Sydney’s Lord Mayor

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 538, 22 August 1932, Page 6

Sydney’s Lord Mayor

Civic Election

Will “Jock” Garden be the Next ? (Special to the “ Star.”) SYDNEY, August 13. JT is asserted on all sides that if Labour wins the municipal elections this }-ear, the next Lord Mayor of Sydney is to be Alderman “Jock” Garden, the thinly-disguised Communist, who has been for years the loyal representative and the willing tool of the Moscow International in Australia. This may well seem almost incredible; but unless the civic elections are postponed, and the lodger vote is eliminated Labour may secure the necessary majority, and “Jock” Garden may become the virtual ruler of this great metropolis. The Citizens’ Reform Association, in cooperation with other important civic organisations, is still urging the Government to

postpone the municipal elections, if possible, for six months, and the matter is still under the serious consideration cf Cabinet. The case for postponement, briefly, is that unless the elections are deferred for some time after the statutory date (December 1) there will be no time to canvass or organise the constituencies and what is more important —there will be no c hance

of passing legislation to get rid of the lodger vote. To all but the Labour extremists, the elimination of the lodger as a factor in municipal politics has now become imperative. “ Civic Employees Dominate.” Sir Arthur Cocks, speaking on behalf of the signatories to the petition addressed to Government. said that when the lodger vote was introduced thirty years ago there was no such thing as “ machine poli- • ic* ” in civic administration. But now, as he went on to explain:—“The Socialistic organisation is so complete that the lodger vote is \itilised directly for the purpose of giving Trades Hall nominees direct control of the City Council and the expenditure of almost £3,000,000 annually in wages and salaries. To make this organisation more complete, resolutions have been passed by Labour aldermen giving preference of employment to residents within the city area, and making the Town Clerk the official collector of union dues for the Trades Hall. In this way the civic employees actually dominate the Labour aldermen, and direct the policy that is to be followed respecting pay and working conditions in the civic service. This has, in past years, led to reckless expenditure of public money, which has produced disastrous results for the city taxpayers.” Votes for All the Family. The result of all this has been that “ the lodger vote has produced scandalous misrepresentation of the city's interests, the degradation of its prestige, and the elimination of its dignity. Cleanliness of administration has given place to bribery and corruption, aldermanic influence has predominated in tb.e making of civic appointments, and the ordinary administration has been weakened, producing extravagance and general neglect.” It does not seem to be generally realised here, that in the case of a large family, the wife being registered as “occupier” of the house, the husband and six or eight cons and daughters, so long as they are earning anything, may all be installed as “ lodgers ” and have separate votes. Oil the other hand, the owner of a property worth £IO.OOO or £IOO,OOO can have only one vote, and this may be neutralised by his caretaker. No wonder that a system with such possibilities has given rise to flagrant and ruinous abuses. Of course, the Labour section of the City Council and its “managers” at the Trades Hall are wide awake to the dangers to which they are exposed, and they are doing their best to hurry on the elections, and forestall the expected abolition of the lodger vote. But the situation has been, from Labour’s standpoint, complicated by the activity of the so-called “ Socialisation ” group, which is really a little cabal formed within the original Lang party to secure control of the Labour movement in the city and at the Trades Hall. But, the old conflict between the Communist and the anti-Communist element is still in jjrogress, and an attempt has been made to drop Alderman Grant (the famous “Donald” of the Domain), and to substitute a more neutral personality. In response the Socialisation unit has commenced what is described as “an intensive campaign ” in favour of Grant, and the extremists arc at present quite confident of success. They I'iast that they arc “leaving nothing to chance.”