THE CITY MAYORALTY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 471, 1 April 1909, Page 6

THE CITY MAYORALTY.

c L Jhe Mayoral campaign opened in earnest last evening, when two out of the four candidates announced for the office delivered their preliminary addresses. As was to be expected, Me. Fisher had a good meeting at Newtown. He is an excellent speaker, ancl can always be relied on to attract a section of the public which derives more satisfaction from the vigour of the oratory than from the merits of the matter placed before it. This is not to say that Mr. Fisher did not make any good points last evening. Most people, for instance, will agree with his view that; the already heavy burden of rates in Wellington should not be increased. He would be a daring man indeed who ventured to say anything to the contrary. His figures, too, regarding the astonishing increase in the number of municipal employees, and the consequent abnormal growth of the Corporation's pay-sheet, were very interesting and instructive. But Mr.- • Fisher is not at his best in a contest of the nature in which he is at present engaged. An ounce of solid business knowledge is worth a great deal more to the city at the present time than a hundredweight of oratorical'fireworks, and Mr. Fisher last evening appeared to be conscious of this fact, and was handicapped accordingly. The other candidate who spoke was Dr. Newman, who also had an excellent reception, and made a favourable impression. It is some years since Dr. Newman held any, public office in the city, although he has been associated with some of the city's largest business and financial ' institutions, and has always taken an active interest in public affairs. At one time there was probably no better-known public man in the city, and at his re-intro-duction last evening it was quite evident that his past services have not been forgotten. One of the most pleasing features of Dr. Newman's address was the appeal made for a better recognition by the public of the honour due to municipal office. It is a regrettable fact that the public are inclined to view with too little respect the high office of chief citizen which it is within their power to bestow. The result has been a tendency to discourage the better class of citizens from coming forward for municipal office. That the city has been well served on the whole is due to the refusal of public-spir-ited men to be discouraged, rather than to any encouragement held out to them. Dr. Newalvn's appeal.therefore was well

made, and in season. It is not neccssary to follow in detail the views put forward by Dn. Newman last evening, suffice it to say that on the whole they were those of a citizen of long standing, familiar with the requirements of the city in. which he aspires to the leading public office, and fully conscious of the heavy responsibility attached to the holding of that office. After a long period of heavy borrowing and vigorous progressiveness, it is well that there should be a pause for a little stocktaking before committing the city to further burdens. This, of course, does not mean that the city is going to stand still, or that Mayor and councillors will have an easy time. Quite the reverse. The task of conducting satisfactorily the large undertakings embarked on by previous Councils involves, as Dr. Newman pointed out, even greater care and business skill than the borrowing and expending of the money absorbed in those undertakings. Every economy in the cost of working means something in the pockcts of the ratepayers, and in this respect it is well to note that Dr. Newman has uncompromisingly committed himself to a determination, if elected, to abolish backstairs influence in the matter of securing and retaining employment under the municipality. This should lead to higher efficiency, and consequently more economic working of the municipality's affairs. Mb. Fisher also expressed himself in favour of giving heads of departments freedom of action in the matter of engaging their staffs, but failed to go the same length as his opponent, who not only proposed to safeguard the interests of the city by providing against wire-pulling, but also put forward a scheme to protect the interests of employees by setting up a Board of Appeal to prevent injustice being done. It will be plain to all who read the reports of last night's addresses that Dr. Newman's re-entry into the active strife of public affairs will prove of benefit to the city. In a measure he sets a new standard in our municipal life—he would uplift where there is a tendency to level down—and whether successful or not in the present campaign his outspokenness and lucidity in dealing with the city's interests will appeal to the public and set people thinking on matters which arc too often lost sight of. "With Messrs. Wii.ford and Bolton also in the field, the election campaign should be a strenuous one, and the affairs of the city should be fully exposed to the gaze of citizens ere polling-day brings its respite. '