THE MAYORALTY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24607, 15 May 1941, Page 8

THE MAYORALTY

DR McMILLAN'S ADDRESS A REPLY TO CRITICISM CHALLENGES ISSUED “ Don’t be humbugged by the propaganda of the Citizens’ Association in connection with rates,’’ said Dr McMillan. addressing a meeting at the Tramsheds yesterday afternoon. “ They are trying to conceal the fact that they have increased the City Council rates for next year by lumping in the Hospital and Drainage Board rates. “ The council has no control over these bodies,” Dr McMillan said. ‘‘lt is merely the collecting agent for them, and yet the Citizens’ Association is trying to use the reduc-

tions to smother its own increase. Even on the issue as stated by the association, it is a total rate of 4s 9d under the Citizens Association for next year, while under Labour it will be 4s 7d. Record of Service “ The Mayor and Cr Smith are making a lot of the percentage of council and committee meetings that L have attended while in Parliament,” ' the speaker said. “My record of public; service will more than stand com--parison with theirs. Neither of my opponents has given one-half of the time to public service that I have in the past three years, and it is no use Cr Smith saying that I got paid for the service I gave in Parliament. ‘‘ My parliamentary salary did not amount to one-third of what I would have obtained in practice. I was glad to give the time, and would do so again, because of what we accomplished. They only look foolish when they try to belittle the time I have given to public service. Renewal Funds ' “Cr Taverner’s statement that the Labour Council left a deficit of £85,000 at the end of the year 1937-38 is contrary to fact,” Dr McMillan said, “ and I challenge him to produce the city treasurer’s verification, of his erroneous statement. After what happened at the 1938 Parliamentary election, Cr Smith should be the last to talk of party partisanship by councillors. The statement that Labour raided the renewal funds is equally false. An * Act of Parliament decrees that once money is paid into renewal fund accounts it cannot be used except for genuine renewals. I challenge the Mayor to deny that fact. He knov/s it, is true, so why use the misleading advertisements? “ What Labour did was to divert ’'some of the payments that would normally have gone into the renewal funds. The Labour CounciL considered other needs more urgent just as the Citizens’ Association Council did in 1939. Series of Challenges “ I challenge the Mayor to deny that a similar diversion took place in 1939,” Dr McMillan continued. “ I challenge him to deny that the diversion took place to wipe out overdrafts that had grown to unusual amounts since his council took office. I challenge the Mayor to give a simple answer to this question—Did the Labour Council use any money out of the renewal funds for other than genuine renewals? He cannot deny that it did hot. Well, then, will he tell us why they are talking about raiding renewal funds? ” Dr McMillan concluded by repeating his argument that the return of a Citizens’ Council would mean a rate of 4s 9d, whereas under a Labour Council the rate would be 4s 7d. (Extended report by arrangement.)

LABOUR CANDIDATES Labour candidates seeking election to the various local bodies addressed meetings in several parts of the city last night, At Holland Hall, Caversham, Mrs E. McMillan and Mr M. Silverstone, candidates for the . City Council and the Otago Hospital. Board, spoke, Mr Silverstone making particular reference to a statement made on the previous evening by Cr Taverner to the effect that when the present council took over from Labour in 1938 there was a deficit of £85,000. If, Mr Silverstone said, Mr Taverner could show that there was a deficit in any of the council's accounts when Labour went out of office, he would make a donation of £lO to the “ Comforts for Fighters ” Fund, provided that Mr Taverner, if he could not prove his statement, would make a similar donation. Mr W. A. Hudson, a candidate for the City Council, also spoke. A small attendance at the Russell Street Hall listened to addresses by Labour candidates for seats on the City Council, the Otago Hospital Board, and the Otago Harbour Board. Mr J. Mains occupied the chair. Mr M. Connelly, M.L.C., City Council candidate, Mrs S. MacArthur, Hospital Board candidate, and Mr D. Copland, Harbour Board candidate, each briefly outlined the party’s policy, and at the close the speakers were accorded a vote of thanks and confidence. Messrs E. T. Cox. a City Council candidate, J. W. Munro. M.P. (City Council and Harbour Board), and J. E. MacManus (City Council), addressed a small audience in the Buffalo Hall in Albany street. All three candidates spoke at some length on the work of the last Labour Council in Dunedin, and criticised the activities of the present council. They also re-stated the Labour Party’s policy with respect to future activities of the City Council. At the Opoho Presbyterian Church Hail, Mr R. Walls, a candidate for the City Council and the Otago Hospital and Harbour Boards. Mr W. M. Taylor, a City Council and Hospital Board candidate. and Mr S. B. Macdonald, a Harbour Board candidate, addressed a small meeting of electors. They spoke in the main on the lines of their previous addresses. TO-NIGHT’S MEETINGS Mr A. H. Allen.—Kaikorai Presbyterian Church Hall. ' Citizens’ Candidates.—Concert Chamber. Labour Candidates— Mornmgton Presbyterian Hall, Security Hall, George Street School*

A FIGHTING SPEECH MR ALLEN HITS BACK DR McMILLAN’S STATEMENTS REFUTED Mr A. H. Allen, a candidate for the mayoralty at the coming elections, delivered an address at the Marigold Salon last night, when he answered many of the statements made by his opponent, Dr D. G. McMillan. The Same Programme Mr Allen said he had promised during the last election that if he were elected there would be no caucus control in the council, and he had seen that that promise had been carried out. If was a strange thing to him that Labour, which was claiming to be sc progressive, should have adopted exactly the same programme which he, The speaker, had put forward three years ago, with the addition that Labour said that it would reduce tram fares and reduce rates. With these two exceptions Labour bad adopted the pclicy which he had put forward, as he had said, and it was now claiming that it was progressive. He believed that each ana every citizen should be treated as a citizen with equal rights, and that they should not be divided by politicoopinions as had been the case in the past. Rates Reduced Cr McMillan had stated, to use his own words, said the speaker, that, " the major issue at this election ” was to hinge cn the question whether the general rate was to go up or down by It in the £. In making such a suggestion ‘Cr McMillan had grossly under-esti-mated the intelligence of the citizens. Would citizens be so small-minded as to allow the, matter of, say. 4s to 5s iff their rate charge to overshadow■ completely 'the all-important question of the efficient management of the city and its valuable trading departments? If any person would cast a vote on such a basis, then he or she would vote for the Citizens’ Association s councillors and himself for the office cf Mayor, for the present council had actually reduced the total rate by Id in the £ for the present year. The present council had at least the courage to submit a budget for the coming year, which was more than the Labour Council had before it left office in 1938. The Labour Council well knew as a result of its term of squandermania, that had it submitted a budget before it left office it would have been necessary to disclose either that it would have to raise substantially the rates or else make a further drastic raid on the renewal funds. It was worth mentioning that Id rate in the £, either up or down, would affect rates bn a property of a capital value of £.IOOO to the extent of 4s 2d in a year, or if a property was let for 25s a week the amount involved would be 4s 4d per annum. ~ All „ “I say again, said Mr Allen, that it is ridiculous for Cr McMillan to suggest that such a matter 15 to be the determining factor in the forthcoming election.”— (Applause.) It was all humbug for the Labour candidates to talk about reducing the general rate by Id in the £ when they knew perfectly well that it could not be done. “The Whole Truth” Dealing with the question of finance, the speaker said that he intended to give them the whole truth and

to show , how the ratepayers had been hoodwinked, The general rate struck by the La.bour council had amounted in 1936-37 to £116,839 and in 1937-38 to £119,782. To these figures should be added the' deficit in the budget caused by an insufficient general rate the deficit would have re-

quired an addition to the general rate of 4Jd to extinguish it—and this deficit amounted in 1936-37 to £20,252 and in 1937-38 to £21,983. Moreover, they must also add the provision for the Lindsay’s Creek and Leith works, which had been taken out of the budget to avoid swelling the deficiency. This provision represented a sum of £17,000 in each case for the two periods referred to. They, therefore, had a total for the two years through the municipal account and through the special works fund amounting to £312,856. Mr Allen asked them to examine how the Citizens’ council had restored the position, and balanced budgets, and brought about stable finance. The general rate which had been struck in 1938-39, and which included provision for the Leith and Lindsay’s Creek work, and, in addition, provision for the No. 5 and No. 13 schemes, with a balanced budget, represented a total of £145,000 in 1938-39 and £146,300 in 1939-40, or £291,300 for the two years. "And yet actually,” remarked the speaker, “ we did more work from that account than the Labour council did.” Reply to Alleged Misrepresentations Dr McMillan had stated that he (Mr Allen) had taken exception to his showing that the present council had done much less new tar-sealing work on the streets than had been done by the Labour Council. The speaker said he did not object to fair criticism at any time, but in this connection he did object to Dr McMillan’s misrepresentations. He had stated that the Labour Council had completed a greater area on the streets, measured in square yards, than had been done by the present council, but he had conveniently forgot to inform his hearers of the additional work done by the present council in new footpath paving totalling 2£ miles and new concrete kerbing and channelling totalling 17 miles. He had further omitted to state that they had done much in the widening of narrow streets and the removal of dangerous corners. During the life of the present council improving bad and dangerous corners and making properties secure by walling where necessary had been undertaken at a cost of £61,964. To quote what had been done on the streets alone in square yards was only misleading citizens. What the Whole Truth Revealed

The speaker said he would give them in tabloid form what he claimed the whole truth revealed, as follows; — That the Labour council took out of the budget in 1936-37 and 1937-38 the charges for Leith works, amounting to £17,000 in each year, plus the charges for scheme 5 works, but failed to pass this relief on to the ratepayers. Despite this relief to the general account, their budgets still showed deficits of £20,252 and £21,983 each year, with the general rate undiminished. That if the Labour council had included the Leith works in accordance with the recognised practice, the general rate would have gone up 4d in the £. and the budget would still have shown a substantial deThat their actions proved that the Labour council had no consideration for the ratepayers, and that they had no intention of reducing the general rate. On the contrary, they increased rates. That in the face of these facts the Labour council was afraid to face the electors with a budget in 1938-9. They realised only too well that; the electors were not prepared to allow financial juggling to continue any longer. New Zealand’s War Effort

Touching on patriotic and war work, Mr Allen said that in his addresses imd advertisements Dr McMillan had stated that “British tradition condemns the use of the war effort for electioneering purposes.” It must be obvious that Dr McMillan’s successive efforts to minimise the patriotic and war work which he (Mr Allen) had initiated after the outbreak of war and which he had directed up to the

present, was due to the fact that he himself had done absolutely nothing to assist in this work. He was not a member of either the Otago Provincial Patriotic Council or the executive of the Emergency Precautions Organisation, nor had he ever offered his services in connection with their work. Who had heard of Dr McMillan speaking anywhere in support of New Zealand's war effort? It was no wonder that at this late period he wished to draw attention from his own failure in this connection by claiming that he should not inform the people of his continued interest and work ior the benefit of their nation and their soldiers serving in its war services. Anonymous Letter Writers Dr McMillan had stated that he was sorry to see that a section of Mr Allen’s backers were indulging in writing anonymous letters to the press, tactics which had also been adopted in the election of 1938, Mr Allen said he would like to state emphatically that he had never in his life written to the press under a nom de plume. Dr McMillan had also stated that these anonymous letters emanated from the one office. He did not know where that office was. said Mr Allen, and he doubted very much the accuracy of the statement. He did know this, though, that many of the letters dealing with Labour's viewpoint came out of the Labour office. (Extended report, by arrangement.) CITIZENS’ CANDIDATES ADDRESSES AT MORNINGTON Four members of the Citizens’ Association, who are candidates for the City Council, addressed a meeting of electors at Mornington last night. The attendance was a fair one, and Mr A. S. Cayzer occupied the , chair, introducing the candidates —Crs E. J. Smith, W. B. Taverner, and M. C. Henderson, and Mr L. J. Ireland. ; Mr Ireland criticised the system of caucus at the council table, and said that when councillors had their opinions determined for them the democratic institution of a council became a puppet manipulated by unseen hands. He traversed the record of the last Labour council, sttaing that when it took office in 1935 it raised the rates .by 2d in the £, abolished the penny- tram fare, and placed a tax on hose taps. It was that party which was now offering as a bait to the electors rate reductions, reductions of tram fares, and other concessions, to the extent of £34,000. That £34,000 must ultimately come out of the pockets of the ratepayers. Cr Smith first of all referred to the fact that Dr McMillan had warned his audiences of a Citizens’ Association advertisement which would probably appear to-morrow. “If such an advertisement does appear,” he said, “it will contain whole truths and not halftruths.” He pointed out’that the present council had brought down a budget with the total rates Id lower than they were the previous year, and in addition concessions had been granted to the users of both electricity and gas. The council had abolished the hose tap charge, and had restored the city’s finances to the healthy position they had been in before the advent qf the Labour council. Cr Smith said that the council had given the working man just as good a “spin” as their own party had ever done, and he concluded by appealing to all electors to go to the poll on Saturday whether they approved of the elections being held or not, "As I stated during the last election campaign,” said Cr Henderson, “I am not going to bind myself to any promises or pledges. Anything Ido will be for the good of the citizens generally. and if anything is brought up which I think will not be in their interests I will vote against it.” All the citizens had not obtained a square deal from the last Labour council, and that was why, he had stood for the council. He pointed out that the present council had not played to the gallery in the budget it had just brought down, but had done what it thought best for the city. Dealing with the question of the provision of an Olympic swimming pool, Cr Henderson said that 1 the cost would be about £30,000. That sum could not come out of revenue, and would have to be provided either by loan or a “raid” on the renewal funds. He did nqt think the ratepayers would sanction the spending of £30,000 on a swimming pool while there was a war on. “We have been accused by Labour of being a political party,” said Cr Taverner. “That is not true. We have denied it, but our denials have been received with derision. You might have expected that we would have criticised the Labour Government if that were so, but we have declined to make the council table a stamping ground for politics. I myself have gone out of my way to assist the Government in its policy regarding municipal affairs.” The Labour Party's manifesto had not promised the citizens a new heaven, but it had gone a long way along the road and promised a new earth, Cr Taverner said. From their experience of three years of Labour on the council it was more like a new edition of the opposite place. After referring briefly to the question of the renewal funds, Cr Taverner said that if the Labour Party wanted to reduce the rates it would have to do so by lowering expenditure—if it did not propose to make diversions from the renewal funds. At the last meeting of the council he had asked Cr McMillan what items would be reduced, but he had received no reply. Cr Taverner concluded by stating that the council had had nothing to do with the increase in the valuations of city property. although it had been accused of raising the valuations. The city valuer was a statutory officer outside the control of the council, and the council could neither nut the valuations up nor bring them down. In answer to a question. Cr Taverner said that the council had stopped the municipal housing scheme for three reasons. First, when the State Advances Corporation had been approached about a fourth £IOO.OOO loan it had said that the term of repayment would'be reduced from 30 to 25 years. Secondly, the cost of building had increased Considerably, and thirdly, as the council had done- most of its business with young men, it considered that the nresent time was not a good one, when so many young men were going overseas. (Extended, Report by Arrangement.)