SYDNEY’S NEW LORD MAYOR

Hokitika Guardian, 3 January 1921, Page 3

SYDNEY’S NEW LORD MAYOR

! FORCED UPON CITY BY LABOUR . PARTY. SYDNEY, Dec. 14. The people of Sydney are beginning to ask about the New Zealand system j , of electing mayors— that is, the system I of a mayor being found by an annual \ vote of the burgesses. The Sydney system—that of the aldermen or city | councillors electing one of their number to the high office—has been reduced I to absurdity. I About five years ago a young man named Lambert came to Sydney Irom . an inland town. He had started life ■ as a labourer or something ol that kind, and then he became an organiser and 1 secretary of the A.W.U.—which is the country workers’ union. He became secretary of one of the Sydney branches of the A.W.U., and in due course lie became prominent in Labour counsels. In this country no man is blamed lor a humble origin it lie can exhibit t qualities which ought to go with high j position. Therein lay Mr Lambert’s weakness. He has considerable strength of character, and the invaluable quality 1 of patience; hut he has no mental agility, and he is still the hall educated young man who swayed the shearers’ * unions. In due course he became an alderman and, in consequence ot his agility to pull the strings which made the 1 Labour puppets dance, a torce in the < secret counsels of the Labour movement 1 A year ago, by his influence, a little inoffensive suburban grocer, Mr Fitz- 1 gerald became La hour Lord Mayor ol Sydney. This year, Mr Lambert de i

child |o have the position for himself. Rut r. section of the Labour alderpien iwho have a bare majority in the City Council) showed signs <>l revolt. 1 bey said that they had the privilege of electing the Lord Mayor and not the secret Labour junta at the Trades Hall, over which Mr Lambert presided. The fight was real enough while it lasted. The Labour Council (dominated by the A.W.U.) said it would nominate the Mayor; and the Labour aldermen challenged the decision. Great pressure, was brought to hear from somewhere, the aldermen surrendered, Alderman •Lambert was duly nominated and elected—and now the City has, as its civic head", a young man whom it has never seen or heard of, and who is placed there not bv the will of the citizens but at the bidding of the body that is popiw larlv known as ‘‘the Labour Soviet. ’,

It is a painful condition of affairs. It appears that the city will revolt at the next election of aldermen and wipe ou the Labour majority, which has already done the city so much harm in fact and in reputation.