THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, APRIL 29, 1929. THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20703, 29 April 1929, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, APRIL 29, 1929. THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

The choice' that is offered between the candidates for the ■ mayoral office may be regarded by a great many electors as somewhat embarrassing. It is not as though there were any issue of great moment respecting which the view’s of the candidates might assist the voter to a decision. An issue of unquestionable magnitude—that affecting the Waipori ’ hydroelectric scheme —will have to be settled in the near future, but it cannot be said that it has yet assumed a form that the public to express a reasoned opinion concerning it. It is generally known that, while the development of the scheme has hitherto kept pace w’ith the steadily growing demand for power, something in the nature of an impasse' has now been reached, the immediate solution of which consists either in the adoption of costly expedients by the Corporation or in the disposal of the headworks to the Government and in the linking up of the system as a national undertaking with the other State

systems either in operation or in course of construction. The- terms, however, upon which the State is pre r pared to acquire the headworks constitute a factor that must influence the public judgment on the subject.Certain figures have been mentioned as those which the Government is likely to be prepared to offer, but these are purely conjectural, and in any case it is important :hat the public should know not only what the State would give for-the works but also the price at which' it would subsequently sell current to the* city. As the whole proposal is the subject of negotiation at the present-time, the candidates for the mayoralty. have found themselves compelled to speak guardedly about it. Mr Jones, with the cocksureness that is so frequently associated with innocence, blames the lack of foresight and the unbusinesslike methods of the City Council for the position that has arisen. The Council would certainly, he, declares, have been able to meet the demand for power if, over t.wo years ago, it had erected a power house ,lower down the gorge than the existing works and utilised the watei a second time. This is precisely what the Council had planned to do as a step in the development of its scheme after it had provided the , additional storage that would have been obtainec. by it by the erection of a’ new dam. What Mr Jones ignores,.'however, is that it is the delays, which’, the Council could not possibly foresee, in the construction of this dam that have precipitated the present position. The policy relative to Waipori which the Council has pursued in the past is not one to which reasonable exception can be taken. It is very easy to be wise after the event and say that if a different policy had been adopted certain difficulties would have :■ been avoided, but the Council has had the advantage of engineering advice upon which it has justly placed-a great deal of reliance and the suggestion that it should have departed from that advice is not one which the electors will readily endorse. One candidate for* the mayoralty, Councillor Black, has expressed himself as strongly opposed to % a sale of the headworks tt> the State, but his opposition is subject to a reservation, implying that ’ it would be abandoned if the consumers in Dunedin were secured for all time 'against any increase in the cost of electricity. Councillor Hayward is prone to be noncommittal in his utterances, but a letter which we publish from him this morning shciws that "he has adopted a view that does not differ in essentials from Councillor's Black’s; and Mr McDonald’s opinion seems to coincide with that of these other two candidates. ;

It is apparent that the negotiations concerning Waipori do not constitute an issue upon which the electors may base their votes on Wednesday next. Nor is it possible to elevate to the importance of ; election issues -any of the features of- the programmes of the respective candidates, such, for instance, as the principle for which Mr Jones contends that the profits from the trading-concerns should be applied to a reduction in the prices charged to the customers and to. the extension of the services, or Mr M'Donald’s idea that the renewal funds of the trading departments should be raided ' in the interests of the ratepayers, or Councillor Hayward’s quaint suggestion that the City Council should. divest itself of a part of its responsibilities by the appointment of an advisory board of i ratepayers, or Councillor Black’s rather nebulous scheme for the erection of workers’ homes in unspecified localities in conjunction with an extension -, of the tramway service. When all that has been said by the four candidates in the course of the election contest is considered, the electors must be driven to the conclusion that the personal element and the element of public service are those which must mpst largely influence them in the bestowal of their votes. On the application of this test Mr Jones must be the first candidate to be eliminated. ‘ It is impossible to agree with much of what the Labour Mayor of Christchurch says, but his insistence upon the need of municipal experience on the part of any candidate for the mayoralty is, in the main, unquestionably sound. Mr Archer goes further than most people would be prepared to go when 1 -he does not admit of any exception to the rule that an aspirant for a mayoral office should -qualify himself by prior service as a member of the Council. It is certain, however, that there are no exceptional circumstances that in the present case support the claim that Mr Jones should receive preference from the electors to candidates who have acquired experience in the administration of local' affqirs. .In a smaller degree Mr M'Donald is affected by the principle that should rule Mr Jones out of consideration. It is a good many years since Mr McDonald occupied a seat in the City Council, and it is a fair contention that he should serve the ratepayers in the humbler capacity of a councillor before he is again honoured by the electors by being placed in the mayoral chair. Upon this line Df argument the choice of the electors is narrowed down to Councillors Blapk and Hayward. Both have served ‘the public for many years, though not in each case continuously, and have, by reason of this service, established claims to consideration that cannot be advanced on behalf of either of their opponents.