MR BENSTEAD’S CAMPAIGN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20098, 3 May 1935, Page 10

MR BENSTEAD’S CAMPAIGN

ADDRESS AT lIIGHFIELD Mr G. Benstead continued his campaign for the Mayoralty last night when he gave an address in the Highfield Presbyterian Hall. At the outset, eight electors were present, but two more arrived after the candidate had been speaking for some time. Mr G. T. Dawson presided and introduced the speaker. In acknowledging the chairman’s remarks, Mr Benstead, whose address was mainly on the lines of those given earlier, said that the small attendance was due, not because people were not interested in local body politics but because they preferred the fireside on a very cold night. He congratulated Highfield, one of the most important parts of the borough, on its enterprise in providing various sporting amenities and in improving the beauties of the area. Highfield was the only part of the borough which had shown sufficient enterprise in providing its own sports grounds without recourse to the help of the Borough Council. This fact added to the pleasure it would give to the speaker in assisting the people of the area in any way possible.

Referring to coming municipal activities and developments in Timaru, Mr Benstead said there were aspects which would have to be considered at no distant date. Some of these questions had received the attention of former Councils. Careful consideration should be given to extending and popularising the outstanding attractions and potential assets of Caroline Bay in conjunction with the Caroline Bay Association, which had done so much in the past to enable Timaru to be even more widely recognised throughout the Dominion as one of the most desirable spots for visitors. Mr Benstead also advocated a continuation of judicious advertising of the town and so advance even higher its position in the Dominion.

Another question that should be considered shortly, continued Mr Benstead, was that of finding suitable accommodation for the pictures and other objects of interest at present housed in one of the large rooms in the Municipal Library. As chairman cf the Library Committee for the past eight years, he had noticed the tremendous increase of service afforded by the library to the reading public and the room now in use was required for expansion of the library service. Mr Benstead advocated careful consideration of the wisdom of providing tepid baths in some suitable position in the town. The three separate baths now in commission could be used only for half the year and tepid baths would thus prove a great asset. Timaru was now approaching the status of a city and with the return of prosperity, for which all were hoping, the wisdom of building a town hall at some future date would have to be discussed. A scheme also should be devised by which due consideration of the outer areas of the borough for a fair share of the municipal services they helped to maintain might be assured. Mr Benstead referred to the policy of councils in recent years to work out from the centre of the town in providing streets with proper channelling, footpaths and tar-sealed surfaces. The policy should be changed so as to allow more work of this nature to be done in the suburbs, for at the present rate it might be from 10 to 20 years before such work was carried out in some of the outlying areas. Referring to improvements that might be effected in the working of the

municipal machine in the interests of efficiency, Mr Benstead advocated that the Council should be reduced by one member in order that a straight out majority vote could be obtained. The Council was at present composed of nine representatives with the Mayor making ten. This meant that on many occasions some very important question affecting the residents as a whole had to be decided on the casting vote of the Mayor, and thus no actual majority vote of the Council was obtained. Parliamentary and ordinary procedure, in that the casting vote should be made for status quo unless there was some grave reason for doing otherwise, was not always practised. It had been in the past that a casting vote had been used in support of the views of the particular man in the chair. Mr Benstead maintained that the old time practice of electing separate committees to deal with the business of important departments was not in the best interests of efficiency. He would prefer the Council to sit as a whole in committee under separate elected chairmen, in order that the whole Council could consider important questions, and obtain all the information on each question before arriving at a decision and casting a vote. The present state of affairs, namely separate committees acting independently, meant that a councillor might happen to be a member of the Council for years and never become a member of some of the committees at all, and so that councillor might never gain any intimate knowledge of the working of an important department other than what he could gain at the ordinary Council meetings. As a case in point. Mr Benstead said he had been on the Council for years and had not yet served on the important Electricity and Bus Committee. Then again it happened that with this system of separate committees acting alone and having a majority of the Council on a committee with the Mayor as an ex officio member, a committee could dictate the policy of any department before that policy came before the Council. Such a condition of affairs was contrary to the standing orders of the Council but nevertheless it had actually existed. The Works Committee for instance could ensure the carrying out of a definite order of works in the borough if a decision of that committee was unanimous and adhered to when the matter came before the Council as a whole. The system as outlined by the speaker, would not prevent any councillor from publicly giving his views in open ingOn the motion of Mr J. McCort, seconded by Mr T. Pope, a vote of thanks to the speaker was carried by acclamation.

LABOUR CANDIDATES PLATFORM OUTLINED The Labour candidates for the municipal elections opened their campaign in Timaru last night, addressing an audience of 90 electors in the Scottish Hall. The meeting was presided over by Mr G. J. Wallace, who said that he had always followed the principle of endeavouring to assist anyone who was desirous of serving in the interests of the public. On the platform were the Rev. Clyde Carr, M.P., Mrs F. A. Hilton, Messrs G. T. Koller, who is standing for the Mayoralty, the Council, Hospital Board and Power Board; F. A. Hilton, S. A. Odell and P. H. Wild, candidates for the Council. Mrs Hilton is standing for the Hospital Board. Mr Carr addressed the meeting briefly, stating that he hoped the electors would recognise the soundness of the philosophy of the candidates, and would give them every support. The first speaker was Mr Koller, who said that the candidates would deal with various planks of Labour’s platform. They were present as a team, and although they might deal with particular things, it wajf not to be taken that they were necessarily particularly interested in those things. The platform they were submitting had been approved by the Party in Timaru, and whatever was said that night, they all subscribed to, and therefore the speeches should not be regarded as individual speeches. Mr Koller went on to say that it was necessary to criticise the present state of affairs, otherwise they would have no reason for coming before the public. The speaker said that it was only natural that party politics should oe introduced into local body affairs. They stood for co-operation, and they believed that the community as a whole could achieve more than individuals, each seeking their own interests firstly, secondly and all the time. Mr Koller went on to refer to Council undertakings, stating that for the year just ended, a credit of £2680 was disclosed. It was a dangerous thing to give too much credit for having achieved a surplus. However, there it was, and it should be spent in the interests of those from whom it was obtained, the ratepayers and the public. He regarded it as a demerit for any local body to budget for a surplus, the policy of the Labour Party being that local bodies should live within their income. They did not believe in starving the services which should be rendered, but they did believe in living within their income. Mr Koller said that he did not think the Council could take much credit for its loan conversion proposals. There were loans bearing interest at the rate of 5, 5$ and 5h per cent., and these were put into a consolidated loan at the rate of 4} per cent. Since then the Dunedin City Council had floated a loan at 3£ per cent and another local body had done so at the rate of 33 per cent.. In view of this, not too much credit could be taken by the Council. Clock Tower Referring to the new clock tower, Mr Koller said that he had to give credit to the Mayor and Council for the manner in which they had financed this proposal. They had done so by striking a special farthing rate, and in his opinion this was the only sound way of doing borough work. He had propounded this policy 14 years ago, and although he had never secured the confidence of the electors, the adoption by the Council of this policy proved the vision he had shown so many years ago. This was the policy the Labour candidates would follow if elected. The attempted drainage of the Otipua Lagoon was next referred to by Mr Koller, who said that up to the present the Council had spent £2600 over and above the amount found out of the unemployment fund for relief workers. Those who lived in the locality, and who were in a position to judge, were of the opinion that the money had been thrown away, because at certain times there was as much water in the lagoon, and a greater area was inundated as ever had been the case. Owing to the outlet not being blocked so often, however, the water generally got away. The results achieved did not warrant the amount of money spent on it, and at the outset, the borough engineer had been dubious about it. He had reported to the Council that the only satisfactory way of dealing with the Lagoon was by pumping. A report had also been secured as to the saiitability of the area for an airport. This was a m'.tter of great importance to the borough, but he was strongly of the optfniom that the Council would be

very unwise to commit itself to the establishment of an airport at Otipua Lagoon. Milk Supply The next point touched on by Mr Koller was the borough milk supply. He quoted statements made by the Mayor and Mr Benstead in regard to the matter, and said that he could not subscribe to either. The Labour Party were in favour of co-operating with the Milk Vendors’ Association with a view to establishing a municipal milk supply department in the near future. The proposed Timaru Milk Council Bill contained much which, in his opinion, would vastly improve the supply. He was surprised that vendors were agreed on handing over control of the milk council to the extent they proposed, because they would be tied hand and foot. The milk council would fix the price, and the vendors would have no say beyond what their representatives could do. Mr Koller proceeded to state that they stood for sound finance; no further borrowing except for renewing loans or for services returning cash revenue. They also stood for efficiency in all departments of the Council’s activities, and for payment for benevolent works.to be made from a fund distinct from the general works fund. Another plank touched on by the speaker was that they would make a searching investigation into the water supply with a view to adequately protecting the water race from contamination and providing filter beds. This matter had been before the ratepayers for many years, but so far a satisfactory solution had not been found. It was evident from the hurried way in which the Council had recently carried out fencing that the race was in a serious position, and to suggest that fencing would protect the race from contamination was too thin. They would adequately protect the race from stock, and they considered that this could be financed over a period of years by appropriating the profits from the water works, which last year were £3627, plus a rate of id in the £. This would hit the average ratepayer to the extent of 8/4 a year. The worst portions would be done first, and in 10 years they would have a supply of which they could be proud. Electricity Referring to electricitj r , Mr Koller said that they would invite friendly discussion with the Power Board, with a view to overcoming the difficulties now causing friction. They were also in favour of reducing the price of current, giving preference to domestic consumers as against commercial users. In all municipal undertakings, their principle would be “service at cost.” The electricity department last year showed a profit of £5994. and of that £2998 was spent in capital work. The shifting of the Grant’s Hill substation had cost £IOOO. and £ISOO had been transferred to the general account. If these sums had not been so utilised, a reduction of 2d a unit could have been made, and this would have meant a saving to consumers of 30/- each for the year. Mr Koller also spoke briefly on the need for greater publicity for Council proceedings. Exploitation of Workers The next speaker was Mr Hilton, who referred to the exploitation of relief workers. He said that there were 597 unemployed in Timaru, of whom 122 were single, and 475 married. The Council could not be blamed for the men being unemployed, but because they were unemployed was no reason why the Council should exploit them. He referred to three jobs in particular, the painting of the abattoir, the renovating of the Ladies Rest, and the laying of water mains. Mr Paterson and Mr Benstead had been questioned regarding subsidising the wages of rfelief workers on essential works, and they had said that it was a question of finance. Neither had been game enough to tell the public where the money was to come from, but there was only one place, and that was the ratepayers. A rate of id in the £ would bring in about £2OOO, or in other words it would cost each ratepayer 5/- a year. This rate would enable a subsidy of 3/4 to be added to the 10/- paid by the Unemployment Board. Worked out it would mean that the wages of 75 men could be subsidised for three days a week for 50 weeks in the year. Mr Tannock had said that when finished, the scenic drive would be a glorious drive, but he wondered if the public who drove over it would stop to think that it had been done by relief labour. He suggested that they would get more satisfaction from the knowledge that they had contributed 5/- towards the cost of constructing it. He believed that their policy was built on justice and truth, and their objective was to help the man on the bottom of the ladder.

Holidays for Employees Mr Wild referred to the holidays granted to Council employees, stating that instead of some men receiving three weeks, others two weeks, and some employees no holidays at all, their objective would be to see that all received equal treatment. Referring to the w'age cuts, he said that in the first place they did not believe that it was necessary to make the cuts, particularly of the lower paid employees, who had been robbed of the necessaries of life, whereas the higher paid men had only had their pleasures taken from them. With a strong enough Council they would restore the cuts. Some would ask where the money was to come from. A voice: Where will it come from? Mr Wild: The ratepayers. A voice: The ratepayers will have to pay quite a lot. Mr Wild also dealt with the question of greater publicity for Council proceedings, stating that there was too much “in committee” work. He also touched on the question of the asphalting of footpaths, stating that they held that no street in the suburban areas should have two asphalt footpaths until every other street had one. The final Council candidate to speak was Mr Odell, who supported the afforestation of waste areas which were unsuitable for other purposes; financial assistance to encourage the musical, dramatic and educational activities of the community; the reservation of the George Street site for the erection of buildings to foster the cultural needs of the community; and the beautifying of the whole of the sea front of the borough. Hospital Board. Mr Koller then spoke briefly in regard to Hospital Board matters, stating that anyone who had studied the position would realise that the base hospital had been inadequate to serve the needs of the locality for a long time. He traversed the report presented to the last meeting of the Hospital Board by a special committee comprising four doctors and four Board members, and said that with certain reservations, due to lack of data, he was in accord with the report. They were strongly in favour of providing better conditions for the nurses, who were notoriously overworked and underpaid. Mrs Hilton also supported the Labour Party’s hospital policy, which was a comprehensive plan providing for adequate buildings and equipment to serve the needs of the community, both town and country, and, with minor reservations, general endorsement of the report which was recently placed before the Board by the special committee. She contended that there were many matters on which a woman’s advice would be helpful, and that there were not more

women on the Board. It was for that reason that she was offering her services. Questions Asked. In reply to a question by Mr H. Brennan relating to a scheme to provide workers’ homes, Mr Koller said that the Council some years ago embarked on such a scheme, putting up 17 or 18 houses, which were being paid for on the table mortgage system. He did not think that that scheme exhausted the possibilities by any means. Mr R. Laplanche asked Mr Hilton if he was in favour of giving the ratepayers’ money to the Central Relief Society. Mr Hilton replied that until the Unemployment Board did something in the way of increasing allocations he could see no other way out of it. On the motion of the chairman, the speakers were accorded a vote of thanks by acclamation. A vote of thanks was also passed to the chairman.