GIRL OR DOWRY?

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 122, 13 August 1927, Page 1

GIRL OR DOWRY?

CITY AND AVONDALE HYSTERICAL “LOVE-MAKING” LAST MEETING BEFORE POLL “There is hysterical love-making for the little Queen of Avondale by the City Fathers. Is it the girl or the dowry they’re after? I fancy it is one of the old marriages, where the wife becomes the chattel.” Seven hundred ratepayers assembled in the Avondale Town Hall roared their approving laughter when Mr. A. Hall-Skelton made this statement, and exhorted them to turn the “suitor” down at the amalgamation poll today. Councillor Pendlebury asked what business man would consider a contract without having it in black and white. “The city wants to spread out its tentacles like an octopus, and squeeze you dry,” he added. Somebody this time murmured disapproval, and the speaker came forward shaking his first. “I’m 60 years of age,” he said, “but when about 90 of you young fellows get together you’d almost dare to tackle an old man.”

With a fine taste for delicate silencing repartee, the audience cheered. Councillor Wright, who said that by joining Auckland Avondale people would forfeit their franchise, had some trouble with an interjector. The chairman, Mr. H. Tiarks, Mayor of Avondale, decided to take the difficulty into his own hands. “Would you care to come up and expound your views, and then we’d have quietude thereafter?” he said. The interjector declined the invitation. “If you carry this poll to-morrow,” said Councillor Wright, “it will be your last chance of expressing your will through the ballot box.” THE MARRIAGE PROPOSAL Mr. Hall-Skelton opened his long address with the homely bridal allegory and then went on to attack the wooers —the Auckland City Council. “The city councillors are a lot of plain, simple men,” he said, “and half of them are not as good as your own men.” (Cheers.) Mr. Hall-Skelton then gave an account of his own activities while he was a member of the Auckland City Council. “I was not one of those who bowed down and worshipped the Mayor,” he said. “CHEAP PLATITUDES” “The city tram service has not paid,” he said, “and it is absurd for the council to expect some people to believe that it has.” “They are putting forward cheap platitudes, illusory statements, and illogical arguments,” he added. The speaker made an elegant apostrophe to Truth as a prelude to an account of some of the City Council’s land deals. He then referred to the spirit of spite which he alleged was present in Avondale, and told the ratepayers that anybody who cast a vote in spite was dishonest. The audience cheered and cheered again at the conclusion of Mr. Skelton’s speech. POLLING TO-DAY RESULTS EXPECTED BY 8 P.M. Voters in the Avondale Borough are to-day engaged in deciding whether the borough will amalgamate with the city on unconditional terms. There has been a great deal of interest in the proposal, and the voting this morning was reported to be proceeding steadily. It is anticipated that a big proportion of the 3,200 entitled to vote will go to the poll. Voting ceases at 7 p.m., and the returning officer, Mr. A. Nunns, expects to announce the result by 8 p.m. The Avondale area has a population of about 5,000, and covers 3,700 acres.