THE MAYORAL ELECTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23501, 16 May 1938, Page 12

THE MAYORAL ELECTION

TO THE EIHTOIf ot r election day is over, the residents of Dunedin may relax in the security of a job well done. To an interested outsider, the pre-election campaign was highly enlightening and; imparts very amusing. Labour candidates dwelt at length on the benefits they had secured for City Council employees, not only in working conditions, but in "taking away from departmental heads the authority to engage or dismiss employees. Regarding the latter, however, it seems that all the council did was to transfer that power from the department to itself, and I for one would rather be answerable to any departmental head than to a committee of men with Mr Coxs and Mr Silverstone’s sense of justice and ability. Fortunately, that system will now be discontinued. Your correspondent “ Graduate has thoughtfully given readers some idea of Mr Cox’s mayoral qualifications. What a pity he did not come forth before the elections! Reading his extolling epistle. Dunedin voters should have guilty consciences at having " passed over ” the ideal Mayor for a man inferior both “ scholastically and intellectually.” Unfortunately, “Graduate” did not compare the years of service to the city’s welfare given by each man, which to the average citizen is, I feel sure, more important than “ scholastic and intellectual superiority.” When asked if he was favourably inclined to an increase in the mayoral salary, Mr Allen gave a definte answer: No. He may now be called upon to honour that assertion, and I feel quite certain that he will. Mr Cox’s reply to an identical question implied that it mattered not whether the salary was £SOO or ss. but reading between the lines there can be no doubt that Mr Cox would have accepted another per annum. Further, Mr Cox was frequently wont to declare his deep interest in the city’s welfare, for which he had even given up his profession.” He will now have a golden opportunity of proving his interest in his fellow-citizens—and at no. salary. Three years’ gratis service to Dunedin would give him a qualification for the position of Mayor that he now lacks—l am, etc. Feather Bed. Baldutha, May 14.