THE MAYORALTY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 472, 2 April 1909, Page 6

THE MAYORALTY.

. v . is MR. FISHER'S CANDIDATURE. n ;_• ADDRESS AT BROOKLYN, d Mr. P. M. B. Fisher, M.P., a candidate ; - for the city Mayoralty, gavo his second ad•j dress of the campaign at Fullford's Hall, , Brooklyn, last night. Mr. Hendrickson pre- ,. sided over an attendance of ahout 150. ; Tho candidate recapitulated to somo ex--11 tent his address of Wednesday night. He ■> justified his criticism regarding the appointment of now arrivals in tho country to posin tions on tho council staff. Some had been in New Zealand a matter of days, others for j. weeks, and some for months. Yet in the 2 faco of this, the following letter had been written by a responsible official of tho counj cil to an applicant who desired to enter the service: "In reply to your application for employment, I beg to inform you I am inj structed that local men are to havo preference of employment/, and as you have only been two years in tho colony, your applica- '. tion must stand over for somo time." The ' letter was dated April, 1907. This, con- , tinued the speaker, did not seem to agree ■ \yith tho statement made by tho Mayor (the Hon. T. W. Hislop) that tho general principle upon which persons wore now ongaged was that preference was given to married men and to local people. Although ho was perfectly certain that some of tho recent ar-

1 rivals who wero appointed wore excellent • men, nevertheless it was against tho prin- > eiplo of giving preferenco to local men. It had been suggested in connection with the 1 campaign that tho council should set works ; going to provide work for the unemployed. As a matter of fact, said Mr. Fisher, a great many of the unemployed were imported by tho Government, and ho thought it only right under theso circumstances that the Government shojld find work for those they had induced to como to tho Dominion, and not throw tho onus upon the ratepayers of Wellington. Dealing with the milk supply, the speaker said that, a very interesting report had been brought down by the committee, but ho regarded it as a question that required the closest investigation, and ho did not feel disposed to attempt to put the city to expense on tho matter until a most exhaustive examination had been mado of the report. 'On the subject of finance, Mr. Fisher said that although it might bo true that the revenue of tho council this year was equalled by tho expenditure, and that, there was no balance to be shown, he felt quite certain that prudent administration for twelve months would place tho city in credit sufficient to be ablo to carry out tho works enumerated in his programme. At the conclusion of tho address, Mr. Fisher answered numerous questions, and a . voto of thanks and' confidence was carried uranimously.

HON. J. RIGG'S' POSITION. In reply to a deputation from the Labour Representation Committee, the Hon. J. Bigg announced last evening his willingness to stand as a Labour candidate for the Mayoralty if he found ho could make satisfactory arrangements in connection with the establishment of the labour newspaper .that he had been organising for some time past. He promised to givo tho deputation a definite answer on Monday next. Mr. "W. 0. Noot is among the candidates nominated by the Labour Representation Committee for the City Council.