MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17128, 25 April 1921, Page 7

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION. CANDIDATES' SPEECHES. A large crowd assembled at the band rotunda, Victoria square, on Saturday evening, to listen to the views of a number of candidates nominated by the Citizens' Association for seats\ on the City Council. A great deal of noisy opposition—quite good-humoured for the most part—was shown to many of the claims and statements made by the candidates, and at times the meeting grew decidedly uproarious, but, generally speaking, most of the speakers obtained a very fair hearing. Mr H. J. Otley acted as chairman. MR A. WILLIAMS. Mr A. Williams said that after fourteen years' experience as a member of the Christchurch City Council, he had no hesitation in saying that the speakers who were to address them that night were capable business men: capable of managing their ,own businesses, and also capable of managing the business of the City Council, and helping to male) even better the city of which they were all so proud. He believed firmly that Christchurch was the moat beautiful city in the Dominion, and had the greatest possibilities before it. They needed, he thought, to look to men who had a real stake in the district for their city councillors. He noticed that the Labour Party candidates had advertised that they were holding no meetings on Monday out of respect to the New Zealand soldiers who had gone to fight in defence of their country. "I think they ought to be ashamed to publish such an advertisement," said Mr Williams. "These people who stood in the way of the boys going away now pose as doing everything they can for the memory ot the men who fell in the Great War." (Noisy dissent, an.l crises of "It was tho working men who won the war, anyhow.") If they returned the candidates of tho Citizens' Association, continued the speaker, they would sec that the city would progress; if they wanted it to go back until it ranked as a third or fourth-rate town, then they could vote for the other side. (Voice: "Give us your platform.") He could do that; it was a sound platform of economy and progress with all work done in tho best interests of the city as a whole. (Voices: "Yes, cut down the workers' wages," and "That's a nice man you have got for a chairman, anyway.") The speaker warmly defended the chairman as one of the best employers of labour in the city; there was no man more generous to his workmen, and they knew it very well. A good deal of repartee was exchanged at this point, most of it highly irrelevant, and then Sir Williams went on to say that ho was in favour ot increasing to its utmost capacity the supply and use of electricity for and by the citizens. He would like to see the Waimakariri harnessed so that the Lake Coleridge supply could he supElemented. (Voice: "We want the ouses to use it in first.")

MR J. A. FLESHER. Mr J. A. Meshor, replying to an interjection about homes for the workers, said that the homes ■ were going to he supplied on the lowest possible basis. Only the day before tho Council had been recommended to fix the rate of interest payable at 42 per cent., which was exceedingly cheap, compared with the current rate of <5 or 7 per cent. Mi- Flesher then proceeded to deal, comparatively, with the' matter of tho city rates, the Council's overdraft, and the matter of wages, very much on the lines of his remarks at the recent meeting in the Choral Hall. This year it had cost £121,000 to run the city, as compared with £BO,OOO six years ago, and the wages bill had risen from £38,000 to £60,000 a year, but during that time the rates had only increased by £13,000, and the overdraft went up accordingly. Tho Labour Party now made a great outcry, but, at the time, no member of it had ever raised his voice for cutting down expenses, but had always voted for rises. and still more rises in wages. (Voice: ''Why didn't you vote for it?"). "Because there is an Arbitration Court specially set up to deal with this very matter," answered Mr Flesher. He went on to say that six years ago the city rate had been 2'Jd in the £, but in the second year of a Labour man's chairmanshirt "of the Finance Committee it had risen to 2|d in the £. All of the extra £4OOO raieed went to pay additional expenses, and the overdraft was the same at the end of the year as at the beginning. Ho would say, however, that during the last four years of his experience on tho Financ& 'Committee all the men on it had worked loyally and had tried to do their duty, and he had nothing but good to say about any of them. ' He felt, like Cr. Sullivan, that tho people were getting their municipal services at too low a cost, and it "was not possible to reduce the thing. "I defy any set of men to do better than has been done during the last two years," he added. MR W. MACHIN. Mr W. Machin confined his remarks chiefly to refuting one or two statements recently made by Labour Party candidates in their speeches. _ For example, a certain reverend candidate had told a storv; about the swindling financier Hooley,, and' had drawn a moral from this tale which reflected most unjustifiably on the reputation of the members of the Citizens' Association. It was unfortunate, also, that the teller of the story had not even been able to tell it correctly. The Labour Party candidates had been unwise enough to assert that the Association's candidates would be too busy looking after their own businesses to attend to tho city's, but that misstatement could be easily refuted by the list of attendances at the various Council and committee meetings, in which it would be seen that the Citizens' Association candidates more than held'their own. The speaker also dealt with what he regarded as tho weak points in the Labour Party's schemes for the collective ownership of milk and bread supplies, and yent on to criticise very forcibly the charges that the old Council had "done nothing." That, he thought, was a very unfair charge to bring against men who had conducted the affairs of the city in such an effective manner that few, if any, other towns received such remnrkably fine municipal services for such a small charge. It was easy to talk, but it was not easy to keen the rates down. The opposite side's charpes were paltry where tbev were not false. Towards the end of his remarks Mr Machin was subjected to a pood deal of interruption, but he stuck to his guns, and the soundness and reasonableness of his remarks obtained for him about the best hearing of any of the speakers. MR C. P. AGAR. Mr C. P. Agar was the final speaker, and his downright methods won for him the stormiest passage experienced by any of the candidates during the evening. He said that he proposed to give his hearers some part at least of the Citizens' Association's platform. They had been very much misrepresented by the other side, but he was glad to say that, so far, personalities had not been indulged in. (Voice: "You were pretty dirtv at the Choral Hall, weren't you?") He had certainly exposed some of the utterly false statements that had been made. The first plank in the Citizens' Association's platform was the administration of the city's affairs in the interests of the citizens as a whole, and he challenged anyone to prove that this had not been done by the members of the old Cwmcil. The second plank

was one referring to keeping the services of the city in a high state of emciency. He admitted freely enough that there was still room for improvement in some departments, but a great deal of verv effective and valuable work had been done. The platform of the Citizens' Association dealt with the important matter of safeguarding the tho health of the community, and improving the methods of road construction and road cleaning. With regard to the housing problem, that would not have been tackled in a practical manner at all but for tlhe trwlj of the members of tho Citizens' Association on tho Council. Ho had been in opposition to the Labour councillors in regard to the question of wages, bccaiise he dul not approve of sitting night after night, and wasting the time that should be devoted to the affairs of the city, when there was a properly constituted Court specially set uo to deal with this very matter. Ho did not think the councillors had the right to gamble with the ratepayers' money,, for political Purposes ;" tliov were there as custodians of the public purse. Mr Agar referred to tho action of the Labour councillors in refusing on one occasion to rise when the National Anthem was sung, and then thinking better of it. when they found that this kind of behaviour was prejudicing them in tho eyes of the majority of the electors. "Do you realise," asked tho speaker, "that when you vote for a Labour candidate you are favouring the most extreme form of Socialism ever introduced into tho country?" Under the cloak of getting on to the Council for the benefit of tho workers of the city lay a very grave danger to the community. That was why he said: Down with Socialism! It would explain what ho meant if he read to them somo letters that had beou sent to certain councillors, then sitting in tho Labour interest, endeavouring to coerce them because they had not voted in accordance with tho wishes of tho Labour Representation Committee. These letters had been sent from the Trades Hall, Christchurch. Mr Agar then proceeded to read tho three letters he held, but such an uproar occurred that he was unable to bo heard. He had explained that ho could not give the names of the councillors to whom tho letters had been sent because he had premised not to do ,; o, and this apparently infuriated a militant section of his audience, who yelled. '"'Name! Name! Give us the names! indulged themselves witli the "count out," ai\d all manner of hoots, cat-calh, moans, and groans, and resolutely refused to listen or lot anyone else listen, Mr Martin, a well-known Labour man, marched up on to tho platform, and demanded, "as a respectable citizen of Christchurch," to be allowed to rend the originals of tho lettern, which Mr Agar said he had with him. This was refused, and Mr Agar said that he would show tho originals to the Press reporters present,, and they could vouch for their genuineness. "This did not satisfy the crowd, and though Mr Agar read out the letters, few, if any, of the audience could have heard iiim. A slight diversion was caused by a largo swede turnip sailing over' tho heads of tho crowd, narrowly missing tho head of one of the reporters, and bringing up against tho shins of Mr Langford, who was sitting on the platform.

This episode practically concluded tho meeting. The lotters which caused all the trouble were as follows:—

October 26th, 1920. Dear Sir,—At the lost meeting of the L.R.O. tho following motion was cam-id, and I wns instructed to forward to you and Cr. . That Crs. ■■ — and be requested to attend the next meeting of the L.R.C. and explain their reasons for tho attitude adopted by them in (1) opposing Cr. resolution that (lie solution of the- shortage of foodstuffs and of. Irish prices, was t'no nntinuilUntion of land, industries, etc.; (2) opposition to Cr. motion that tllie Council acquire a Inckyard and own and produce bricks for furthering municipal enterprise, and applying- the demand for workers' dwellings. The L.R.C. meets on Saturday evening- next in Trades Ball, at 8 p.m. Hoping you can be present. November Ist, 1920. Dear Sir,—l have been instructed by above to forward you the following resolution, which was carried by tho L.R.C. at- its meeting on Saturday evening last:—"Thill'th© secretary writs to Ors. I 7—; • and . iirforming thorn that ; rlieir conduct in voting against tho principles and platform of tho Labour Party, had boon censured by the L.R.C., and a, notice of motion luid been tabled, repudiating them as Labour ropresentaitives, and asking them, to resign from tho Labour Party on the City Council." This motion to bo discussed at the next meeting of the L.R.C., to be held on Saturday, November 13th, at 8 p.m., and to which they were again invited to attend. November 16th, ifl2o. Doar Sir —By direction of the L.R.0., I was instructed to writo to you, Btating that the Party no longer recognises you as a representative of Labour on the City Council, and that you bo asked to resign, as you no longer represent Labour's ideals. I was also instructed to publish this. Mr W. H. Rose, who was nominated on the Citizens' Association "ticket" for the City Council election, has withdrawn from the contest. Mr Rose state-s that for health reasons and other circumstances of a, personal nature he was unable to continue*in the election. The Citizens' Association will hold meetings in the Choral Hall to-morrow evening, at 7.40, as a final rally. All the candidates will be on the platform. Mr H. Holland will preside, and the speakers announced are Messrs C. P. Agar, J. A. Flesher, Wm. Machin, and A. McKellar. HAKBOURBOAED. Mr T. H. Harker, a candidate for the Harbour Board, addressed a large gathering on Saturday afternoon, at Little Rive;r. The address was given in the Domain, where football and hockey matches were postponed at the request of Mr A. D. Chapman, the chairman. The speaker was listened to attentively. After speaking to a small gathering in Duvauchelle Ray, Mr Harker addressed a large gathering on Saturday night in the Oddfellows' Hall,. at Akaroa. The Mayor, Mr G. Armstrong, presided. Mr Harker stated that Akaroa and the Bays would benefit considerably by having butter, fruit, vegetables, and all perishable commodities delivered direct to the consumers via the Estuary. Mr Harker was congratulated on being the first candidate for the Harbour Board who had visited all the districts for which he stood, and explained Harbour Board matters in detail. At the conclusion of the address, a vote of thanks and confidence was proposed by Mr C. Hall, and seconded by Mr A. "W. Nicholls, and was carried amidst applause.