THE MAYOR IN EXPLANATION.

Otago Witness, Volume 02, Issue 2420, 2 August 1900, Page 23

THE MAYOR IN EXPLANATION.

When a member of our staff interviewed his Worship the Mayor on Friday respecting municipal affairs, the question of the administration of the funds cropped up. His Worship, referring to some remarks made at the meeting of subscribers to the funds, said: — " Being absent from town and only returning on Thursday morning, it was not until the evening that I had leisure to look over the report of the meeting in connection with the disposal of the patriotic fund. lam exceedingly sorry to see that my position has been very much misrepresented indeed. So far as the report itself goes, the only one who seems to have made special reference and mention of my name is Mr Denniston, and he said lie was disappointed with the attitude Mr Chisholm had taken up, and that he had fallen -under the glamour of "the great autocrat in Wellington. If" Mr Chisholm had been present he would have spoken in quite a different strain. As a matter of fact, it is beyond Mr Denniston or any other person to find out what my attitude to-

warcu the patriotic fund was. The tel*. gram I sent from Wellington was in reply to a telegram sent me by Mr James Mills, chairman of the patriotic fund meeting, and I thought that the information that would be of value to the Organising Committee and to Mr Mills was what, so far as I could gather, was the real position of the Government and the intentions of the Government with reference to the fund — not what my intentions with reference to the fund "were. Consequently I attended not only the Municipal Conference, and heard all that the- Premier had to say there, but I was also on* of another conference — a conference of chairmen of patriotic committees present in Wellington, numbering probably 15 to 20, — who had a conference with the Premier on the matter, and it will be a surprise probably to Mr Denniston, as well as to others, to learn that I was the only representative present who stated most emphatically to the Premier that if the intention of the Government was to make one fund for the colony I was quite satisfied it would meet with the strenuous opposition of the triotic Committees in Otago and Southland. When I heard the Premier's proposals I thought it was my duty, in reply to Mr Mills's telegram, to send a telegram worded in the way it was. From that message it will be seen that I did not commit myself to any opinion whatever, or take up any attitude to the fund. . Moreover, at the con- • f erence, when the question- of having a .fund disbursed from a centre wa3 mentioned, I stated distinctly that that also, I was quite, certain, would not find favour with the committees in the south, but that they would insist upon local trustees being appointed to administer the fund."

Mr G. L. Denniston in a letter to the Mayor, referring to this matter, wrote: —

My remarks were made in a jocular tone'> and were so taken by the audience, but I should have known by experience that it is a dangerous thing to trust a joke to the tender mercies of reporters. As far as I can recollect the words I iised were, " I confess to feeling a little disappointed at the tone of the telegram from our worthy and energetic mayor; it was necessarily despondent, and I fear he has got undei the glamoirr of the great autocrat in Wellingtoj. I am confident when he again feels his foot on his native heath he will adopt a more confident tone." I had iji my mind the statement in your telegrams thai, in your opinion, legislation was " inevitable," and that the chairmen of the several patriotic-funds were practically unanimous- in deairiiig it, -whereas our information wa3 that we. were supported in our opposition by chairmen in many quarters. From the account you have given of the proceedings in Wellington, io out local Patriotic Committee since your return, they' all, including myself, must be convinced that you fought a good fight for our interests in Wellington, as might be confidently jespected from one who has worked with-'stich conspicuous energy and success during- the whole course ,of the patriotic movement since its inception. ' " ' ' -