THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 190, 28 April 1914, Page 2

THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

Mr Patterson's Candidature

Soeech in Oddfellows' Hall.

Mr Patterson can have no cause of complaint against the meeting and hearing accorded to him last night in the Oddfellows' Hall. There were about 200 persons present, amongst the audience being a lair sprinkling ot ladies. At tim s there were interjections but on the whole tne audience was quite good-natured and friendly. Mr Webster was elected chairman.

The candidate was favourably received. In opening he traced the history of the drainage movement from tha first meeting at which it was decided to get a report from the engineer. He had always opposed the latest scheme because the ratepayers were not in a position to pay for it. (Applause). The system as submitted was absolutely useless because they could not run thoir soap-suds into the septic tank. As to the cost, an owner of property of £IOOO in value would have to pay £4 3s 4d a year special rates, but that would not include the £ls or £2O required to lay in the sewera to the house. That expense, he held, should have been embodied in the scheme submitted by the engineer. Proceeding, Mr Patterson explained what he had done to defeat the drainage. Twelve months ago he expressed himself in favour £of putting in a pan system; if that had been done the cost would have been approximately £1 a year. He found that in the majority of boroughs in New Zealand they had the pans which cost from 4d to 6d per week. If the Council had gone in for a float costing, say, £6O, and hired it out to the contractor it would have been all right and they would have had some system now. As it was they had nothing. With a pan system those who used it would piy fcr it, but on the present roll the people would have to pay who would not use the sewerage.

When the candidate mentioned that he would next deal with loans and expenditure he wa* again applauded. When Mr Dunn was Mayor a loan of £B3OO was raised and with him the whole Council gave an undertaking that only the money that was absolutely wanted would be lifted. Yet the present Council lifted the whole of the money, dumped it into the bank and left it there! A voice: You were one of them.

Mr Patterson: Yes, and opposed it. (Applause;. The speaker went un to say that they were paying 5 per cant, to allow the nnney to lie in the bank. He drew attention to the matter and suggested that some of the money should be placed on fixed deposit. The Finance Committee reported that they could only spare £IOOO and that was placed away, but next week they put by another £IOOO. What he claimed was that the Council had no right to raise that money until they had a reasonable proposition for spending it. Furthermore, the money was repayable in three years' time; and it was still lying there unspent. The Council might say that there were works in hand, but with the exception of three I'oads he delied the Council to say what they wanted the money for. When the money was raised they were told that the allocations overspent by the Town Board would be apent first: £1750 was borrowed for this purpose but £9BO 10s lOd was still in the loan account, unfpent. Yet these were th«, first works to te undertaken. He did not know where the spending % had taken place unless it was "rotffid about here" (a wave of the hand indicating Mr Lawrie's residential quarter). (Laughter). If the Council wanted to 'finance their works they could do it on their general account and could g& an overdraft at any time. Another matter was that a balance of £477 had been handed over to the borough by the Pukekohe West Koad Board to be Bpent. The Council got the money but the work was tot done. Amongst these roads that should have benelitted were: tape Hill £134, Pollock's road £135, Hill-top road £BO, Wilkinson's £2i, Manukau £l7, Stuart road £3l—and some others which were mentioned. These were roads upon which the money should have been spent twelve monthi ago and there was no excuse for it. About a month ago an estimate was made as to how much money was to be expended on the various roads until the new rate came into operation. They were told there was £4OO, and the Council allocated £IOO to King street, £IOO to Edinburgh street and £IOO for Puni road, while £IOO was left for contingencies to carry the Council on. What the Council should do was to get an overdraft and pay 6 per cent, for it. Last year some £1460 was collected from general rates and he did not think there were two men In the room who could tell him how much went on the roads. He would tell them I £750 went in general expenses, road foreman, clerical, printing and advertising, etc., leaving £7OO to be put on the roads. It WBs absolutely impossible to make roads out of general rates. Yet our wise Council procured an £BOO toller ta enable them to spend £7OO. (Laughter and applause). The roller as it stands, idle, was costing £1 per wsek. A voice: How much has it earned? Mr Patterion said they happened to hire it out at £4 a day but that did not come often. The roller was a good thing if they had plenty of work for it, but otherwise it was useless. The Council should have got the metal first and got the roller afterwards.

The metal question was a most important one. Two years ago the Council had opened what was known as Motion's quarry. It was good metal. Twelve months ago he suggested that they should order 1000 yards of metal from Morningside. It would be said that they could not get the metal out-"but we have never tried!" If the Council Eent for 200 vards, and all tho boroughs about Auckland were trying to get thousands of yards, it was a farthing to a gooseberry that Pukekohe would not get any. What he urged was that roads should be completed. Before starting a road they should get an estimate nf the cost of completing it; if they had done that with Harria street the chances were it would never have been started. Harris street, the speaker went on, had come prominently betorc the people. They started out and got an estimate for forming it 36 feet wide. He contended that to do that would be unfair to these people who had voted for the loan because £IOOO was not half enough to do the road, and the people at the other end lt.nl ;•« much to a road as those

at the horse bazaar. Harris ttreet had bei.n finished for a month or more, but the traffic was still coming along King 3trtet. A remark about the work of the roller brought Cr Hurley to his feet, pnd a suggestion from the candidate that he should speak from the stage \va9 promptly accepted. Later on Cr Hurley eaid the roller was cn Harris otreet that day, arid he defied anyone to say that the road was not better after rolling than it waj b. fore. Why hr.d other bodies get rollers? This borough had thousands of pounds to spend pnd they should give the roller a fair chance.

Upon Mr Patterson resuming, the waterworks came in for commendation. They had a good supply; it required extending but they had no money. He believed the water scheme would be one of the best propositions in the borough. One thing was that they had raised £7OO for water meters; everv ratepayer was paying a quota of that yet th2 Council was charging 15 percent, for the hire of them. That should be remedied. People inside the area paid Is 3d per 1000 Rallans, but they also pa id abojt Ijd in the £ rate! I his amounted to about 2s 6d per 1000 gallons, vet they sold water to the people outside at Is 9d per 1000 gallons. He did not think that was right and it should be altered. A voice: How about the nonconaumeis'.'

Mr Patterson; We want everybody to be consumers; it is cheaper to be a consumer than a nonconsumer. He also advocated that the hydrants should be put more closely together, as if a lire occurred at present they could not take a lead the distance required.-

The loss of land at the reservoir site was the subject of a lengthy explanation, and Mr Patterson read the agreement between Mr Hart and the Town Board. He hell that the Board never accepted less than '2J acres offered; the ]J acres on Pukekohe hill was lost when the Council agreed to forego it. The solicitors maintained that the Town Board had determined how much they should take, but he disagreed. If they had hung on to that land they might have been able to make an advantageous exchange for anoth:r piece for a second reservoir lower down the hill. The Council had 110 right to allow that 1} acres to be taken from them because the people bad paid for it. (Applausei. Touching the question of public lighting, Mi Patterson said that if the town could afford to have a light at all, then they should have municipal lighting be.anse it would be self-supporting eventually. The o»ly wav to get the light was to raise a loan to inaugurate a scheme, but until they could do that he would adviae the people to hang on. In conclusion, Mr Patterson thanked them sincerely for the hearing they had given him, and he trusted they would think over what had been said. (Applause). In answer to questions, Mr Patterson explained the incident of "tampering wth the rolls," but he would not mention the name of the person who did it. He said it cost £lO a week to run the steam roller. He waa in favour of swimming baths and would vote for a loan for them. The borough solicitors got 80m2thicg like £33 last year. He thought it personal to ask who raised the loan of £4OOO in the South British office and who was the local agent, [On this point Cr Hamilton said when debentures were sold- by the bank nobody on the Council knew who the clients were until the bank completed the deal]. He would personally favour a borough subsidy of £26 for the town band. He did nnt think it was the duty uf the Council to tamper wi»h private business by establishing coal yard?. Drainage was a good thing provided tha people could pay for it. Since be opposed drainage he would instal a pan system. (Cry ot shame, shame. You're a thousand years behind the times). He had engaged the hall in which to express bis views and could not allow others to speak. If somebody would tell him how to keep a steam roller employed he would be glad. He endorsed the whole of Mr Webster's circular excepting that part dealing with the Mayor and the roll. He got his authority for saying that a septic tank would not deal with soap-suds along with night-soil from medical evidence. He was emphatically in favour of abattoirs for Pukekohe; it was time and high time we had inspection of some sort. It would be better to lose the rates that Mr Barter waa paying on the reservoir land than to have lost control of the land. Everybody who read the local paper would know that he had always barracked for the fire brigade: because tbe brigade was now "half-pie" the town waa menaced; the brigade shpuld be properly equipped. He was in favour of purchasing Koose's bush; it was an ideal spot for a domain and if the required loan for half the cost were apread over the whole borough nobody would feel it. The majority of Mr Patterson's answers appeared to find favour with thu audience and a very successful meeting waa closed by a vote of thanks to the chair.