THE MAYORALTY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 240, 10 April 1912, Page 6

THE MAYORALTY.

REQUISITION TO MR. JEXNINGS. Somo time ago the New Plymouth Trades and Labor Council considered the matter of taking an active interest in the forthcoming election of Mayor, and as the result of enquiries made a special meeting was held to receive the report of their executive, and eventually it was unanimously resolved to take steps to approach Mr. W. T. Jennings, with a view to asking him to become a candidate. Immediately this became known a large number of business people ex- j press! d a desire to assist. This was agreed to, and a requisition was drawn up and circularised for signatures, over three hundred names being obtained in a few days. On Wednesday evening last a large and representative gathering of eleetors waited on Mr. Jennings and presented the requisition, which set out his long and honorable connection with public life in a sphere other than municipal, his long connection and intimate knowledge of local bodies and the laws governing the same, and, further, the belief that Mr. Jennings, with his past experience and progressive ideas, would be an ide.al gentleman for the position. All of the speakers, in urging Mr. Jennings to accede to their request, warmly eulogised his public spiritednoss, and their confidence of liis candidature for the position meeting with success.

Mr. Jennings, in repl\ said: "First of all, I want to say he-' deeply gratified I am at the names of :.ie lady and gentlemen ratepayers whose signatures appear on the requisition whieh you hare just presented to me, who think I can be useful to my fellow citizens. lam also gratified at the evidence of interest being shown in municipal government. It is not a bad sign in a community when such interest is displayed. lam afraid there has been too much apathy in this town in recent years in connection with municipal affairs, arid the result has not been favorable to the people." Dealing briefly with several aspects of civic masters, he referred to the condition of the streets and footpaths of the borough generally, and mentioned that as late as°the ! past week residents had taken him! around streets in almost the centre of the town where they had been paying rates for thirty years and over, and the streets were, to say the least, discreditable. Again, in his opinion, he did not think the financial position of the borough and its responsibility was sufficiently grasped by the average citizen. "I am also surprised," he said, "to hear that a portion of one of the terraces, which was set apart by the early settlers] had been allowed to drift into the hands of one or two persons, and the proposals of the late Mayor to have a carriage drive along the terraces above the seashore cannot be accomplished unless a stiff price can be paid to recover the blocked poTtion, which should never have been alienated from the people." This and other matters which he mentioned showed there was ample room for improvement m borough matters. He did not wish to appear hypercritical, but he felt that with the cry for borough extension and progress (which he was in full sympathy with), there was a tendency to overlook matters of great importance to a large number of ratepayers in the borough who have for a number of years been paying rates and receiving no commensurate benefit. With regard to their very kind references to his past public services, their kindly expressed request to him, and also the requisition, he very much regretted that he could not accept nomination. He had already made arrangements to visit Australia shortly ou business, which would necessitate his absence for a couple of months. Had it been otherwise, he would have only been too willing to give his supporters an apportunity of testing tKe feeling ot the electors of the borough on the matter. He thanked them very heartily one and all, for the enthusiasm displayed, and trusted that they would go on in the same spirit, for they had proved to him that they were in earnest* over tliwr desire for a change in municipal affairs.