The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1927. A GIFT OF £1,000,000

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 28, 26 April 1927, Page 8

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1927. A GIFT OF £1,000,000

A MATERIAL alteration in New Zealand’s policy concerning Empire naval defence has been announced by the Prime Minister with becoming modesty. It calls for the serious consideration of a country that experiences some financial stress and unemployment, and may have to accept a reduction in values instead of higher prices for its products. As outlined by the Right lion. J. G. Coates in an informative statement, it is proposed to make a gift of £1,000,000 in seven or eight annual instalments, toward the cost of the Imperial naval base at Singapore, and, after the completion of that expensive project, to increase by about £IOO,OOO a year the Dominion’s expenditure on large cruisers as supplied by the Admiralty to the New Zealand unit of the Navy. If it be undeniable that the Singapore base is essential to the maintenance of peace in the Pacific, then no one in possession of common sense will be disposed to challenge the Government’s bold policy. The proposal will go far toward wiping out the reproach on the various Dominions for their disproportionate contributions to the cost of the Royal Navy in providing dependable defence of their isolated coasts and long trade routes. So, on that score alone, the average New Zealander, who is given more to acquiescent apathy than to serious thought for national responsibilities, will applaud the policy of the Government, though there may not be any rejoicing in his heart. Flag-wavers and jingoists, of course, will be ecstatic over the Reform Government’s substantial proposal. A more sober view is permissible without incurring the wrath of those intense patriots who have been taught continuously ever since they were babbling children that money spent on the Navy or any project associated with naval defence is always a good investment, bringing peace, prosperity and the security which means dreamless sleep for taxpayers in all the islands of the Empire. Is it really necessary at a time when nations lick their war wounds and look to the League of Nations and disarmament for some relief from abnormal expenditure to spend more millions on naval defence as though war were on the horizon? Who is the imaginary enemy, against whom defensive preparations are being made or projected? A great deal of assertion has been made that the danger zone has shifted from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but if one honestly searches for visible evidence of the menace none can be found, except in hot imagination. Apart from the present trouble in China, which is in no sense a war, there is not a British capital ship stationed east of Malta; and there is absolutely no necessity for one. Those who had hoped for a cessation of expensive naval defence throughout the Empire will be chagrined to learn that the British Government still considers it necessary to spend. £58,000,000 on the Navy and also that the Dominions are expected to pay heavily for defence against imaginary enemies. Meanwhile, it is hoped that the Reform Government will be able to convince Parliament that the expenditure of £1,000,000 on naval defence is more urgent than the spending of a similar sum on settlement and the abolition of unemployment.

THE CITY MAYORALTY THIS is the eve of the election of a mayor and councillors for the Auckland City Council, and the electors should this evening definitely make up their minds in regard to whom they they will vote for. The outstahding interest, of course, is the mayoralty. A body of good men, representative of all the city interests, may be returned as a council, but unless there is at the head of the administration a mayor whose personality is above reproach and whose civic worth has been proved by experience, that administration will prove a failure—-as has been amply demonstrated during the past two years. There are four candidates for tlie mayoralty—Messrs. Schmidt, Bioodworth, Warnoek and Baildon. Briefly, it may be said of Mr. Schmidt that with his visionary policy and his utter lack of municipal experience, lie would plainly be impossible as mayor, though, no doubt, he might make a good councillor, after a reasonable apprenticeship. He polled surprisingly well in the mayoral election two years ago, but all the indications were that this vote was more against Mr. Baildon than for Mr. Schmidt, and with two other candidates, each men of worth, in the field on this occasion, he cannot hope to approach his former vote. Mr. Bioodworth is a man of large experience, of moderation, and of honest ability, proved in several years of public life. It must not be forgotten that he has the support of a large section of the business community, and that he will command the vote of the majority of those who usually vote Labour. Mr. Warnoek is a successful business man, who will bring business methods to bear on the administration, if elected. His standing in the community is high, judged from every aspect, and he has had valuable years of municipal experience, including the chairmanship of committees, which have conducted important business for tlie city for whose progress lie is so deeply concerned. Mr, Baildon was for many years a councillor, and undoubtedly a useful one. Had he consented to remain in tlie ranks he would have continued to be useful. But as mayor of Auckland lie has been weighed and found wanting, despite all tlie example and tlie valuable advice of liis predecessor, that most energetic and able administrator, Sir James Gunson, whose influence it was that made him deputy-mayor, and who was most painstaking in coaching him for the duties of permanent office. Mr. Baildon means well —he is perhaps as anxious for Auckland’s welfare as any of the other candidates —but all the well-meaning in the world will not give a man those qualities he is born without, and Mr. Baildon has entirely failed to reveal that ability in leadership, enterprise, or business acumen which are essential in the mayor of a great city. His administration has accomplished nothing and offers less. The real issue, then, is between Mr. Warnoek and Mr. Bloodworth, and it is on the merits of these two that the electors will have to decide to-morrow in their attempt to return to the high office of mayor a man who will fill it with credit to himself and honour to the city.