CIVIC ELECTION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 740, 19 April 1933, Page 5

CIVIC ELECTION.

Independents Open Campaign at Papanui. 1 PLANS AND PROPOSALS. The first meeting of the independent candidates for the City Council election was held at the Papanui Memorial Hall last evening, Mr R. S. M’Kenzie presiding over a good attendance. Mr G. T. Baker said he favoured the appointment of a Royal Commission. There were grave doubts if the ratepayers’ money was being spent wisely. Thousands of pounds were being wasted. Another way in which better supervision could be obtained would be by i s a return to the ward system. It was * the only way by which each district j J could get its fair share of expenditure. 5 The speaker criticised a lot of the work j j done by the council’s officers. He ob- ! jected to the £220,000 roading loan and 5 j the subsidy to the workers under the * ! No. 5 relief scheme. Another point ! emphasised was the unfair allotment of the unemployment funds. No less > j Canterbury under the various unem--2 | plovment taxes and only £184,000 had J j been spent. I Mr W. J. Boyce spoke of the work } to be done to relieve distress in the I city and said there should be no need > j in a country like New Zealand for any : j person to be destitute. Constructive - work should be found for the unenil i ployed. As an example of the way ; ; j money was wasted, Mr Boyce said that j l ' when the City Council officers were i t I asked to estimate the cost of channel- ! i J ling western Papanui. the cost was £7O j for a quarter-acre' frontage, whereas | the same work could be done by pri- i - vate contractors for £lO. Mrs M'Combs’s efforts to cheapen the cost : * of electricity had been a boon to the ; ratepayers and had strengthened the i M.E.D. ! Mr E. Philpott Crowther said the | , j Independents stood for economy. It i was not sufficient to ask the council *

officers to economise: they should be told that they would have to do with less. The speaker favoured a port on the Estuary, which would result in the city taking its proper place among the cities of New Zealand. A vote of confidence in the candidates, Messrs G. T. Baker, W. J. Boyce, E. Philpott Crowther and S. M’Alister, was carried unanimously. The Mayoralty. The Mayor. Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P . will open his campaign as a candidate for the Mayoralty in the Choral Hall this evening, when he will deliver a policy speech. The Deputy-Mayor, the Rev J. K. Archer, will preside. Mr J. M’Combs, chairman of the Finance Committee, will also speak, as a candidate for the City Council. New Brighton Mayoralty. ‘ A deputation waited upon Mr El Ilinds last night and asked him to con: test the New Brighton Mayoralty at the approaching election, and he com sented to stand. Mr Hinds has not yet taken a public part in the affairs' of the borough, but he has been a resfi dent of New Brighton for some vearsl Messrs J. Osborn, A. Hulme and H 'Vorral have consented to stand as caii didates for the New Brighton Council on the instigation of the South Brighton Progress League. The League s two other candidates are Messrs W. Hulme and A E. Lawry.