THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5495, 6 November 1878, Page 2

THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

ME. HUTCHISON BEFORE THE RATEPAYERS. A meeting of ratepayers was held last evening, at the Princess Theatre, to hear Mr. Hutchison’s opinions on civic questions, in view of his candidature for the Mayoralty. There were about 300 persons present. Mr. - Henry o Anderson was called to the chair, and after some preliminary remarks, in which he bespoke a fair hearing for the cam didate, called upon Mr. Hutchison, who was received with great applause. He announced his intention of becoming a candidate for the Mayoral chair, which became vacant on the last Wednesday of the present month. He need hardly say he had not come forward without being asked, although he had not sought to put his friends to the trouble of getting- up a requisition or make ‘ any fuss about the thing, because there was no difficulty in getting np that sort of thing—no difficulty in saying “ no” and meaning “ yes,” but it did not do a man much good in the long run. After expressing his wish to be elected, because he wanted to make himself useful to the city, and he thought he could be useful in the position he aspired to (that, however, was a question for the ratepayers to determine), he said he should not have come forward at so early a period had it not been that Mr. Dransfield had taken time by the forelock, announced his intention to come forward, and by his friends had instituted a vigorous canvass. It was a very active canvass, and if his (Mr. Hutchison’s) friends thought he could be useful, and wished to see him returned, they would require to resist very urgent solicitations, and would require to turn a deaf ear to inmieudoes arising out of the inner consciousness, of the people who were circulating them, and if his friends did so act then there would be no doubt about the matter. (Hear, hear.) He ought to say at the outset that he could not conceal that Mr. Drau«field was the candidate of that particular class in our community which is known as the Upper Ten. In point of fact, he was the nominee of those particular individuals who considered themselves an aristocracy. (Hear, hear.) Ratepayers would perhaps remember a famous banquet which took place some time ago. He did not refer to that banquet given to the municipal delegates, the cost of which was added to his Worship’s salary out of the ratepayers’ money—a nice little arrangement by which his Worship the Mayor had the honor of giving a dinner to the delegates, and the ratepayers had the supreme pleasure and satisfaction of paying for it. He did not refer to that famous banquet, a banquet which, as Dean Swift once said— It would ne’er bo forgot By those who were present And those who wore not. But there was yet another banquet, that which - was the Councillors to the Mayor. At that ffiere were present some two or three members of Parliament, a Minister of the Crown, several large leading merchants, and even a member of the Civil Service. (A laugh ) At this banquet a deliberate and planned attempt was made to dictate to the ratepayers of the city in their choice of a Mayor. Possibly champagne had something to do with it, but unquestionably Mr. Dransfield was the man for the particular class who met at that dinner. They might remember that the Native Minister actually said to him that he was “Joe,” (A laugh.) What an honor to be called “Joe,” and by a Minister too. (A laugh.) And Mr. E. W. Mills, a great iron merchant, asked Mr, Dransfield as a personal favor to him (Mr. Mills) to allow himself to become Mayor of the City. Mr, Dransfield was very unwilling to come forward again. He did not quite see it, but having been called Joe by a Minister of the Crown, he decided to sacrifice himself on the municipal altar, and to come forward once more. Now, he did not know what the ratepayers would think of this attempt on the part of a small class to foist a Mayor upon this city; bub everyone would know what the inhabitants, say of Melbourne or Sydney, or to come nearer home, say Auckland or Dunedin, would say if half a dozen persons who considered themselves greater than other people chose to play off any such impertinence. However, so much for the attempt iu this direction. He was nob there to say one single word against Mr. Dransfield, only this, that his ways and modes of conducting municipal business were not the ways and modes that he (Mr. Hutchison) would think best ; and it was a question for the people to decide in whom they had most faith. He would now refer to- two or three great and important questions with which the citizens of Wellington were now confronted, with which they had to grapple, and on the right settlement of which a large amount of the prosperity of the city for a long time to come depended. First, he would allude to the Te Aro reclamation, which, so far as Act of Parliament was concerned, was undoubtedly now “ down among the dead men.” (A laugh.) He confessed he felt very greatly disappointed at this result, and he thought everyone who wished for the progress and prosperity of the city could not but be disappointed and sorry that the thing should have been shelved in the way in which it had been. He did not wish to use strong language, but he could not help saying that that untoward result had come about through a series of blunders, blunders of that class which had been aptly described as worse than crimes. (Hear, hear.) In order to understand exactly how this affair stood he would give a short resume of it from the beginning. When he had the honor last year of being in the Mayor’s chair, the first thing he did with reference to this reclamation was to secure the Crown grant of the land, or rather the water of about 70 .acres, cv thereabouts, thereby obtaining for the citizens the inalienable right to the possession of this property, and then he got a plan of the proposed reclamation drawn by Mr. O’Neill, which plan was exhibited so that the ratepayers might see it. Then he secured, with tho sanction of the ratepayers, the money to prosecute the scheme, and was about to call for tenders, when tho City Solicitor suddenly found that some doubts existed, the effect of which was at once to destroy tho security m the eyes of the money lender, who said naturally enough, “As your own solicitor throws doubts upon the matter you cannot expect me to carry out my arrangement.* Of course it could not be expected ; and to set at rest all doubts it was decided that an Act of Parliament authorising the work should bo obtained. Tho Bill passed-through the House of Representatives without a single murmur, the then Government standing loyally to tho Bill, and ho having taken care to inform members what was wanted; but it stuck in that grand arrangement up above—(a laugh)— the members stating there was no time to considei it, and so the thing was shelved. At the same time the foreshore owners began to believe that they had very large interests at stake in the reclamation, and they sought to urge these claims. He endea-; vored to get the matter settled, and there was a meeting, at which he laid before them an opinion from the City Solicitor to the effect that their rights were only the ordinary water frontage rights, and did not give them power to build jetties, &c. This took them aback, but they declared they had another and a different opinion from the same gentleraam It was then arranged that they should scad in to the City Council an exact statement of their claims, to form a basis* of discussion at allevents. Here his connection with the matter ceased, as he left office immediately after, but he ought to say he had found the foreshore owners invariably to be reasonable, and anxious for the reclamation to proceed as a matter of public improvement, and that he believed there would be no difficutly in dealing with these individuals if they were approached iu a proper manner. However, he loft the matter iu the position he had described, but the first thing he heard when he lef£ ottlce was that the Mayor had made certain terms with the foreshore owners,—terms which the ratepayers considered exorbitant, and ho found that his Worship said in defence that he was only proposing the compensation which he (Mr. Hutchison) as Mayor had agreed to give. Ho denied tlut ho had agreod to anything, and certainly do dined to bo fathered with this

particular bargain. That was all that could bo said about that matter, except that there was a Bill introduced in the House of Represontatives this year, but was immediatelysmothered, because it was ruled to be a private Bill. In this he blamed the City Solicitor and the Mayor, as it was their duty to have seen that the Bill complied with the rules of the House. In fact their conduct in reference to this matter would have been most excellent fooling if it were not that the results were disastrous to the interests of the city, although he must admit that some of its provisions did not meet bis views, especially that clause which • gave the Council power to borrow .£150,000. He would tell the meeting why. Because the Municipal Corporations Act gave ample power to borrow all monies required, provided the consent of the ratepayers Any attempt to get the money , . Lhan by the mode prescribed in the 1 --RqWferporation Act was simply an attempt to.get money without the previous consent of the ratepayers, and as such utterly; illegal and unjustifiable. (Cheers ) He would ■ now take a leap to the other end of the city and speak in reference to the Thorndon reclamation, which was also “ down among the dead men." (A laugh.) They would remember that some months ago they were, told that the Mayor had made an arrangement whereby the Thorndon reclamation—such of it as remained, some twelve or thirteen acres—had been purchased for the city for the sum of £30,000. Of courso all wore very glad to learn that such an arrangmeut had been made ; for although it was not a very great bargain, still it would have turned out a-good thing for the city—at any rate it was of importance that the City Council should have control of everything in and about the city, and all wer® very glad to learn that the city was to have the land, and that the names of the City Councillors were going to be immortalised by the streets, as witness, Fisherstreet, Maodonald-street, and others. (A laugh.) Ho drew attention to tbo wording of the Bill as it passed its second reading in the House of Representatives, which simply meant that the money to be paid for the whole of the land to be;sold was £89,009, without any bar or condition. On Friday, the 24th October, it was read a second time without a word of objection, and its committal was ordered for the following Monday, the earliest possible period ; but by the time Monday had arrived the Bill had undergone tho most singular change it was possible to conceive, for when it came before the Honse on Monday it was a Bill authorising the Government to sell the land for £129,000, Instead of £89,000, as the Bill provided on the Friday when it was read a second time. But that was not all. It was a Bill by which the City Council agreed to take over the unfinished hospital building, - the hospital reserves, but also the, support and management of the hospital for all time to come. How the hospital reserves, the only asset taken over, were worth say £SOO a year, not more, while the maintenance of the hospital would cost at least £IOOO a year. The Government, however, agree to pay pound for pound collected or raised by the persons having charge of hospitals, so that ' the Council under the new Bill had to pay £120,000 for the laud, instead of £89,000, and had to take over an expenditure for all time of £2OOO, with every probability of its being made £4OOO, for no one knew when the subsidies might bo stopped. He was not going to say then that it was not a good bargain, but what he meant to direct special attention to was that this great change was made without a single burgees knowing anything about it. He charged the,Mayor with baying attempted to put this heavy charge upon the ratepayers without bringing the matter before them, and without the City Council having agreed to it. After the notice of this meeting appeared in the Evening Chrmide one night, they were told in a paragraph in one of tho Mayor's newspapers that at an informal meeting of this Council it had been agreed to. What was an informal meeting ? If the Council did not meet according to Act of Parliament it was not a meeting at all. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) „ An informal meeting simply meant a hole-and-corner meeting, at which neither tho Press nor the public were represented—a meeting which they knew nothing at all about. They were told then that at this informal meeting of the Council the arrangement was agreed to without a single ratepayer consenting to it in any shape or form. There was something more to be said about this matter. The hospital was being built upon a site which the majority of the citizens did not believe a proper site for it. The trustees of this hospital —Mr. Bnuny and Mr. Waring Taylor —were willing to change the site, and they thought they would strengthen themselves by obtaining the opinion of what they called the influential men of the town. He (Mr. Hutchison) had • the honor of being one of those invited to that meeting. The clergy of almost all the denominations were present, and tho doctors were also asked to attend. When the question was put, would they believe it that there was not a single individual who said it was a proper thing to do, namely, to change the hospital from tbo site on which it now stands at Thorndon. They said: “Let the hospital remain where it is ; it is a fine open place, with a gravelly soil; lay out £2OOO or £3OOO in additions, and it will do remarkably well for fifty years to come.” So much, then, for the Thorndon reclamation. He did not know whit was going to be done about it. The Government had taken power in tho Financial Arrangements Bill to sell Land on this reclaimed portion at Thorndon to the amount of £120,000 ; that is to say, they wanted £89,000 to pay the contractor, and £30,800 to pay tho balance due upon this hospital on the Adelaide Road ; and they had taken power to sell ns much land as would bring them in this amount of money. He did not know whether it would bo in the power of the Corporation to deal with the Government in any way. What he complained of was this—that if the members of Parliament had been told what this arrangement was, it was possible they would have agreed to it. But if they passed a Bill on Friday for £89,000, and it turned out on the Monday to bo £120,000, they said naturally enough’ that they did not understand it. They said: “ Perhaps it is all right, but it looks to us very like some job or another.” He had with him a copy of a newspaper containing a report of what was said on the subject. They would find that the complaint of members of Parliament was, “ We don’t understand it ; explain it to ns.” But it was not explained to them, and it was more from the want of knowing what was meant and intended than - anything else that the Bill was thrown out. • (Hear, hear, and cheers.) It was the duty of the members, who might be said to have charge of that Bill to explain it to those members who complained that they did not understand it. (Hear, hear.) That Bill also contained a clause for the borrowing of money withoutawordhavingbeensaid to the ratepayers about it. He thought it contained this power in the worst of all forms. The clause said that “ the Council shall be empowered to borrow £120,000, and it shall be held that they have borrowed it in the same way as if they had borrowed it by the sanction of tho ratepayers in terms of the Municipal Corporations Act;” as much as to say, “This Bill will show you had the sanction of the ratepayers at all events.” That borrowing brought him to another point regarding it. He thought they did want a little more money yet, but ho was only for borrowing it with the sanction of the ratepayers. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) And if he had tho honor of having a seat at the Council ho should propose at a very early date that, with the consent of the ratepayers, they should go in for a loan of £30,000 for the making of those unmade streets in the outlying portions of the city. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) He had seen a : statement made by * some gentlemen, who said they would like to get £130,000, and it was said the City Surveyor stated that this amount would bo necessary to effect this very desirable work. But he (Mr. Hutchison) did. not think so much as £130,000 was required. He thought they would' be able to "tell very considerably on, these unmade streets with £30,000,’ and more especially when they remembered that the Council would get a yearly subsidy for this express purpose from the General' Government of something like £IO,OOO a year; and if this were continued for five years, it would give another £50,000, making a total of £IOO,OOO ; and assuming the Government would continue to pay tho subsidy for so long—he did not know that it would—they would have £IOO,OOO with which to carry, out. the work,, and surely with this sum at command there - would not bo many ctroots left They would' always find plenty of money spent on tho main streets of the city ; but they did not find very much spent oh those outlying streets, more especially those in which a number of working men lived, who bad bought little holdings of their own, and had a great'difficulty in getting to their buildings. (Hear, hear, and chears.) He thought that with £30,000 h great deal could ■bo doge- in t)iat way. It would depend entirely on the’ ratepayers a"roemg, but if he . were - ih office he should certainly ask them for tho monev. Speaking of borrowing large sums of money, of nothing- should-hej be fonder than seeing

the city improved; but when men borrowed money they must bear in mind that they had to pay it back, and provide for interest as well. Therefore the borrowing of largo sums of money simply meant that they should have to tax the ratepayers. -They- must take care not to raise the rates to anything that would become oppressive to a largo section of tho population, and deter people from coming to the city and settling down in it. Therefore, while they sought to improve the city as fast as they could, they must take care that the rates were not made oppressive to most people. Sometimes tho Council did not seem to him to be so careful about keeping down tho rates as they ought to be. He remembered that ih the year ,1877—the last year he was there—tho water rate was higher than he thought it ought to be. [A voice: “ It is too high uow.”] He proved to tho Council by figures that they were levying a higher rate for water than was required, but they declined to lister, to him. He entered a protest against their action, which was recorded in the books, but the proposition was carried against him. They did not wish to let the Mayor havehisown way, and so the rate was put en. . Forthatyear(lß77) tho Council persisted on levying a higher rate than was required. They ought to seek to reduce tho water rate as far as possible, so that water might be spread as freely as possible over the whole of the city. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Now he wanted to say a word or two about drainage. [A voice : “IVhat! Mr. Clark's scheme 1”] Ho would assure Mr. Leslie that ho would come to that by-aud-bye. It seemed to him at this moment that the drainage scheme of this city was just about as apt an illustration of meddling and muddling as they could well desire to aeo. It seemed to him quite a reasonable thing that when Mr. Clark (who was said to be a particularly skilled engineer in drainage) was on these shores he should be asked to give them his opinion regarding their drainage, but it never occurred to him or to any member of the Council, so far as ho was aware, that Mr. Clark was to bo asked to give them a drainage scheme. As far as his (Mr. Hutchison's) connection with the affair went, such a thing never once occurred to him or to any other member of the Council. They were to say to Mr, Clark something like this : “ We have got a scheme ot drainage of which we have approved, and we have got a report upon it by our consulting engineer, Mr. Napier Bell, of Christchurch, in which he points out what he conceives to be certain defects in that scheme ; will you kindly look at the two reports, go over the ground, and give us your opinion whether this scheme can be carried out, with certain little improvements.” Instead of that, by some inexplicable process, he came, not to give them an opinion, but a scheme of his own, or rather the old scheme turned upside down ; and a very dear report it was. (Hear, hear.) It had cost them £IOOO paid to Mr. Clark already, besides a telegram to London, and something else would be cropping up by-aud-bye. He did not understand it, for this reason : it might be—but he did not know that it was ; at all events he had not seen that at any of the meetings ot the City Council the approval of Mr. Climie’a scheme, which was agreed to by the Council—he thought unanimously—had been rescinded, or that any attempt bad been made to rescind that approval. This might have been done, however, because so far as he saw a very great amount of work was done very quietly, and it might have been done; but so far as he knew, it did not seem to him that the approval of Mr. Climie’s scheme had been rescinded by the Council, and he was perfectly certain that the Council had not the power to rescind tho approval given to it by the ratepayers, without asking them to do so. When the Council approved of Mr. Clark’s scheme, they gave the city two schemes. There were no less than two Richmonds in the field—two Kings smelling at one rose ; that was the case at present. He thought they would really like to know what was going to be done "about this drainage ; (hear, hear)—whether they were going in for this £150,000 or going to begin and tackle this . drainage scheme according to Mr. Clark’s report. When anyone ventured to say that a change in that scheme should be made, the cry was, “Oh, no; don’t go half an inch wrong ; it would be a great mistake.” They dare not speak of putting the drainage into the sea until they sent a telegram all the way to London to know if Mr. Clark would permit them to do so. (Laughter.) And in his kindness and condescension he sent a telegram, and they gathered from it that they might put ■ it into the sea; and accordingly they were told that Mr. Baird was going to find out the proper way of taking it into the sea. Mr. Climie had already arrangecj as to how it was to go into the sea ; and it was really no use to pay Mr. -Baird for going to find out where it could be thrown into the sea. That was arranged by Mr. Climie when they found that Mr. Crawford would not take the sewage. If he (Mr. Hutchison) had a seat at the Council, he would endeavor to get it put straight ; and they did not want a man out from Home to tell them how to carry out their scheme of drainage. (Hear, hear.) Thera were two strong reasons in his mind why they should not have anything to do with Mr. Clark’s scheme. In the first place there was this purchase of land and this sewage farming, whereby the Corporation were becoming a grand joint stack company for growing peas and pumpkins. (Laughter.) Let them not misunderstand him. He did not mean to say that in the hands of a private individual sewage farming might not prove to be a profitable thing ; and when this thing was first broached, if they remembered Mr. Climie’s report, it was arranged then that there should be sewage farming, although on a different plan to that of Mr. Clark. It was a very excellent arrangement that the sewage should be taken out to Mr. Crawford's land, and he should take it and use it, and he was going to make a profit of it. The City Council had nothing more to do with it than give the sewage to Mr. Crawford. That seemed a very excellent arrangement, and he quite a reed with it, and to make sure ho wrote to Mr. Crawford asking himif he really had agreed to take it, and in proof that Mr. Crawford had agreed to take it, he would read to them the letter which that gentlemen sent to him in reply. [Letter read.] Here was a distinct agreement to take the sewage and utilise it. He was to receive no price. Now they had got rid of that particular arrangement ; they were going to put it into the sea, and the only thing they should do was to prepare a number of small floating buoys, and put them in about the place where tho sewage was discharged in order that they might see the particular run of the tides and currents, and see that it would not be thrown back on the land, bat go out to sea. (Hear, hear.) All this could bo done at a very little cost. The second point on which he objected to Mr. Clarke's scheme was not so much to the scheme itself as to a particular arrangement which seemed to bo bound up with it so strongly that they could not get over it ; that is, they must import all their pipes from England or Scotland. They might as well say they would import their pipes from China, whence some of those gentlemen would no doubt like to import the labor too. ' (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Suppose they had to pay somewhat higher for the pipes here than they could import them for, ho thought it would still be their duty and interest to have them made here. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Ho had made very particular inquiry on this point, and he was exceedingly glad to say that they could get them made here of equally good quality to those imported from England, and get them made as cheaply, too. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) He hold in his hand a statement of the price which the Christchurch people, in their wisdom, were paying for imported pipes from England for their drainage scheme, and also a statement furnished to himjby tho local pipemakers hero, to tho effect that they could furnish them as cheap, and cheaper than the Christchurch people wero_ getting them for. Ho thoqght it a very desirable thing to got their pipes made here. (Hear,'hear, and cheers.) Ho was afraid he was occupying too much of their time. (“No, no,” and “Goon,”) There were just one or two small things that might bo adverted to for a moment. He would like, for example, to see the pound at Te Aro removed, and he thought they ought to get a very nice Post Office and Telegraph Office there instead, and he did not think there would bo much difficulty in managing that. Ho would like to see this little bit of ground which tho Government were going to sell up at tho barracks got hold of by the city. They could not get toq inany of those open spaces. They wore very necessary for the health of the people at largo. He would bo very glad to answer any questions which they might wish to ask him at tho close of his speech. He had nothing to conceal or anything to gain by saying anything except what was straightforward—he believed “ straight’.’ was the term—on any subjeot whatever. Perhaps as none o.f them might be inclined to ask him the question, ho would refer to it hero. A particular story was got up at the time ho was in office about a cheque. Ho Was not at all ashamed about the cheque ; therefore he wished to explain exactly how it stood, lest some of them should bo laboring under a misunderstanding. It was a cheque for waterworks extras. It came to him

in the usual course of business. It was certified by the engineer in charge of the works. He had no reason to suspect it was different from any other accounts which he had brought . before him hundreds of times. ‘ All cheques for contract work and extras of all kinds were understood to bo payable upon the certificate of the engineer in charge. It was the customary mode in which these things were done, and it was done by him on this occasion in the usual way. They would easily see that he could have no fear about this matter for two or three reasons. The contractor had other works in hand, and supposing the engineer had made a mistake in his calculations the thing could afterwards be set right. Besides this, the contractor was a man of means, and could not afford to run away and leave Wellington, providing anything was wrong ; and supposing nothing could be wrong, he signed the cheque. He dare say there was an idea at one time that there must be something wrong, but it had worn out now. It was at the outset a political job. ■ He was not there to defend himself, There were certain gentlemen here and elsewhere who thought the working classes were very easily gulled, but they made a great mistake, because the working classes, after they got time to think, could think just as clearly as those very wise gentlemen who thought they could be gulled so easily. Ha signed that cheque in the most perfect good faith, as he had signed every other cheque. There was no necessity for spending two or three hundred pounds in holding a special inquiry about the matter. There were in tho city about 3000 ratepayers. It was clearly out of the question that all these gentlemen could be waited upon in an election like this, and he did not know that it would be desirable oven if could be done. In point of fact, if they could get rid of this canvassing and this touting, it would be very desirable for all parties. Of. course friends and neighbors would meet and talk over the subject on this occasion, but it would be very desirable if they would get rid of this touting for votes at elections, and paying people for getting votes. Meetings like the present should be held, an opportunity given to ask and answer questions, and the ratepayers then left to themselves to decide as to whom they would support. After a few more remarks on this point, and promising were he elected to treat all ratepayers alike in the matter of official attention, he concluded his address by thanking tho audience for the patient hearing accorded him. (Cheers.) The Chairman inquired if any one wished to ask questions of the candidate. Mr. Cell was • glad the explanation about the £3OOO job had been given, because his vote had been attempted to bo influenced by allusion to it, and as he was a stranger it was likely it would have been successful. He advocated the annual election of every Councillor, and was proceeding to go into some matters which occurred in 1848, when the meeting interrupted him. A Ratepayer inquired whether the candidate knew anything about the widening ot Willis-street ?

Mr. Hutchison explained that he had made a proposition that if persons having frontages on Willis-streot would go back 20ft. they should have 30ft. on tho reclamation. Nothing had yet come of it ; but it might be carried out, although the building of brick buildings in the street might complicate the question. In answer to another ratepayer,

Mr. Hutchinson said he was in favor of the management of the harbor remaining in the hands of the Corporation, who could manage it thoroughly well ; but improvements were required. For instance, he thought there should be a steam tng obtained for use in the harbor. It must be borne in mind, however, that the General Government had the management of the harbor, except the wharf ; and they were responsible for the present heavy charges. He objected to a multiplication of Boards, and said Dunedin was a striking example of the evils of the system ; and quoted John Stuart Mill against the multiplication of local bodies. Mr. F. Buck moved, —That this meeting of ratepayers of the City of Wellington having heard Mr. Hutchison's explanation of his views on municipal affairs, desire to express their approval of the same, and their entire confidence in him as a fit and proper person to be Mayor of the city of Wellington ; also, that those present at this meeting pledge themselves to use every possible exertion to secure the election of Mr. Hutchison as Mayor of Wellington. Mr. J. W. White seconded.

The Chairman called upon those in favor of tho motion to hold up their right hand, andafter the show of hands declared the motion to be carried. The usual vote of thanks terminated the meeting.