THE MAYORALTY.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2625, 17 July 1871, Page 2

THE MAYORALTY.

MR FISH AT THU MASONIC HALL. Mr Fish addre.-sed a large meeting of rate* payers at the Masonic flail on Saturday evening: Mr \V. Barnett in the chair. The :andidatc premised his remarks by defending himself from the objection that had been urged against him of having mixed himself ipin Provincial politics j and mentioned that, is it Avas not his intention to enter the irena of politics during the next year, asimiar complaint was not likely to occur. He iad said he considered the office of Mayor should be a rolling one, and that if a Councilor, able and willing to ta e the position, olfered himself as a candidate, he would not limself come forward. Although, in expressing the same opinion now as to the office oeing a rolling one, it might appear paradoxi, ;al; yet it Avas an opinion Avhich he still held, Circumstances, hoAvever, as time passed on, had altered. When Mr Thoneman announced himself as a candidate, he declined co opp se him. because then no other gentleman bad come forward. Soon after, Mr Birch svid.be would contest the Election; and he ; Mr Fish), at the request of a large number if citizens, consented to come forward, L'hc candidate then proceeded to recapitulate .vhat had been done by the City Council luring the past year. It had undertaken a large amount of reproductive Avork, A\ r hich being of a permanent nature Avould enable .he Council to reduce the expenditure in various Avays. In order to carry out these works, the Corporation had to put L 12,000 worth of debentures into the Melbourne narket, and the result bad been highly iatisfactory ; the debentures sold at a little ver par* whilst previously they Had to be iisposed of in Dunedin at eighty pounds, nd sometimes as low as at seventy-fi vepounds. i e bad been astonished, in times past, that he npresen'atives of the City, seeing that he interest on the debentures was made a i rst charge upon the rates, should allow the debentures to be sacrificed in such an alarming way. On this change, which was effected luring the past year, the Council might airly congratulate themselves; Another /ood thing had been done, in connection with which he claimed a little credit. He referred to the Princes street reserves. Up to the present year nothing haa been received rom the tenants in tjiat reserve in he shape of rent. What was done, how? •ver, during the present year could have men carried out with greater success several years ago, be aus more rent wpuld have been obtained from the occnpantjji of the reserve. The Council year en*

dravored to get the teffants to them as lambords, and they succeeded as Well as they could possibly expect. The result was, the Corporation, had received m back i cuts L‘2984. In addition to this amount, which made a con ilerablc ditleieuce in the amount hitherto received for rents, the proprietors now recognised the Corporation as landlords, and thus trouble in the future would be obviated. If toe property were let. it would probably yield In annual rental of LBOO The Cori.orat.on purchas d for LI7OO a block of land at the back of the Princes street reserve, and facing Bond street. As a whole, the block formed a moat valuable City property, and in view of the erection of buildings and other improvements which would follow the construction of a railway, they wore justified in looking upon the bargain as an exceedingly good one. I’assing reference was made to the establishment of a cattle marker at the head of Waelaggan street, and of the North, rn Cemetery ; to the im| rovements ot the Northern and Southern recreation grounds ; to the base line ; and to the gas question. He trusted that the day was not far distant when the Water Works, as well as the Gas Works, would be in the bands of the Corporation. The Water Works Company had supplied a great public want, but thev had got enormous privileges granted to them by Act of Parliament, and the time was not far distant when the citizens would find the Company to be an oppressive burden, which all their efforts would not be able to shake off. The Colonial Legislature, when they granted powers to the company —properly granted at the time should have adopted a clause providing for the disposal of the works on equitable terms, to the Corporation. Any monopoly should be placed iu the hands of the representatives of the City, and then the citizens would obtain justice. At the end of the vear the Corporation indebtedness would be Ti'iS 500. L 43,100 had been raised on debentures; there was LI 0,000, mortgage of City property, to the Bank of ISew Zealand; and there was L 5400 open account-making altogether L 58.500. That, for a city like this, was a mere bagatelle, and if the borrowing powers of the Council wetc taken advantage of to their fullest extent in order to purchase gas and water wo. ks, he should not regret to hear that the City indebtedness amounted even to LIOO.OOO. The yearly mcame of the Corporation was L 12,330. Ihe expenditure was as follows Interest on loans, L4OOO ; sinking fund, w uchi ot course went to extinguish the debt, L 406. Up to the time when he took office, no decided step had been taken for the extinguishment of the debt. He, however, caused the money to be set aside as a sinking fund, and he had no doubt that that coim-e would be continued The other items of expenditure made a total of Li2,G ( JB, leaving a net annual delicit of L3GB, which was liktly to be increased annually unless Councillors took great care. The statement he had made would be regarded as discouraging, if u were not counterbalanced by something encouraging. Nearly the whole of the City property leases would fall in about the middle of 1872, and when the reserves were re-let the income would probably be increased by about L3OOO. He asked the citizens to give him their votes if they considered him the best man, and it they thought he had done his duty. During the election he did not intend to make any great display by means of a lavish expenditure He was convinced that the votes of the citizens could not be obtained merely by employing touters, or by decorating cabs v ith Having posters. Therefore if they noticed tint he did not make much display it must not be attributed to a want of desire on Ins part to obtain their support, but to a belief that the citizens generally would give t.ieir votes to the right man, irrespective of the adoption of such means by candidates. A. number of questions were put to the candidate, and answered satisfactorily ; after which a vote of c- iffidence, proposed by Mr Hamann, was carried by acclamation.

MR BIRCH AT THE IMPERIAL hotel. Mr Birch addressed a large meeting at the Imperial Hotel, Mr Goodfellow being in the chair In answer to questions, the candidate said he thought the city had just as good a right to the prison labor as the Province hid ; that the improvement of the Southern Recreation Ground was an unnecessary work ; while admitting that it would be much better to have a straight road through the Octagon, vested rights had been created, which prevented such a thing being done ; that if the Council thought it advisable that the Cargill monument should be removed to another nlace he would not object, but he would not take upon himself, if elected, to advocate such a course. , A vote of confidence m the candidate was carried unanimously. MR THONEMAN’S MEETINGS. Mr L, Thoncmau addressed a well-atten-ded meeting of the gifamw at White’s Queen’s Hotel, Albany street, on Saturday evening. Mr Bracer presided. A motion, “That Mr Thoneman is a tit and proper person to till the office of Mayor of Dunedin ” was carried, on the motion of Mr 1. Murray, seconded by Air Hemsley. Mr Thoneman subsequently addressed another well-attended meeting at Krull’s Caledonian Hotel, Gt. King street. Mr J. Grant presided anda vote'similar to the foregoing was earned on the motion of Mr W. 0. Ball,