MAYORAL CAMPAIGN.

Shannon News, 28 April 1925, Page 3

MAYORAL CAMPAIGN.

MR MURDOCH'S MEETING.

At the Maorilamd Tjheatre on Thursday evening before a large audience, Mr Murdodh dealt Avith statements made by his opponent (Mr Hyde) at the Matter's meeting the previous week. p Mr F. H. Taylor, who presided in introducing toe speaker, -made' a strong appeal to the electors to support Mr Murdoch for the Mayoralty m face of the unkind and unjust criticism which he alleged had been levelled against Ihirn and in doing so he referred to the manner in which the members of ,the Hospital Board had recently passed a vote ©f admiration of his work in connection with hospital affairs. He said, Mr Murdoch had always .been too retiring and modest and irot a quarter of the good he had done 'had been told After referring to the statements the speaker would deal with, he appealed to the workers of the Borough and returned .soldiers for Jtheir sujpport on account of what the speaker had done for them and lie was sure citizens would recognise his ability ana the time he had given in the past and give him the support that in his opinion he was entitled to. Mr Murdoch said he was not go in" to deal in, personalities but /would J'QPly to statements made by his opponents. Mr Hyde had stated that n was owing to the apathy of the people of Shannon in the early days that • Levin had gone ahead. This was not so. Leym had had a' big advantage when the : village settlement there was let about/ 30 years ago by the Government. The rent had only been about £3 per acre and there were also a number of pieces of land set aside for endowments, while Shannon was surveyed Off bv the old Manawatu Railway Co. with the result that the sections were sold for .big profits. As far back as eighteen years ago we had citizens doing their utmost to push %he town ahead and sixteen years ago the agitation to get power from Mangahao was started, and it never ceased until the work was put in hand. He himself had waited on the -Minister lor Public Works on several occasions fighting to have the scheme gone on with. Mr Gunning was another citizen who had also worked hard, and there were others. Levm had a big advantage owing to Government help received in the <past. Another big advantage \vas the number of Government institutions Uhere. Another thing Levin did not have to contend with was a store like the Dairy Co.'s by which approximately £30,000 per year was prevented from circulating in the township; all the siime he did not blame the farmers

for having their co-operative store. it had been said that the question of new municipal buildings had been turned down. That was not so; it had been held over until the waterworks wer e finished as. the Council iiad considered it unwise to attempt anything else while this work was in hand. None of the councillors had expressed themselves against considering a new building. Regarding the stone blocks Cr. Gardner had recommended going in for them for use on the footpaths and the majority of the Council, had favoured the proposal and the matter had been handed over to the Road Committee to deal with. Cr. Gardner bad informed him that lie had asked Cr, Hyde to. have the moulds made and this had never been done. That is what happened.

In connection with the Main Highway Mr Hyde liad stated' that the Council had received a letter from the Board asking them to take a tally and this had been ignored. A tally was not taken because the Board was only going to allow; something for maintenance and nothing for construction, and it was the latter they wanted. The speaker had since' interviewed Mr Ljnklater, M.P., re a subsidy being granted 'boroughs, the same as counties, through which main highway roads passed. He had agreed that this, was reasonable and -had promised to do his best in the matter. But he had" since seen, by the papers that, this had "been granted and ho thought all will agree they did well to wait. Mr Hyde, in dealing with tar-seal-ing had stated that the 1| miles of road could be done for £2OOO. Well, he bad made enquiries and found that in Featherston Street, Palmerston North, the oast had been £6OOO per male, the Hutt road £IO,OOO, a road in Auckland £.12,000, and that bitumen cost 7s per square yard. The Highways Board estimate for a road 18ft wide was £4743 per mile. So they could see the amount of £2OOO was absolutely ridiculous. Palmerston North had put down cheap r»ads and had to pull them, up again, vne Highway Board would, not subsidise unless a substantial road was made and he had not the slightest doubt. Utit-y would get a 'grant of half ine money from the Highway Board. He favoured such work being done, but not in a haphazard manner. The speaker said he had been, successful in getting the dams at Mangahao stocked with fish and this should become a good fishing usort and an asset toj Shannon, ife then went on to say he had always dene his best for the returned soldiers fnd would say without contradiction that if he had not, succeeded h.') aiv.ays made a big effort. As a member of the Hospital Board he was not a silent member, but held the respect of his fellow 'members. If returned his attention would be rivettcd on their welfare and he would not do anything' foolish or rash as nothing would .grieve him more tbim to be responsible for placing a bur.;en upon the (people. Gr. Hyde said things had been shelved. He would admit things had been put off when money was (required for something more urgent. He hoped ou election day to win and if so he would be modest and if defeated he would

take it with equal courage. (Applause). Questions were then invited but only two minor ones were asked and these were satisfactorily answered. A vote of confidence in Mr Murdoch was then carried on bhalf of the returned soldiers. Mr Murdoch informed the meeting

that this was the last time he would speak before .the election and if they heard any criticism he would leave H to their good judgment and sense. (Applause). A hearty vote of thanks to the chairman- terminated the meeting. MR HYDE REPLIES. At this point -Mr Hyde asked the chairman if Mr Murdoch would allow him to reply 'briefly to his criticism, owing to it being his last opportunity before the election. Mr Murdoch; Mr Hyde can please '] himself.

•Mr Hyde then stepped on to the stage and after thanking Mr Murdoch for allowing him to sipcak, he dealt with the question of tar-seal-ing the main road through the Borough. He had said it would cost approximately £2001). Mr Murdoch said that was ridiculous. Mr Hyde said figures he had showed the cost per mile throughout New Zealand to vary from £I2OO to £2OOO per mill'. Th'</ road from Longburn which was 20ft .teet wide cost £2OOO per mile and ihiv was the dearest with the exception of the Hutt road. In Taranaki some at the roads had cost as low as £450 per mi].e. He would take the Longburn road as a basis to work our to get at the cost of their own road from boundary to boundary, which was 93 chains in length. From the Albion Flotel to the Police Station was 27 chains in length, and the width from kerb to kerb was 45 feet. The cost would be £1519 and to complete the remaining 66 chains £1650, making a total cost of £316!). Therefore, when Mr Murdoch talked about it costing £6OOO to £BOOO, he (Mr Hyde) wag equally justified in saying his figures were also ridiculous. Mr Hyde followed this remark up by giving the costs of putting down roads in various parts of the Dominion.

A questioner asked if these figures were for tar-sealed roads or bitumen roads.

Mi- Hyde replied that the authority from which he. quoted did not state whether thoy were tar-sealed or bitumen roads.

Referring to the matter of a municipal hall he said 'that in (every place in which he knew of them being built they had been an absolute failure. He 'did not say that, because he was interested in the local halls. Mr Taylor had quoted Puxto-i! as being a success. We'll, he had Foxton's balance sheet which shows a profit of £sl at the end of 1923 and against that amount the Town Clerk's salary of £52 had to be allowed, and nothing had been allowed for rent. Palmerston North's hall had been a failure for some; time. As a matter of fact he had never known Mr Murdoch to advocate a public hall. Regarding the statement that he had been instructed to get the concrete slabs, he said that was the first he knew of it. He had never undertaken to do any such work for the Council.

In reply to Mr Cumin as to what number of ratepayers were going to benefit by the Council putting down a tart-sealed road, Mir Hyde said every one of them, as. it would help to reduce the rates. The road was now costing £?00 per year for maintenance, iwhile the interest on the Council's portion of the- loan to do the work would be approximately £IOO per year. 'That is where we save,' 1 he stated. Mr Murdoch pointed out that the Highway Board's estimate was £4700 per mile. The meeting then terminated, both candidates being applauded.