THE COMING MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5134, 6 September 1877, Page 2

THE COMING MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

MESSRS. ALLEN, GILLON, AND MAGINITY AT. ... . THORNDON. Last evening Messrs. Allen, Gillon, and Maginity met the electors of Thorndon Ward at the Princess Hotel, Molesworth-street. There was a good attendance. Mr. J. E. Brown was voted to the chair, and having explained the object of the meeting, called on Mr. Allen, as the oldest of the three candidates present, to address the meeting. Mr. Allen said it was twelve mouths since he hadaddressed them before as a candidate, and he would now give them an account of how he had discharged the trust reposed in him when they elected him a member of the City Council. He had differed with his colleagues in several respects. One was the building of the Town Hall. He would have been glad to have supported it, but he did not think the Corporation could, afford the money, and when the plans were sent in-one was selected which he did not consider the best. They would remember that the matter had been reconsidered, and the building of the Town Hall dropped. As to the building of Corporation offices, he thought that was desirable, so as to avoid paying a large sum for rent. ' Another question on which he differedfromhisfellow Councillors was the important one of drainage. He considered Mr. Ohmie’s scheme should have had the approval of two competent engineers. However, nothing definite had been done in the matter. The Government had opposed one main feature of Mr. . Climie’s scheme, viz., the outfall at Lyell Bay, on the ground that it would injure the telegraph wires. Then another site was chosen, which was also objected to. He did not himself object to Mr. Climie’s scheme—he was not an engineer—but he thought two competent engineers should have been consulted. As to Mr. Bell, he lived in Christchurch, and could not always*be on the spot, and certainly could not serve two masters. He had opposed the carrying out of the cutting at Glenbervieterrace, believing that there were other works more urgently required. With regard to the wharf he had been quite in accord with his colleagues. In reference to Eoxburghstreet he had moved that the matter should be referred back to the Public Works Committee, and the result was that the contractor had been paid £lO compensation, and the job had been abandoned. He believed, if the revenue , of the Corporation was judiciously expended, it would go a long way to put their roads and streets in good order; but the wox-k ought to be done in. autumn instead of in the winter. The waterworks were a very important undertaking, and some gentlemen, good judges of such matters, who had recently visited them, said the like of them were not to be found anywhere in the colony. (A Voice : That was Mr. Marchant’s work.) Mr. Marchant no doubt deserved credit for this work, and if he had been a little remiss as to some of his other duties, let him have credit for the manner in which he had carried out the waterworks. Mr. Allen then explained the part he had taken in reference to the laud reclamation and the connecting the railway with the shipping at the wharf. He repeated what had taken place on the subject when a deputation from the City Council waited upon the Hon. Mr. Ormond, who said no action would be taken in the matter until the City Council had been consulted. He objected to drains being made and pipes laid, unless they were so constructed as to be part and parcel of. the contemplated drainage scheme. He did not approve of the Mayor giving notice to rescind a motion in reference to the drainage engineer after it had been deliberately passed by the Council. If elected, it would be his desire to work in harmony with his colleagues without disputes and quarrelling, which looked bad when reports of them went to other places. At the same time, he himself did not object to honest criticism, and he had nothing to complain of as to anything that had been said by the Press. He had always been treated courteously both by his colleagues in the Council and by the Press. If elected, it would be his earnest endeavor to serve the electors as faithfully as he had done for the past twelve mouths. In reply to questions, Mr. Allen said in reference to the wharf contract, he had voted for the saving of £SOO ; and the Council did the best they could. He could not say why all ratepayers’ names were not on the burgess roll. It was not his (Mr. Allen’s) fault. No doubt it had been the fault of somebody—the Town Clerk, or some other official, but it was not the fault of the Council. He would not object to the Council sitting in the evening in summer, but in winter he thought it better for them to sit in the afternoon, but he would be guided by the majority in the matter. He was not in favor of stopping works, and throwing people out of employment, but quite the contrary. He wished to see plenty of employment tor everybody. Mr. GILLON, who was next called upon to speak, said he had not the advantage that Mr. Allan had of coming before them as a member of the Council who had just done twelve mouths good service for the ratepayers, but he was not altogether a stranger to them or to the

Council, and when he was a member of it he believed he had done good work for the city. Mr. Anderson had told him that he and Mr. Maginity were being brought forward by a ring of contractors. To this he desired to give a distinct denial. He had been asked some time ago to come forward as a candidate. For a variety of reasons he for some declined to stand, but on Saturday last he had agreed to come forward with Mr. Maginity. He (Mr. Gillon) was not in a position to spend money on the election, but he remembered that when Mr. Pharazyn and others were elected they had been returned without expense to themselves. Some of the electors had offered to guarantee his and Mr. Maginity’s legitimate expenses, and he was not too proud to accept them, but neither he nor Mr. Maginity were going to be bought by that means, or to go into the Council to support private interests. If he himself had liked to have sacrificed his independence he might to-day have been in a better pecuniary position than he was, but on looking back on his public career it could not be said with truth that he had ever sacrificed his independence. He did not think municipal affairs had been lately altogether well managed, or that the most had been made of the revenue. As to Government subsidies he did not think they would long continue; and it behoved the electors to select the very best men they could to represent them. He referred to the state of the streets, to the large engineering staff and subordinate officers, which formed a regular little public works department for the city, and urged that economy was necessary, whilst paying a high compliment to Mr. Marchant as waterworks engineer. He objected to the large overdraft which the Couucil had at the bank—some £16,000. He concurred with what Mr. Allen said in reference to the reclamation. The land which the Government talked of selling to recoup the expense was by right the property of the city. If elected he should endeavor to do all he could to serve the interests of the ratepayers. In reply to questions, Mr. Gillon said he did not think three years was too long a time for a third of the Councillors to remain in office. He was not in favor of an increase being made in the water-rate. Mr. Maginity then addressed the electors, observing that the other two candidates had said so much that it left him very little to say. He had been asked to come forward by several electors, and he told them that he did not care about standing alone. He agreed to stand with Mr. Bolton, but that gentleman declined. Subsequently he (Mr. Maginity) was asked to stand i with Mr. Allen and Mr. Gillon. Some people said he had damaged his chance of success by being associated with Mr. Gillon. But he waa proud to be associated with him. Mr. Gillon had been a good member of the Council, and without him many useful measures which had been introduced would not have been in existence. He would not object to the money, which it had at one time been intended to lay out on Glenbervie-terrace, being expended in filling in the mud-hole in Tinakori-road. (Mr. Cleland said this was private property.) If it was private property, he believed the Council had the power to compel the owner to remove the nuisance. He was in favor of a fair proportion of rates being spent on private streets. He objected to the Mayor’s motion to rescind the resolution in reference to the drainage engineer. He was in favor of having fountains erected in different parts of the town. It would, perhaps, tend to make all the people teetotallers, (Laughter.) He referred to the heavy expenditure on Thompson-street as an injudicious expenditure, and so he thought would be the cutting at Glenbervie-terrace; but if a majority of the ratepayers of the ward were in favor of the work, he would support it. He referred to the expenditure of the Council as being larger than it could well afford, and said he would do his best to wipe away abuses. If elected he should go in as a free and independent man, and the promise of payment of his expenses by those who brought him forward would not act as a bribe for him to do otherwise than as one who was perfectly unfettered. In answer to questions, Mr. Maginity said he was in favor of the Corporation making the drains up to each house. Wherever he saw abuses he would endeavor to rectify them. As to the revenue derived from the Kaiwarra toll-gate, he believed the City Couucil could exercise no control over it, as it belonged to the Hutt County Council He considered there were more urgent works to be attended to than Glenbervie-terrace. A vote of confidence (proposed by Mr, Gregg, and seconded by Mr. Bolton), in Messrs. Allen, Gillon, and Maginity was put and carried by a large majority. A vote of thank to the Chairman terminated the meeting, which was a very orderly and well-conducted one.