THE MAYOR'S OUTING.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13677, 20 August 1908, Page 7

THE MAYOR'S OUTING.

BUSINESS AND PLEASURE. A '■Herald" representative had a chat with the Mayor yesterday on his recent trip to the North Island to attend the Municipal Conference, and to visit Auckland during "Fleer- Week." THE CONFERENCE.

The Conference, said Mr Cra ; gie, got through a good deal of work, but the experience of the n|eeting showed the nee-ssity for additional -preparation of the material to be dealt, with. A considerable number of "remits" or subjects for discussion were placed before the Conference, and much time was spent . over some of them in discovering how, if adopted, they would affect other portions of the law than those they were to amend directly. The Timaiu Borough Council sent, np four, and; two of them: were carried unanimously. One was that all ratet; should be paid before a property was allowed to be transferred; , the- other, that plans of ail subdivisions, of town sections should be submitted to, and approved by.the Borough Council be-, fore being accepted by the Lands Registry Office. The. two remits rejected' referred to the supply of meal;. One proposed that each abattoir district- should have a radius- of three miles from the abattoir: the other that carcases of pigs intended for. curing as bacon and hams should be subjected to inspection. / Amongst other matters dealt with were the shortening of the time when the 10 ; per cent, penalty for non-payment of i rates became due; the retirement of one third of each Council by rotation, instead of the whole; a proposal that the Mayor should be elected by the Council, which, was rejected. A good deal of time was spent over the question of superannuation for municipal employees, and the result was in favour of the Government passing a general measure applicable to the employees of all kinds of local bodies. A thing lie had always contended for, that the contributions for hospitals, general and special, should be on the capital value basis. I THF. TRUNK LINE.

Mr Craigie said thai he found the trip along northern trunk line extremely interesting, and well worth enduring the little discomfort■'-met with in the shape of cold weather. The Mayors weie treated as a class and sent away by themselves, before the Parliamentary party, and for this reason they enjoyed a coach ride midway that gave them a change, in very line conntry. At Taihape they got into country very different from either Canterbury or the Coast. Taihape itself was a surprise, as a new town with a large population, and a good deal of up-to-datc-nes-« about it. With extrava-, gant. ideas of land values too; he heard: of a quarter-acre selling -for £IOOO there.' Leaving Taihape early in the morning they ran into a grand "forest primeval," into high altitudes and cold weather... AtOakune they left the train for coaches---fonrteen coaches—for fourteen miles. On the way they had a new experience, for ltini, a shower of dry- snow. Ruapehu and Tongariro were not seen; the weather being very misty. Mr Craigie said he was much interested- in the 'camps of the co-operative workers on- the line, their tents and mi-er.ible little shanties, with women and children about, them. He diil not know what wages the men got, but they ought to be liberal, when they hail to rough it. in the manner he saw. The dense bush wu.ia tre:tt, the .scenery very beautiful, hills and far 'stretching valleys and deep ravines, till bush-clad worth going far to see. 'ihei party had an opportunity of examining one of the great viaducts, just- Completed. Mr Craigie walked over it and under it, and greatly admired its £57,000 worth of steel and concrete work. When they reached the railway again there was not. enough carriages, and he had to stand on a platform in the cold, while they traversed country at an attitude of 3000 ft. in frosty weather. The Itaurimu Spiral, so much talked of, is a queer piece of work. The train goes half a mile to advance two chains, but it is climbing all the while, and one looks down on the line previously travelled over. Auckland was reached half an hour before the Parliamentary train, the station and streets were crowds ed, and the crowd cheered them, mistak/ ing their special for the Parliamentary train. It'was almost impossible to get off the station the place was so packed.

IN AUCKLAND. Mr Craigie had been to Auckland before, therefore the. city was not new, but Queen street, the principal thorouhgfaie, wore a new aspect, with its profuse decorations .for the visit of the fleet. The decorations by day and the illuminations by night, surpassed'anything-'he "had seen in New Zealand, bnt did not- equal those for the Queen's Jubilee, in London jn 1897, which he saw. The principal flags were a conspicuous feature (as the photographs in the papers showed ; and he was pleased that Timaru's flag was conspicuous among them by its variation from the monotonous "' Welcome from" .—so and so. The crowd in the streets on the Sa'tnrday_night before the fleet, came jn was a sight to efe. The trams had to be suspended;

thev simply could not run; There was a rush all over the town when the fleet arrived, a couple of hours before the time it was expected, and a little early for everybody, as the first gun was fired, at 7.30." The people at once began streaming down to th* harbour, men, women, children, boys and girls running; mothers and fathers "carrying infants or pushing prams. It was a "great sight. Then the ships came along one after the other in a most stately way, and were all anchored in their"places by a quarter to■ nine. Mr Craigie attended the several official functions as the representative of Timaru, and in one of them went on board the American flagship Connecticut. Admiral Sperry appeared to him to be an able and an admirable kind of man in every way, and he set a good example of brevity in speech, an example not followed by some of the New Zealand speakers. The officers were mostly voung men, alert, spry, capital fellows," a" goorl many with German faces. The whole affair passed off very well indeed.

Mr Craigie concluded by expressing his regret that his neighbour Mayor, Mr Buxton, was not able to accompany him ( 'to.. Auckland, nor able to return home with him. He was suffering from influenza. when he left Temuka, and became worse in Wellington. He was however, recovering, and would probaly be home soon.