The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1929 A NEW VOICE AND A CLEAR OUTLOOK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 642, 19 April 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1929 A NEW VOICE AND A CLEAR OUTLOOK

WHAT do you think of Mr. Vaile’s first speed! as a Mayoral candidate?” This naturally was a general question to-day among citizens who take more than a punter’s interest in municipal polities. The answer was complimentary and could not in fairness he anything else. As the initial address of a keen man of business who neither has been prejudiced nor demoralised by association with mediocre administrators, it was exceptionally firm in tone and constructive in purpose. The candidate revealed the promise of an advent into local government affairs of two essentials a neA \ oice and a clear outlook. These are Auckland’s greatest municipal needs, and any candidate who goes nearest to meeting them and other important requirements should be given a notable measure ot decisive support at the May Day poll. Many electors may be tempted to cling stubbornly to the old belief that the Mayor of an expanding city should at least have served a tedious" sort of apprenticeship. Whatever force that belief possesses or has possessed in circumstances of administrative perfection, it has' been shattered into disillusionment m Auckland. The closer that perceptive citizens look at and into the recent record of the city’s municipal government the clearer they will see liow much the community has suffered from a protracted practice of stodgy experience. Even though experience might find expression in wisdom and progressive ability there conies a time when it must give way to fresh and quick determination to make wise progress. Can anyone seriously challenge the fact that such time has come in Auckland ' For the past four years the city’s administration has meandered like a sluggish stream which cannot make pace because of an overgrowth of weeds in its channel. Thus, Mr. 11. E. Vaile had every reason to assert confidently that he enjoyed an advantage in not having been a councillor. He is in a position (as be phrased it) to go to the Town Hall free of prejudices or attachment to any party. Moreover, lie would then and there have the greater advantage oi taking a new way to better government. It has been proved to the great exasperation of the community that the old way of the present administration lias led more often to miserable failure than to success. The City Council has become more notorious for the things it has not done or has done badly than famous for anything it lias done even well. Every citizen knows that thoroughly, but apathy or perhaps an undeserved loyalty to the old brigade may hinder the introduction of new strength and a better vision of Auckland’s municipal needs. As has been said by other observers of the council’s poor record of service, “the council is so weakly led that it cannot make up its mind upon any subject.” There is no evidence of weakness in the policy of Mr. Vaile, a native of Auckland, who knows bis own city and its municipal needs as well as he knows his own business. To begin with, if lie were Mayor, he would place the affairs of the city on a basis of efficient business, and incidentally thus would call upon the administrators to do more work quickly and thoroughly by meeting once a week instead of allowing the departments to be responsible for far too much of the work that is now done. It is to be regretted that Mr. Vaile had not had in his possession the council’s balance-sheet for the past financial year. Unfortunately, that information has never been available before a municipal election—a policy that often has saved the administration from deserved and a desirable dismissal. There is no doubt at all that if the financial record of the council had been in Mr. Vaile’s hands last evening at the Town Hall, he could have demonstrated clearly how the city’s finances could be placed on a sound business footing. On general questions of municipal government the promisingcandidate was shrewd, penetrating and progressive. He saw immediately the foolishness of increasing valuations while rents are falling, and must fall farther, if the city means to move quickly forward to its appointed destiny of greatness, and recognised clearly the faulty control of street traffic. And he was right in advocating the necessity for pursuing the ideal of establishing a Greater Auckland with a simpler and less extravagant form of government. Altogether, a level-headed candidate, and a good representative citizen—a man worthy of ready support.

CIVIC SALARIES

DERHAPS it is characteristic of the outlook and methods of the. retiring City Council that one of its final discussions involved a breach of taste that local bodies do not customarily sanction. This was a wrangle in open meeting over the salaries of two or three highly-placed members of its administrative staff. It should have been possible to deal with these questions in committee, or. if a public discussion were necessary, by reference to the individual cases as Case A, B, or C. Xo business concern would be so foolish as to flaunt its salary list in this fashion. The method is neither fair to the officers concerned—it tends to place them in an invidious position—nor a sound business px-inciple. For example, if a commercial firm in the city had wanted to secure the services of one of the men in question, the difficulties of approach have been cleared for it. The only negotiation required would he a bid of, say, £SO above the published salary. Even in the Government services a certain anonymity is preserved when salaries are under discussion. The cloak is permitted to fall when really big salaries are in question, hut no harm is done when the men concerned are above the welter of everyday competition. Apart from the ethics of an open debate in which men and their salaries are mentioned, it is scarcely right that an outgoing eouneil should at its last meeting shoulder the responsibility of authorising increased rates of pay. It is not intended to question the justice of the claims made on behalf of those whose salaries were discussed last evening. In all probability the next council will cordially endorse what has been done; hut if a new council pledged to the most ruthless retrenchment happened to be returned, the sequel would doubtless be unpleasant. Presumably the reason why the salaries came up for revision last evening lies in some statutory provision calling for annual revision according to rotation. If this is so the position is altered by new dates set apart for local body elections, and the council should alter its Standing Orders to make certain that in future no outgoing council will he obliged to revise any salaries on the eve of its retirement. The other question of unfair publicity can well be left to the good sense of future councillors. The Mayor, at least, should have a proper sense of the fitness of things.