of Mayor should be a rolling one, and "the reward of faithful services as a Councillor." Modesty and consistency demand that he should first render those faithful services before asking the ratepayers to bestow on him the supreme mark of their approbation. At present he has sat at the Council table less than twelve months, and has not. as far as I am aware, distinguished himself in any special degree. "\Yith further experience ho will have an opportunity to develop any administrative talent:: he may possess, and which at preset r-.y only lie presumed to be latent. It will then lie time enough for the r "'".vers to seriously consider his c!:.: :is to the Mayoraltv.—l am, etc., PROGRESS. [Probably, no one will dispute that our correspondent honestly believes what he has written As he desires Mr Milligan's re-election, lie naturally enough, increases the magnitude of his friend's claims bv belittling those of his opponent, and he falls into that fault because, unlike ourselves, lie is not in the open, but is merely a shadow with a nen name. In our article we placed facts before the ratcpavers without any undue leaning to either side. We honored Mr Milligan witV eulogy because he had earned it: but there is no obligation on anvone to surrender cvervthing because Mr Mill igan lias been an excellent public servant as Mayor, and because lie has been indefatigable as Chairman of the Harbor Board. So that we did not forget- that Mr Millignn could still be Chairman of the Harbor Board though he might not he Mayor, ayd that- it was not. therefore, necessary that he should excuse his standing for the mayoralty for "the sixth time ou the ground that lie must he Mayor to be Chairman of the Board and to carry through his scheme to satisfy the bondholders who havo suffered through the Board's default. If. therefore, Mr Milligan does not particularly want to be the perpetual occupant of the mayoral chair, arid if he would deem it more honorable to be directly elected to the Harbor Board than to sit there merely by virtue of'his civic office, it. is within his power to gratify both ideas. Our correspondent is at variance with Mr Milligan when he alleges that "it would certainly be undignified to attain the Chairmanship [of the Harbor Bonrd | by the round-about method" we suggest—the "round-about and undignified method" being direct election by the ratepayers, instead of that circuitous method of election to the mayoralty, which would be the. paramount consideration with the voters, and which carries with -it the right to be a member of the Harbor Board as a collateral consequence. Our correspondent does not- do justice to Mr MilliVnn when h°* implies that his friend might not reach the Board if he submitted to that direct popular election for which he has been a strenuous champion, and such animadversions as he has made concerning Mr Paterson's qualifications are in the nature of an appeal to the unthinking. It is opportunity that- develops ability . just as the harbor situation led to a suggestion by ZSIr Paterson which, at small cost, promises to make the harbor effective. Bur, if neriod of service, or performances, had been accepted the test of a public tnnirs ability a'" l right to preferment then the world would have been deprived of many of its greatest benefactors, and the man -vho !i-is bpen longest in the ranks would be best entitled to the command.—Ed. O.M.] <