WATER PROJECTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19625, 9 May 1938, Page 4

WATER PROJECTS

MAYOR’S PLATFORM MR. BULL CRITICAL ALTER NATIVE PROPQSALS Strongly critical comment on the platform advanced by the Mayor, Mr. D. W. Coleman, M.P., in connection with his election campaign, was voiced by Mr. N. H. Bull, the opposing candidate for the Mayoralty, at a meeting held in Te Hapara on Saturday evening. Mr. Bull concentrated upon the question of the water supply, and declared that his opponent was trying to “get out from under” his responsibility for the, advocacy of the Waipaoa River project.

Dealing with Mr. Coleman’s platform, Mr. Bull stated that the second clause of that platform promised that at least two alternative schemes would be placed before the electors. Until the publication of the Labour Party’s platform for the municipal elections, Mr. Bull claimed, there had been no reference by the Mayor to alternative proposals. It was clear, he held, that the platform was being used to get Mr. Coleman out of a difficult situation; in a few words, extricating him from the Waipaoa River silt.

Pre-Election Statements in 1935

The candidate referred to Mr. Coleman’s pre-election statements of 1935, in connection with a scheme which he held would solve the borough’s water problem. This scheme proved to be the Waipaoa River filtration plan, and there was no suggestion of an alternative, Mr. Bull pointed out.' Mr. Coleman had been the strongest advocate of the installation of an experimental plant at Matawhero. He now twitted the speaker with having voted for this proposal, but Mr. Bull believed that while he had not recorded his vote against it. he had proved by his subsequent actions that he regarded it as a complete waste of money.

When in November last he (Mr. Bull) has suggested that alternative proposals should be submitted to the electors, Mr. Coleman Iffiad replied that there was no legal provision for submitting alternative issues. In this ruling he was correct, Mr. Bull admitted, for the voting paper on any loan proposal contained only affirmative and dissenting clauses. Yet Mr. Coleman now proposed on his own account to make alternative submissions to the electors. He knew that it could not be done, but he allowed it to be advertised that if elected, he would submit two or more alternative courses.

“I remember Mr. Coleman, shortly after the last election, stating publicly to the council that he would not use his casting vote where the expenditure of large sums of borough money was involved,” stated Mr. Bull, latei in his address. “During the last term of the council, the only occasion upon which the question of a large expenditure of borough funds came before the council was in connection with the Fire Board’s loan Pi'°P°p ls ‘ It is well known that it was Mr. Coleman’s easting vote on this subject that carried the day for the suppoiters of the loan.”