TWO LORD MAYORS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26958, 18 December 1948, Page 11

TWO LORD MAYORS

.. ■ •, f SYDNEY’S UNIQUE OCCASION NZPA—Copyright SYDNEY, Dec. 15. For the first time' in its history Sydney has two city councils and two Lqrd Mayors at the same time. The retiring council will not Jiave its final meeting until Monday, and its Lord Mayor, / Alderman R. J. Bartley, will remain in office until the end of the year. The council recently elected to control the enlarged' city area' has had its first meeting, and elected Alderman E C. O’Dea as Lord Mayor. Until now the city has been administered under the City Corporation Act by which the new Lord Mayor does not .take over his duties until January 1. The newly-divided city operates under the Local Government Act, which provides for the elected Lord Mayor to take office immediately. Mr Bartley says that, although legally elected, Mr O’Dea has no area over which to govern, as the new cityboundaries do not come into existence until next year. . Mr O’Dea, who is a Labour member of the State Legislative Council, is the first Labour Lord Mayor of Sydney for 20 years. , " . In view of the increase in the city population as the result of the addition of eight municipalities, the Lord Mayor’s allowance was increased from £2500 to £3500 a year without op- - position. Fifty million dollars a day for hotel accommodation is cheap in Shanghai, according to Captain C. E. Fisher, a Shanghai pilot, who arrived in New Zea?ancT S by Uie Aorangi last week. That was what he and Mrs Fisher were payw before they left China in August with the rate of . exchange fluctuating hourly- In American money it amounted to seven dollars. '