LOCAL ELECTIONS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2443, 23 April 1915, Page 6

LOCAL ELECTIONS

MAYORAL CAMPAIGN

MR. FLETCHER'S FIRST 1 SPEECH

STAMEN! OF IS VIEWS

Sir. U,. Fletcher opened his campaign as a candidate for tho City Mayoralty ■by addressing a meeting in t-lie Confcert Chamber of the Town Hall last night. Mr. W. T. Hildreth presided, and there were about 50 "people present.

In introducing Mr. .Fletcher tho chairBran said that the candidature of .Mr. 'Fletcher for the Mayoralty was thoroughly justified. ' He had served a lone apprenticeship for'the position, and for the last five years had been chairman of .'the Harbour Board, ar body second Duly : in importance to the City Council. His'.Record of Service. '-. Mr. Fletcher began by relating his various 'successes.as a, candidate at elections, and these successes,-he said, warranted him in presuming that he had the confidence'of the people of ■Wellington. He claimed that he had been of some service on the City Council, and onthe Harbour Board he had thought about inany Teforms. That hoard was' a very different body now from what jt- was when he joined it. He remembered when first'he, the nearest approach to a representative of Labour on the hoard, introduced a rather, cradical; motion, it was _ received with horror. But it was carried, and others afterwards. ; ' ' , The Tramway Enterprise. IThe works programme of tha City (Council had had to be curtailed owing ' to the wffr having made the raising of loans impossible. Most of these works were necessary, but some of them could , be .postponed, and they, would have to he postponed, for next, year also. Ono of the most important of the proposed now works was the removal of the tram-car barns from Newtown'te Onepu Road, Lyall Bay, and the conversion of the shed at Newtown into repair shops. fThis was urgently required to nieet the needs of our rapidly-growing tramway enterprise. He was strongly in favour of the extension of the Constable Street line into Kilbirnie to link ut> the south end of the town with Lyall Bav and Seatoun., As to the general _ management of the tramways he realised that tie greatest of' care and prudence would be necessary in future. Last year the working profit was £15,000. Perhaps this would not -be considered a high rate of profit for a private venture, but a public enterprise was different.' Personally he thought no big profits should be taken from the people, ■who should get their dividends in concessions. The electric lighting system lof the town was also ' a huge Success. He believed that under tho new organisation- both the [Electric Light -Department and the Tramways wonld.be well administered.

In regard. to. street'improvement he Relieved tliat tie'policy of the council should be to block lengths of certain of the more important streets every year- ■ He bad always supported the scheme to make tJhe ?ecreation ground at Kilbimie. The council had put on the Estimates £19,000 for the work, but it had later been deleted. "' Subsequently •on his motion the vote was reinstated, and the present Mayor had voted against the reinstatement. He also thought the sea wall should be constructed Tound Oriental Bay, and the place' beautified in other ways. The Milk Supply. "The milk question has had a bad run," ho said. "I don't mean that $be milk-seller has had a bad run. because he has had a pretty good run." (Laughter.) Milk, he said, was a very necessary article of diet - and it was shameful "(.hat it should be adulterated. One man dealt with by the council the xrKher day had been making £2 a day out of the city water supply. He believed that the only way to ensure a pure milk supply was to have it under municipal control. The council intended now to erect a receiving houso. This, in. his opinion, would not be sufficient. The council, should take the milk from the farm.and supply,it to the.consumer 'without iuiy -intermediary.-.-.. ' ri The Fish' Market.

He' had been he believed, about the Wellington Fish Market, which had been established at his instigation. It was quito true that our market was a.small one, but it had already ' done good • work in making 1 fish cheap to the people. It would never be' entirely .satisfactory, however! until the City'.lad its own trawler. It "was 'difficult now to Ret fish for the mar-, ket, and yot the waters outside the harbour were teeming with good fish. If the ■ City owned an up-to-date trawler ■the people could be . supplied with plentiful supplies of this wholesome article' of'diet at cheap prices.' This proposal that a trawler should be obtained was not favoured by the present Mayor, v

No .time, was more opportune than the-present for the establishment of general markets.. Ho firmly believed that the' Government should fhi ' fair prices for all articles.of food produced in New Zealand. It was, of course, impossible to control the price of imported article's. Indeed, he was surprised that some of'these had not advanced more in price. But he did think that the prices charged to the people of New Zealand for New Zealand-made goods, were unnecessarily high. Ho -thought the Government should at once stop the export of butter and protect the people from haying to pay too much for this article of diet. Water Supply and Other Wattern. He was of oninion that the City should acquire the Orongorongo catchment area. He was going to suegest to the City Engineer that a filtration plant should be obtained to eliminate from the- water the tiny organisms which give tha water the fishy taste noticeable in the late . summer. He was informed that this could be done by filtration, and that the plant would cost about, £15,000. • This price the people of Wellington would not grudge, ho was sure, if the water could be mado less unpleasant to tha taste.

He would like to see the Toads of Wadestown improved, and he Would also like to see the trams run on to ("Wilton's Bush. This resort would then become very popular, and would he a source of revenue for the trams. Even if the trams could not be taken there, it should be possible to run motorbuses to the bush. He considered that IWadestown had a grievance in respect of the rates levied upon it for the tramway. He believed also that better roads should be provided in Vogeltown.

He strongly supported tho proposal to erect municipal tepid baths, especinllv as similar baths had been such a success in Auckland. We had a lot of power wasting at the destructor which could to used for heating tho water if baths were built alongside tho TV Aro Baths . •

He spoke briefly about city leases. It was truo that these leases now were a cause of great dissatisfaction to the lessees and to the council. It. was owing to the fact that nobody was satisfied that so much of tho land was lying idle. He thought the best solution, o£ the difficulty wou],d h ysk.

| up a proper tribunal to go into the whole matter. Superannuation. Ho had taken an active part in the establishment of a Superannuation Fund for the Wellington Harbour Board, and lio was very proud of it. Likewise he had done his best to have a superannuation scheme for City Conn- 1 oil employees, but the question had always been side-trackcd- by the Jfayor. Instead, the Mayor' had brought down a classification scheme which was valueless, and had put forward a. scheme allied with the National Provident Fund. However, he (Mr. Fletcher) had hot done with the city superannua-' tion scheme yet. Ho believed that the city valuations were not always equitable, and that they were made on a wrong basis. Recently owing to en .increased valuation imposed by > Government valuers, the Wellington Rowing Club had had its rates increased from £2 9s. 4d. to £15 per year. This meant that the club i would have to go out of existence.' It was absurd,to rate a piece of land used for sport—and a noble sport—on the same basis as ordinary land could be valued. Formerly tho valuation of the city was made by tho city's own valuer, tho. Government had on this occasion liitorfered and sent their own valuers to Te Aro and Thorndon. The results had" been most unsatisfactory. They based their values on sales of land made, and very often it happened that a man who wanted a piece of land for a particular reason would pay more for it than anyone else would. Values based on 6uch sales as that were on a wrong basis. _Tn conclusion, Mr. Fletcher paid a high compliment to Mrs. Luke, who had worked with tireless energy during the year, especially in connection with tho war. , • In answer to. a question, he said that he would be in favour of allowing the Hospital Board to acquire a dairy farm. Mr. W. C. Noot asked whether Mr. Fletcher' would favour a 44-hour week with £3 a week minimum wage for all council employees. This question, Mr. Fletcher said, it was • impossible to nnswer. He would be in favour of £3 10s. a week if that were 'possible, but he realised that it was not possible. He would be in favour of a 44-hour week.

A vote of thanks was accorded to tho candidate on the motion of Mr. D. .M'Laren. ' -