MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 April 1919, Page 6

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

ACTIVITIES OF EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION. There was an attendance of about 18 gentlemen at the meeting called, by the New Plymouth Employers' Association, to which were invited members of the Vogeltown, Westown, and Frankleigh Settlers' Associations, for the purpose of considering matters in relation to the coining municipal election. Mr. J. W. Hayden presided. Mr. Carter reported on behalf of the snb-c»mmittee set up last week to interview sitting councillors regarding their intentions in relation to the coming elections. He stated that most of the councillors had expressed their willingness to offer themselves for re-election if it was thought their services were desired. Cr. Clarke had definitely intimated liis intention of standing, and although Cr. Hill was away, an assurance had been received that he would stand, and the committee had good reason to believe that Cr. Hayden would offer his services again The committee felt that whatever happened there should at least be a leavening of old councillors on the new council, and they were equally agreed that Cr. Hayden should be amongst those who should be re-elected. The chairman then, with the consent of the meeting, gave a resume of the work of the past two years in the borough and his opinion in respect to some of the matters referred to. Mr. Hayden dealt first with the streets question, and said the present council was reaping the harvest of the false economy of previous councils, in miles of wornout streets and roads. He also referred to the increased area of the borough, and the fact that in the areas taken in there were miles of roads in very bad condition, bcause the county had ceased to spend money on the roads as soon as it had become evident that the areas would be cut off from the county. The broken nature of the district was also a difficulty in the matter of roadmaking, necessitating much filling in and the making of many culverts. Altogether £IOI,OOO of loan moneys had been spent in street-making, and a further £IO,OOO had been borrowed, and he admitted there was not a great deal to be seen for that amount of money. He reminded those present that the borough engineer bad estimated that it would' take £30,000 to complete works which, he considered necessary at the present time, not including streets that could do with attention, and which would have to have it before long. Reference was made to the Hawera streets, with which New Plymouth streets were sometimes compared, and the speaker stated it ould probably cost a quarter of a million to ] put the New Plymouth streets in a con-1 dition equal to those of Hawera, and he did not know a where the money was to be found. He then went on to refer to I the patching of streets, which had been held up on account of all the available labor being employed on the Tukapa, Frankley, and Avenue Roads to get them tarred before they deteriorated. Notwithstanding the cries of ratepayers for roads in the centre of the town to be repaired, the council had stood firm and refused to instruct the engineer to stop the tarring on those roads in order to j>atch in Currie and other streetspatching which, according to the engineer, would have been useless. Reference was then made to the present council's decision to spend £6OOO of loan money not required for building purposes on re-forming the main entrance roads into town—namely, Avenue, Frankley, Tukapa, and Carrington Roads. The engineer decided to take them in order according to their condition, and decided as follows: Tukapa, Frankley, Avenue, and Carrington. The estimates for the roads were based upon traction haulage, and the fact that war conditions prevented the necessary plant coming to hand had made the work exceed the engineer's estimates, mainly owing to the extra haulage costs. Leaving out Carrington Road, the other three cost £2775 14s 4d, compared with an estimate of £2352 Ins for the four roads, and in consequence Carrington Road had to be omitted. In the new loan £lO3l was provided "for forming, metalling, and tarring Carrington Road, and the formation and metalling have since been authorised and done. He asked what the critics of the council would have done in the same circumstances. If critics put themselves in the same position as the council was in a gTeat deal of the criticism would never be heard. Personally he thought the council had done the right thing in making semipermanent the main roads into the borough. He then referred .to works to be undertaken by the council, in connection with the extension of the electrical power generation, and said also that money would be required for the extension of water-works, sewers, and workers' dwellings. The present public debt of the borough was about £356,548. Fortunately, much of it was revenueproducing. He recognised, however, that the town was on the eve of great developments, and, in consequence, for the next two years required the most experienced men to guide its municipal works, and he thought some of the present councillors should be returned to office. (Applause.) In reply to a question, the chairman said he believed the council had done the right thing in striving to make semipermanent the main roads leading into the borough, even at the expense of some of the roads in the centre of the town, in view of the fact that the engineer had reported that patching them would not save them from the necessity of remaking. ~ r - p - E - Wilson said the fact was that the council had failed to enforce its own resolution that the cost of everv work undertaken should be tabulated : lor the benefit of the council and the ratepayers, did not know how their money was being spent. He contended that the £IIO,OOO referred to had been largely thrown away. Mr. J. D. Sole said it was easy to criticise, and yet he felt that councillors had often allowed personal feelings and interests to outweigh their judgment. He thought, however, it -was largely the ratepayers' fault in not keeping'councillors up to the mark. He advocated the formation of a strong Ratepayers' Association, which would be of great assistance to councillors. Some further discussion then followed on various aspects of borough administration, until eventually the meetin" came back to its original object, that ot securing candidates to contest the coming election. A resolution was passed in which the meeting unanimously expressed the wish that Mr. Hayden should consent to nomination, and the chairman acceded to the request of the meeting. It was then reported that" so far as was then known, the following had consented to nomination: Messrs ,T Clarke • X . W ~ Ha /I* n ' K J - Hi ». A. S. Brooker' «nd V. Griffiths. It w«j joiatid

but that Fitzrov would be certain to nominate one representative. The chairman stated that he wished it known that Fitzroy had not been invited to the meeting because it was not known there was any organisation to represent th® district, and they could not very well give a general invitation to ratepayers. With regard to the mayoralty it was resolved to ask the chairman to arrange an influential deputation to Mr. J. Clarke, to ask liim to accept nomination, the deputation to wait on him to-day. As an outcome of suggestions made during the meeting, Mr. Tribe moved that a meeting be called for next Monday evening, in the Soldiers' Club, for the purpose of endeavoring to form a New Plymouth Ratepayers' Association. The motion was seconded by Mr. K. Deare and carried unanimously. A vote of thanks to Mr. Hayden for presiding and for the report he had submitted to the meeting, was carried with acclamation and the proceedings terminated.