LOCAL ELECTIONS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2444, 24 April 1915, Page 8

LOCAL ELECTIONS

MAYORAL CAMPAIGN

MR; J, P., LUKE'S RECORD

A POLICY FOB THE fIM

Mr, J. F. 'Lulw, t3ie sitting Mayor,

; ■ addressed the electors, of Wellington v concerning his own candidature for tho office of Mayor in the Concert Chamber < of the Town Hall last night.. Mr. John Smith presided. Mr. Luko began by giving some acoount of his stewardship. The year . just closed, jie said,; had . been a record one bo far as .finance concerned, in ; many respects. When he stood for the Mayoralty a' year previously he,7 had brought, down certain progressive proposals for the, raising of' loans for nei •cess'ary works. • But when these were • , ready- for submission to the ratepayer's ■ the' war broke.; out, and:-that was the end of the loan proposals. -.It appeared • likely, too, that it wouldf .bo the end - of loans for; some .time- to come. At rate he'had-been; advised by tho : City Council's bankers that "Khe time ■ was certainly ■ not.' opportune for; the City to;endeavour, to : .raise loans. Tlie rates would be high, arid ho did not

tbink the city- should be in haste to. "• raise money at a high rate, of interest. ■ . His own opinion was that although we needed certain worlis' done, none of them'with.' the exception of those .relating to trams, and perhaps milk supply, were so'urgent;that they could not. '; wait until money was cheaper. During . the yfear the 'City .receipts had been • '£567,215, but the expenditure had been ; '. £588,614, an excess of expenditure of '£21,329. Brit ha would remind electors that -Aere had; been special expenditure on-.the tramways .of £27,526, .'... and on electric, lighting the special ex- ■ .' penditure was v £18,432. -The /special. expenditure from, the; genera! fund had v amounted to £32,088, and the speoial receipts iin'dbr.-various heads lad been .. only ; £16,703. 1 During the year the • council had to provide for'the extend-■ ed business of. the trams. It was un- ■ thinkable that bepause it' was impos-. ''■ Biblo ..to raise money this great. enter- ' ■. prise, providing a\very '.necessary service for the people of 'Wellington, was v to be starved. The council had to keep . ' the service going,- and in order to do so had to overdraw the City's, account at tlie bank, but he was sure the people -would endorse* this action. The net debt of the City was. £1,970,- ■ ; 129. He. thought ,'\ the City •' ought . to be grateful to the Sinking Fund .• ' Commissioners. '•••'•.' ■ The Worker and His Wago. Referring to increases to men in the • tramway 'service,; he said that the City : Council had sometimes been accused of : . being unduly hard masters. . His own opinion was that the council should endeavour .to hold the balance evenly be- . --.tween the labourer and tho ratepayer, and his ' own experience was- that the. . : council - dealt fairly by all workers, •ri ; wlietherjabourers drawingadailywage ; or officers on a monthly salary.; He had never known any councillor tike up X an. attitude antagonistic ,to workers. . It : was all very well to make rash pi-o- ---';••• mises about what should bo done for workers,- but every case had ,to be con- . uidered individually, on its meritsj har- ";' iiig. regard to .tlie nature of tho service rendered;'"and"'t.lie -rates" paid, elsewhere for similar services. The,totaTincrea6cs. i, m wages paid to all classes of tramway -. employees last year came to £7500, in-, ; eluding £853 for. pay to. men-liow on active service. Ho ventured to say that the. men in . the Wellington Tram-: ■ way service were better paid than those ' ■ in any, other tramways in the country... i : - The Outlying Dlstriots. .:■■■■■ He discussed also the -City Council's . street-widening policy. A good deal was •■■■• being said to tho eliect that tho council was doing nothing for the outlying, districts. The actual fact •; was that in. : enburban (listricfc except; Wades-; , town t'he ■ direct 'expenditure' had 'ex-" ceeded.the rates collected in those dis-. .. tricts,. and, of. course, thero was■; the, other for ordinary services. . 'It was wrong to say that-these; places were ; not getting their fair' share, cf . expenditure. The true position was that the City "of.' "Wellington was being stinted of necessary street works in order :to make things better in the suburbs. •The case of Wadestbwii-was a special • one. It was extremely,difficult to im- ; prove the roads because of tho hilly. . character of tho suburb,.; and the inecesf . sity for heavy cuttings, Also the trams' ■were a burden to the ratepayers of that •■cfistriat. He had.. tried to do ; Bome- - thing for Wadestown in the way of levying lower rates, but ho was advised that tho council could not ■ legally do this. :He had no doubt, however, that the new . council would give "the people of ' -iWadestownall possible consideration. He had been/reminded of a promise he had made to: have'tepid, liaths built •at Brooklyn; But that promise .had l been made two years; ago,; in conjunct ! .i;,;:ition certain loan proposals he had : .thought of bringing before' -tho council. : However, he . would ask- the people of Brooklyn this: Would tliey ratlier.-have ithe-new road heing mado alongside the ■tramlino or their tepid baths?.;-. This new 'road would give them' a" grade of ,ono in twelvo or one in/ fourteen, inistead of oil© in six,:or',one in eif&t. :Ho had dono his best in the interests of the; people of Brooklyn. :. : ■ • ■ v After _ general and special reference to tho improvement of the Town Belt - and .the. City-:Reserves, he expressed •. the highest appreciation, of the work of the Reserves Committee of tie coun- • .. oil.. - . '■ - - ..-. ■ i"

He lad done his'part in'.interesting, ■tie council _in the Constable. Street i'tram extension. It was impossible to raise money for the work, and he had urged the council to vote the necessary money from the general fund. This ■ the council had done, and lie hoped the tramway wild be laid down.; into Kilb'irnie next year. 'The: reasons .why he urged this was that>he realised that the .tunnel was unable to carry - the traffic, and the only way in which 'this' fconeestion'-could be relieved was . by making this Constable Street exteojsion. '

Milk Supply. He was in favour of the establishment of a receiving house for milk, to 8» in charge _ of. a properly .qualified 'officer. He believed that- in the end wo' would have to municipalise the milk supply, being sure we would never got satisfaction until it was accomplished. But he realised also that this would oost a lot of money. His opinion was that tho City,, in order to take oyer the supply, would have to buy out the psesent vendors. He was euto the people . would not vote out' the clearing house, although they would perhaps not yet agree to the municipalisation of tho supply. :• Schemcs In View. • ' . He was in favour of tho • establishment of- a new fire station at the top of Constable Street.

The City had acquired Hall's Turkish Baths in connection with the , streetwidening scheme. His opinion was that municipal tepid baths: and Turkish baths should be built on the waste space at the back of the Opera House. Hot ..water was : , running to waste which could; be. used for-the tepid- bath. He would like to see a new road made from Brooklyn to Vogeltowrv, and a better Toad to Eoseneath, via Hawker 'Street. He supported the City Engineer's scheme for the improvement of Oriental Bay. Ho could not understand whx any people should want.

to fill'ill this bay, the, only littlo piece | of beach where children could play anywhere near the City. (Applause.) He referred to> the scheme, wluch liad been proposed soma years ago for the construction of a passenger lift from the City level to Wellington Tcrrace. That scheme did not lind much favour, but it had since been revived. The City Engineer bad' been considering the possibility of a shorter route to Karori. His plan's, which were yet in skeleton form, were for the construction of passenger lifts at Church Street to the Terrace, and at the top of the lift electric cars would run via Mount Street to pick up the present line at the tunnel. This would not nil be done in a day, but be believed it would yet materialise. (Applause.) Another very pressing heed was for increased offico accommodation for the corporation 6talf. Other Topics. He explained the 1 scheme of superannuation, which he was prepared to support for the City, the scheme allied with the National l'rovident.Fund. He could not give the figures showing what the scheme would cost the City and what it would cost the employees, because he,had been unable to getthem. It he were oleoted he would support some soheme of superannuation which would be fair to the men, but he would favour, a scheme which was allied to tie National , Provident Fund.

Ho had been ■ a6ked whether be was fa: favour of the purchase of a trawler, •bis answer to. that question must be "No." The object in the establishment of a market was to draw as many 6upplios as possible into that market to make the goods cheap to tlie peopled If a trawler were purchased to supply the-fish market aE other, supplies would be' diverted, . and' if for any reason the trawler failed to get fish'there would be no supplies available from elsewhore. Strenuous Years. - In conclusion he said that he had had two strenuous years of work as Mayor, so strenuous that if it had not happened that he was out of business he coiild never undertake the work again. : . Before 'he-decided to stand again he .required an assurance that he would ■ have' some considerable support, and he behoved he was justified in saying that lie had that assuranoe.' He ■ would not say-that if he were hot 'eleoted the work would not go on, perhaps as well as how, but the people should consider fully whetlior at a time like the present 1 it was wise to make a • change. (Applause.) Very few people had any idea of the amount of work devolving upon Mrs. Luke and himself on account of the war. If the electors were satisfied, with.the. way .work was done they would not make a change. (Applause.) . A vote of thanks and confidence was carried unanimously on the voices with hearty applause. ■ • '