THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12769, 15 April 1910, Page 2

THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

MR PETTIT'S CANDIDATURE. MEET- -C A: THE THEATRE ROYAL, Mr Thomas Pettit, a candidate for the city Mayoralty, addressed a wellattended meeting at the Theatre Royal last night. Mr A. I. Maginnity occupied the chair. Mr Maginnity said jit had been ieit by a large section of the community that a change in municipal affairs was desirable. (Applause.) -He might go further than that ana say it was aoBolutely essential. (Applause.) In saying that he did. nob "wish to rbe taken as rejecting oh any person or body of persons, For the. /present Mayor he had a high personal regard. He believed him thoroughly honest in every way ; bat he thought they woud agree with him that the time had come when they wanted something better, and something done in municipal progress. (Applause.) Mr Pettit was not a candidate for the Mayoralty in any vainglorious spirit. There had baen some difficulty in persuading him. to. allow himself to be nominated. He (the chairman) was glad he had been persuaded, because he thought Mr Pettit would make an excellent Mayor— (applause)— and he had no doubt he would be able to show them that a change from the. present administration was desirable. ■ Mr Pettit, who "was received, with applause, said he' thought sufficient had be t en said in the press and elsewhere to arouse public interest in municipal affairs at the present juncture. But one could not close his eyes to the fact that a large. number of citizens were lacking in. their duty as citizens, as was shown by the small degree of interest taken in the election-. In this he was disappointed. Ratepayers must bear in mind that the man who could serve them best as -a councillor was not necessarily a fluent or a polished speaker. Whatever they fonnd to be lacking in that respect ho hoped i-they would find compensation for ia his record as a councillor. He was .afraid of no investigation into -his conduct as a councillor. (Applause.) He could confidently say that be had never allowed party feeling to influence him on any question that had come before the Council. He was first returned to the Council in 1902. \At that time the city had had a long rest from municipal progress. The years that had passed since then had been years of considerable activity. Between the years 1903-6 the first work of importance was tne building of the Municipal Chambers, which altogether cost £5500. There; were other plans for a more elaborate building, varying in cost from £7000 to £10,000. The previous building was not fit for habitation, and though the ratepayers, objected to the new structure, the Council decided to carry out the work out of overdraft, and that amount' was still due to thci bank. The extension of the gas works was also undertaken out of overdraft. It was at first intended only tq... repair "the workSj but renewals were/ found necessary, costing about £10,000. There was afterwards some trouble with naptha and thick tar in the pipes, which led a section of the community,, led to a large extent by the present Mayor, to endeavour to prove that the gasworks were a failure. The Council secured the services of Mr Atkinson, of Auckland, a recognised authority, to report on the works, and he reported that the Council had secured the maximum of efficiency at the minimum expense,. It was found, however,' that the reticulation was largely defective, and a loan for both gas and water main extensions was proposed./ The loan asked for was £2500, but strange to say the proposal met with a great deal of opposition in the Council itself, led by the present Mayor. He (the speaker) had been a member of the committee urging, the loan, which was eventually carried. Hei. thought they would agree that the work thereby carried out had been a success. (Applause.) That, however, did not entirely solve the difficulty. 'Mr "Atkinson had. laid stress on the necessity for obtaining the. best coal for gas production, and managing the works scientifically. That ,hri(i - not been done. The city had suitered considerable loss through the departure" from the, jb'rook street quarry. The. roads made with Biook street metal were still among tne best in. the city. (Applause.) unfortunately, however, in 1907 din'erences arose on the question, and tie lirook street quarry had been idle since. No small amount oi the money 'expended since on road worKs had been wasted. (Applause.) In li)U3 the bank overdraro stood at £5U18 ; a small sum compared with the present one. For 1904 ha had not the ngures, but. in 1905 the overdraft had juntped to* £16,309, the increase being largely, due to the municipal building and gas" works extension. In the following year thei overdraft was £16,892, and in 1906 £18,647. In 1907, at the time of the municipal election, there was a good deal of unrest in connection, with City. Council air'airs, aud-public meetings were held, as a result of which. a number 'of old councillors wero defeated, . .and . new members elected^-" on a pledge that they would reduce. 1 the overdraft without impairing the efficiency of the public services. They, could now appreciate how that promise had been carried out. If they were satisfied* with the result they should certainly again return the, present Mayor ; but if on thei other hand they found that expenditure had not been reduced, or efficiency maintained, he would ask them if it was not tun© for a change. If they thought so, he would give them one opportunity. The piTolic meetings he had referred to had aroused great interest in municipal matters, but since then there* had been a return to the old lethargy. It made him think that some sort of vigilance committee,, which would keep public interest alive all through the year, would be a good thing. There was a tendency in Nelson to allow potty interests to override the best interests of the pu"blic, and that was a spirit which snoukl be got rid of. When the present Mayor was first returned, he asked for a working majority, and he got it, r to carry out reforms. They would see what effect the change had on the overdraft. He was prepared to say that' the change had' resulted in' & municipal muddle and increase 6i. overdraft, without any compensations. One* of the results of the change was unfortunate, differences or. opinion with Mr Mestayer, the engineer Who designed the sewerage scheme, leading to/ineffective supervision, and the carrying out of the work by day labour. He iiad nothing to say against day labour under proper conditions] it was not responsible for the drainage muddle, but he did say that the Council's treatment of Mr Mestayer largely was. Mr Pettit proccieded to refer to subsequent negotiations between the Council and the Health Department, arguing that had the designing engineer's services been retained the work would not have been" " scamped' 1 as it was in the Wood. The Council would not have been so much to blame had the Council not been warned, by the medical | men of the city, and especially by one of the newspapers. The Council took no action to disprove the statements mide, or to show that they, were correct. The Council said that things would be found to be .right when, the connections were made, btit it wa's-'evi-dent all along, frqm the working . of the ejectors, thafr.sbinething was-Beri-!Wsly Wrong... IfVihen the matter came before ,the Council .rece^tlyj, a coun-cillor-said he had known 'f of. twelve, months of defective work-in one place', and the Mayor,.had stated. that he !had known all along 4 that there would , be trouble in the .Wood. The result of the Council's . inaction was an .inefficient I scheme upon ' which" nearly '£70j000 had been spent. It was ti*>w- heiarly two years, sincte the first section of the scheme was ready. r for _ connections, but'eVen, now, there werelyery few oohheictiOmv I ! The^mismariage.merit ; of the gas- works^had .cost the city -£ great cfeal.. )He^ "were paying tod muca far

gas for one thing, and they were not getting good quality for another. They had not been using the right sort of coal, and the matter was one which should have thei serious attention of the Council. Councillor Neale was so firmly convinced that there was loss in this direction that he offered to deposit £408, and if a change of did not effect a saving or that amount in a year he would forfeit the monejy. (Applause.) Mr Pettit then proceeded to deal with the water works question. Since the large dam, which cost £11,025, was abandoned, the Council went in for anotheir idea. He had jontended that the dam should; have been repaired, and that abandoning it was bad management. - and. false: economy. Instead of Tepa.ir.ing the dam, they built -a small dam highe* up the rivcir, which was to have .cost £800, but really cost £2500, and other works brought the cost up another £400, for which they had only a few days' supply stored for an emergency. They were not considering the question of going to Roding river, at a cost of £6000. They could safely add 20 per cent to that. Did they think the. ratepayers would sanction a loan of £7000 or £8000 at the present time ? (Voices: No.) The question of water supply, howevftr,- was a very impoi^ tant.one, and if the large dam could be repaired at a cost of £1000 ■ or £1200, the work should be^ carried out. If he returned to municipal life he would make that one of his objects. The speaker then proceeded to trace the. growth of the overdraft since the present Mayor went into office. At 1910 the overdraft stood at £21,508, the largest amount it had ever been. That in spite of promises to reduce the. rates and the overdraft. Last year showed an increase of £6100 in the overdraft, which was equal to a rate of sixpence in the pound. The Mayor had given them a reduction of a penny in the rates as he promised, and which promise induced many of them to vote, for him, but wher 4 e was the saving? 'If that was not evidence of bad management he. did not know what was. To pay off the overdraft they would have to pay a rate of l£d in the pound on the present rateable value for seven years. He thought the city should insist upon tha faulty drainage being made efficient at the earliest opportunity. This, he thought, should be done as soon as possible. A large number of people ware now paying the drainage rate without receiving any benefit; That he had always thofight was unfair, and the Council was now endeavouring to remedy it by extending the system. The condition of the streets should have early attention, but a considerably increased rate would .be required to put them in proper order. Two years ago a scheme for funding the city's indebtedness was brought before the Council by Councillor -Hampson. It was not generally understood, and some hard things were unnecessarily said of it in the Council Chamber. On account of that opposition they had had to do without the scheme. It was significant, of a change* of feeling, however, that some of those who had most strongly opposed the scheme then, now advocated a similar one, .to raise the money through the Government. It had always been. his opinion that the. office of Mayor should not be held by one man for a long term of years. At one time Mr Piper had been .one .of the loudest in declaring that the office, should be a rolling one. When it rolled to him, however, he evidently did not desire it to roll any further. (Laughter and applause.). In conclusion Mr Pettit said he had, lived all his life in Nelson, and he and his public actions were well known to his hearers. He hoped that by election day sufficient interest would be aroused to ensure a large poll, and. if that were so, he would be perfectly willing to" submit to the burgesses' decision. (Applause.) - The" chairman said Mr Pettit had presented a very strong indictment against the present administration, and he had done so in a way which did him credit, and evidenced great ability. For himself he had not previously believed that the finances of the city were in such a serious condition. In reply to Mr S. H. Strong, Mr Pcjttit said ho had all through the drainagev discussions advocated retaining the services of Mr Meslayer. If that had been done they would have avoided the trouble they had experienced. In reply to Mr J. Taylor, who asked whether Mr Pettit preferred contract work to day labour, Mr Pettit said it was a question of supervision. He did not think there would be any difference to the working man, whichever system was employed on public works. ' In the case of the sewerage scheme, if the work, had been in the hands of a centractor, the Council would have been protected from the defects which had occurred, as a conj tractor would have been required to maintain the work for some time after it had been completed, and hand it over in good order. Councillor Grace: Apply it to tha big dam. Mr Pettit: I challenge. Councillor Grace to show an}' defects in the big dam which" could not have occurred if it had been constructed by day labour. Councillor Neale : Apply it to the little dam. (Laughter.) Councillor Grace: The little dam will, hold water 'at any rate. Councillor Neale : Not very much. (Laughter and applause.) The Rev. J. H. MacKenzie moved a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Pettit for his address. The motion was" secofjded by Mr Stobarfs. Mr J. Taylor would like the meeting to express its confidence in Mr Pettit as a fit . :ind proper person to occupy the position of chief magistrate of the city. He cordially agreed with Mr Pettit that the office should be a rolling one. The Rev. Mr MacKenzie said a resolution of confidence would express his own feeling, and he was willing chat the suggestion should be incorporated in his motion. The seconder being also the resolution was put in its altered form and carried with acclamation. A vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the business.