LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20703, 29 April 1929, Page 10

LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS.

ADDRESSES BY CANDIDATES. THE CITY COUNCIL. ADDRESS BY MR F. L. LAWRENCE. At the North-East Valley Town Hall on Saturday nigjit an address on municipal matters was given by Mr F. L. Lawrence, a candidate for the City Council. Mr W. Wilson occupied the chair. Mr Lawrence claimed that besides being a representative of the ratepayers, he was a representative of the * Dunedin Master Builders’ Association. It was well to have an experienced builder connected with the council, as in the past, for the reason that it tended to the economical management of many aspects of the city’s affairs. He stressed the fact that one of the most important questions at the present time was the administration of the Works Department, which must be run in a businesslike manner, without waste and without duplication of street or other works. The council ought at all times to pursue a vigorous forward policy, in ail its departments and undertake improvements in water, works, etc.,, for the benefit of tbe city and consequently of the residents. At present, he regretted to say, much of the ratepayers’ money was being misused, and to prevent this waste steps ought to be taken at once to ensure competent and efficient supervision of all works. The overlapping oi undertakings by various departments which was often noticeable in different parts of the city was a serious and expensive matter, and proper management would prevent it. In regard to Waipori, he was strongly in favour of retaining such a valuable asset for the people, and if at any time it was considered that a sale would be a benefit the question ought to be submitted to the people to decide. Waipori was one of the city’s most profitable trading concerns, and as such it should be viewed and valued by those in authority, as it was by the citizens. Dealing with the Leith question, he sAid that one of tbe chief causes of the flooding near the outlet was that so mud' land had been reclaimed, which had sefTously congested the outlet. He considered that the Harbour Board was equally responsible with the City Council, and if elected ha would urge that the board should face the responsibility, and not leave all the liability to the City Council to settle. He would give every consideration to the who had unfortunately lost so heavily in the flood. The drainage system of the city and suburbs required the most careful consideration. Extensions should be provided, for where required, and all expenditure should be closely ■scrutinised to prevent unnecessary expenditure. The water supply was another matter of great importance to the city. If elected, he would give his best attention to these and all other municipal questions. Brief addresses were also given by Messrs J. J. Marlow, A. D. Edgar, P, Wilkinson, C. R. Smith, and P. L. Ritchie, and all the speakers were thanked for their remarks. THE CITY MAYORALTY. Cr Hayward addressed a number of electors at Maori Hill on Saturday evening. The Rev. Mr Foote acted as chair- . man _ Cr Hayward gave an account of the financial position of the city, and stated how the money had been allocated to the different requirements. The speaker -then dealt very fully with the trading departments. In answer, to questions, he said he favoured the ward system. With 34 names the average elector would have some difficulty in making a selection. He was in favour of a more up-to-date method of rating properties, the present method being very antiquated. He was strongly opposed to making any increase in tram fares. The meeting closed with a vote of thanks to Cr Hayward for the clear way in which he had dealt with the affairs of the city. ST. KILDA MAYORALTY. CR J. BEATTIE AT ST. KILDA. Cr J. Beattie, who is a candidate for the St. Hilda mayoralty and also for a seat on the St. Hilda Council, addressed an audience numbering about 60 at the St. Hilda Coronation Hall on Saturday evening. Mr E. R. Grace, who occupied the chair, said it was unnecessary for him to introduce the speaker. He had served hie apprenticeship on the council and was now a candidate- for mayoral honours. Cr Beattie said he had been a councillor for five years and a-half, and he believed that the experience he had gained during that time qualified him to nli the mayoral chair. As a councillor he had ' endeavoured to carry out his duties faithfully and forthe welfare of the borough and in the interests of the ratepayers. When the £25,000 street improvement loan was contemplated, he made it a condition that he would give it his support only on the understanding that the rates would not be raised. It was fortunate that the loan was raised when it was, for it was obtained on more favourable terms as obtained on more favourable terms as regards sinking fund than would have been possible later. Recently a borough council in the ‘ North Island wanted a loan renewal, but had to pay 5i per cent, interest for it, and 8 per cent, sinking fund. In financial matters the council was fortunate in having as chairman of the Finance Committee Cr H, H. Leary, who was an adept in finance, and so long as he was watching over the finances of the borough the ratepayers had no need to fear any uuwise or wasteful expenditure. In times past a loan of £14,000 and another of £2OOO, maturing in 1932, had no sinking fund provided, and the council had to make provision for a sinking fund, to pay off these amounts. It was first agreed to pay a sinking fund of 2 per cent., but a notice of motion was given to reduce this ,to 1 per cent, in the meantime, and this was agreed to with the proviso that, as time went on,’ the fund would be raised to 2 per cent, or even higher should circumstances permit this to bo dorie. Cr Beattie then went on to quote figures showing the rates. struck for the year ended at the end of March, the loan account, and the wages paid on public works for the year 1928-29. . Thirteen miles of kerbing and channelling had. he said, been completed up to March 31, 1929, and many streets had been tar sealed or coated with bitumen. The sum of £3OOO was allocated for tar sealing the streets. When some were coated with tar it was found that the work done was not satisfactory because the tar purchased , was not up to the standard quality. A quantity was. sent to be analysed, but the statement that nothing was wrong with the tar was by no means convincing as it had been proved beyond question by the ioreman that the quality was inferior. The result was that some streets had to ■ have extra work done to them. Not being satisfied, the council sent the foreman (Mr Douglas) to the North Island to ascertain what method was adopted there for the laying down of roads,? and to report to the council. His report showed that bitumen was used largely instead <>f tar. Acting on the advice of prominent engineers he had. met, he recommended strongly the use of bitumen instead of tar The council put his advice into practice and the streets were now being coated with bitumen. On the whole this was proving highly satisfactory. The drainage of the borough had gone on apace, and the time was not far distant when this important work would be completed, and the whole of the borough thoroughly drained. The drainage payment by St; Hilda was £6233. This amount seemed large, but the benefits accruing from a proper system of draina ß e were so great that this payment should not be grudged. More ifttention should be given to the pavements. When a pavement in any one block was in need of repair the whole pavement in that block should be topdressed with tar and sand. There should be little or no patching here and there, for patching had proved a failure, and, consequently, a waste of money. Again a patched pavement beside a good grass plot was an eyesore. 'Though personally he was pleased with the present condition of the completed streets, he was far frorp satisfied with the condition of the street channels. It seemed that the work of kerbing and channelling had been con-

centrated on to the neglect, not only of a regular cleaning process, but also of the removal of surplus material from prospective grass plots. The Worlds Comimttee should, if possible, consist of councillors who could spare the time to pay periodical visits to all parts of the borough in order to see the several needs, to inspect work completed, and to inspect generally. Application had been made to the Loans .Board for a_ loan of £ISOO for employment relief in the_ construction of Forbury crescent, and it was hoped to obtain a Government subsidy to increase this amount. There was on hand £536 loan money available for the construction of this street, but a larger sum was needed to make a good job. To explain why his name had appeared not only on the list of candidates for the office of Mayor, but also on the list of candidates for the olxicG_ of councillor, Mr Beattie said that J’c been a candidate for the position of Mayor only and defeated at the election he should have had to stand down tor two years; but as his interest in the welfare of the borough was very keen, he decided to stand for a seat on the council too, so that if defeated in the mayoral election he might be able to continue to serve the ratepayers as a councillor. The Municipal Corporations Act Had been amended recently to provide for a candidate offering his services for both offices. Eleven candidates were standing for the position of councillor, but only 10 were required. If he were elected as Mayor the defeated candidate for the council could take his place as a councillor. Had it been otherwise he could have stood for only one position, either that of Mayor or of councillor. At the conclusion of the address many questions were asked and answered. PORT CHALMERS MAYORALTY. ADDRESS BY MR ANDERSON Mr T. Anderson, the sitting Mayor oi Port Chalmers, addressed a large meeting of electors in the Town Hall, Port Chalmers, on Friday evening, Mr T. Scollay presiding. Mr Anderson stated that they were on the verge of an election for Mayor ami members of the Harbour Board, and accordingly he was there to give an account of his stewardship and to state why he should be elected for another term. It was his opinion that the electors were the responsible people to select the various representatives and not a committee of individuals. The choice should be made upon the capabilities to fulfil such responsible offices. Every canaspiring to office should, present himself to the public with a view of expressing his views, not by circular, but by a personal address to the public, and then the people would be in a position to judge. Some people had said that the Mayor was only a figurehead. Let those who thought that change their minds very quickly. A man who accepted the responsible office of Mayor must be prepared to devote much time for the borough's benefit, attend deputations, convene meetings of interest, keep pace with competition, and keep the town on the map. The borough very regretfully had to record the result of the administration of figurehead Mayors in the addition recently of the antecedent liability of £B3OO which now cost the borough annually £6OO in interest A .Mayor must administer and control things in a business-like manner and keep himself in touch with the general business of the town in and out of the office. TV by could the rates not be reduced? was a question asked sometimes. How was it possible to reduce rates, said Mr Anderson, unless they reduced the staff and let the borough drift back into the old rut. The total revenue of the borough from all sources was £8285, and it took the whole of the general rate of 2s in the £, amounting to £2400, to pay the interest and sinking fund charges on the borough’s total indebtedness of £43.134. The Hospital rate, water rates, water to shipping, hotel licenses, and Government subsidy, amounting approximately to £5850. represented the only money left to work upon. The Hospital rate of £6OO was merely collected and passed on. The borough did not even get commission for collecting it, and it seemed hard that they should be called upon to pay such a huge amount for which they got no direct return. The Hospital question was a big One, and every endeavour was being made to try and discover a solution. Another factor they had to take into consideration was that their milk cow—the water —would in the near future be seriously affected from a revenue-producing point of view, as all the new ships were motor and electricallydriven, and not one-eighth of the water would be required. Out of the £5850 after £6OO for Hospital, £550 for sanitary and dust removal, £9OO for salaries, £IOOO for wages. £IOO for fire prevention, £3OO for printing, advertising, insurance, and office expenses, £3OO for lighting. £IOO for the Dunedin-Port Chalmers road (a total of £4850) had been provided for, only £IOOO was left for repairs, channelling, drainage, and streets. Under such conditions they had done remarkably well. Without floating a loan or increasing the rates, they had maintained the streets, footpaths, carried out channelling work, purchased a tractor, roller, anu trailer costing £640, a tar sprayer costing £l4O, built new sheds costing £360, and all were paid for out of revenue. They now had a plant such as no other previous council had possessed, and it would last for years. They must move with the times. This was a motor age, and their- roads must be brought up to date to ,auit the present traffic. They would riot secure any of the petrol tax because the population of the borough was under the 6000 basis. The tractor had paid the borough admirably. -and the cost of running it totalled £340, Mr Anderson proceeded to give a resume of the work done by the borough, which included the removal of all bad points on the road to the boundary of Deborah Bay, the building of a seawall in the same locality, the removal of points and widening of the road from Sawyers’ Bay bridge up to the boundary past Scott's Memorial, the building of a wall above the Recreation Ground, building and metalling the cemetery road, and also the Lower Harbour road from Lawson’s to Deborah Bay boundary, the construction of a large culvert by Mr Harrhy’s property at Carey’s Bay, costing £l6O, the connecting of all drains at Mussel Bay, including one past the new bowling green, costing £IBO, and a new sewer at Island terrace, costing £95, tarring and asphalting .all streets, bringing Macandrew road up to a good crown for tar-sealing, as well as the road at the back of the goods shed, channelling and renewing footpaths in Wickliffe terrace and Currie street, and the general work of maintenance of the borough. When the council took office the borough was in a bad state generally and financially, and they had pulled it out and had transferred in four years £I2OO to the gas account to make up for losses at the works. Plans and specifications had been submitted to the Public Works Department for a bitumen road from the Cenotaph in George street, to Sawyers’ Bay bridge, and they had been approved of. Mr Roberts (engineer) had prepared the necessary plans. The council’s proportion would cost £BOO to £9OO, and the Public Works Department had subsidised the amount £2 for £l. the total cost bein" approximately £2150. With the late member, Mr Dickson, Mr Anderson said 1m had been responsible for securing this subsidy. ; A rumour badobeen in circulation that the gasworks were to be closed. There was _ no truth in this. With the appointment of such a capable manager as Mr M'Pherson success must eventuate. If tbe works were closed it would cost the people a sld rate to pay the interest, totalling £560, but by running the works they lost £2OO per year and had to date transferred, £I2OO from the general _ account to the gas account over a period of four years. With a new process they were now able to make tbe sale of tar profitable, and could sell the whok output to the borough, and thereby keep the money in tbe borough. Speaking with regard to his candidature for a seat on the Otago Harbour Board, Mr Anderson said that only people with a nautical knowledge and knowing the requirements of shipping for docking, cargo-handling appliances, and the treatment of cargo to permit of consignees securing -it as quickly as possible should be representatives to the hoard. The entrance and channel should be well known, as well as the various estuaries for outlets of rivers such as the Leith, so that provision could be made for the prevention of future floods, and the carrying away of unexpected flood waters. The recent acquiring of the wharves at Port Chalmers by the Otago Harbour Board eliminated the dual control that previously existed. The future policy of the i board might have to be altered owing to the very large steamers that were now I being built, and which were unable to

negotiate the Victoria channel. Several members of the board bad clamoured for smaller ships, being afraid that centralisation might eventuate, but that was impossible, as frozen produce could not be transhipped with benefit to its condition. Port Chalmers must be the first port of call for direct shipping and also the port of departure. THE WAIPORI SYSTEM. THE PROBLEM OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENT. Cr Shacklock, chairman of the Electric Power and Light Department, has supplied the following statement to us:— During my lengthy service as councillor, circumstances have compelled me to devote a considerable part of my municipal life to the Electric Power Department. _ I have not been negligent of other civic activities, all of which have called for attention, but the time at my disposal only allows me to speak briefly of the operations of the department over which I have had the honour of presiding. While the results of the last two years have been quite successful from a profit recording point of view, together with the increase in load, the progress from a view of satisfying the future requirements is not so satisfactory, if the demand is to be met by the Waipori River only. In 1924, a dam 40 feet high was completed in the river and in the same year, rights were obtained to increase the height to 110 feet, with the idea of storing the flood waters which run to the sea, and utilising them later as occasion demands. The average flow in the river was estimated at 220 cubic feet per second, varying from a minimum of 40 in extremely dry weather, to .17,000 in flood rains, so that some idea is given of the huge amount of water lost unless a larger dam were erected to store the flood waters. It was confidently expected that the dam would be at least 60 feet high by the end of 1925 and. holding water to that level; but, although a vast amount of work has been done, the actual raising of the wall is only beginning, due to a. series of delays over which the committee had practically no control. The original idea was to raise the Jam and increase storage before the demand for power overtook the normal flow of the river. Just so far as it has not been possible to carry out this proposal, so far has the task of filling the Jam been increased in proportion to ihe extra load we are called upon to carry, say an increase of 15 per cent, per year. If sufficient time were available, it would be quite possible at a cost'of say, £100,006, to establish a No. .3 power station lower down the river in order to use the -water over - again and so allow the dam to fill more quickly. Before this can be done, the permision of the Government must be obtained, as tbe council has no rights below the present No. 2 statioii, but the time available is now too limited to allow the construction of such a station being completed soon enough to cope with the expected increase in demand. The only alternatives that may be adopted if tbe council should be compelled without ontside assistance to meet the requirements of two years hence would be to stop taking on load or the setting up _ of, say, a steam plant in the city which would be costly and almost certainly would not be required when sufficient hydro power came along. Failing either of these suggestions, the only thing left is one of the options of supply bythe Government, and this brings up the question, “ Are we justified, is it wise, to continue Waipori as an isolated station any longer than it can be avoided? ” Waipori at the present time is the heart of the city—electrical energy its life blood; —can we afford to risk a cessation of this energy? Twenty minutes’ stop is tiresome; what would a whole day or a week mean to the life of the district? Nothing but disaster. By linking up with the Government stations at Waitaki and Lake Coleridge, a continuity of supply is as nearly assured as it is humanly possible to attain Should we take risks of stoppage from any cause, accidental or otherwise, when help is in sight which would carry on the daily work of the city in case of emergency? Sir Walter Lee, Minister of Public Works in Tasmania, speaking in Auckland so recently as the 19th inst., on the floods in Tasmania, said, “ I find it hard to realise that the electric power house above Cataract Gorge, Launceston, has just been wrecked.” (See Daily Times of 20th inst.) This hydro plant has been running since 1895. Fortunately it was linked up with the Tasmanian Government scheme from which Launceston draws considerably more than half its total load. The evidence endorsed by older and more important countries is that interconnection is the safeguard, and we are uot just to our consumers and citizens in carrying on a day longer than necessary without some stand-by which can best be provided by connecting up with some other station which, in this Dominion, is owned by the Government, If Waipori is the city’s birthright, its security and progress must be assured, and this can only be done by interconnection. Coleridge, Waitaki. Waipori, Monowai _ interconnected ■ indicates niore stability, more certainty of continuity, less risk of any interruption than if these stations were all oi3ci'atfn<i separately as well as affording one station Jhe opportunity of helping the other in case of emergency. The time must come when something of this nature will have to be undertaken, and it seems to me that that time is the present. If we. can make a suitable arrangement with the Government to link up Waipori and Waitaki, a distinct move will have been made to ensure the stability necessary to offset any contingent liability due to risk of interruption. Whether that interconnection will be best accomplished by contracting with the Government for the purchase of a fixed block of power or by the sale of the head works is dependent ii the terms which can be agreed on, but I stress the point that some such ?■ ? afe 8 llard is absolutely essentia) and distinctly necessary. Such interconnection has the further advantage that espenditnre of public money could probably be spread over a greater number of years, the work that two stations could rio linked together being much greater than the sum of their respective capacities. It honoured with an extension of the confidence of the electors, it will be my endeavour to keep Waipori enterprise the centre .of the city’s industrial life, combined with first grade service and lowest rates, together with an intelligent interest in all branches of civic life.