MAYORAL ELECTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1919, Page 7

MAYORAL ELECTION.

THE -GENERAL MANAGER SCHEME;' j. The first town to adopt the General Manager scheme of Municipal Control Was Dayton, United States, in 1914. In three .years the death rate was reduced 8 per cent.; infant mortality was reduced from 124 to 87 per 1000; £20,000 worth of new services were given out of equal expenditure; in 1913 (last year of old system) it took nine men to make 13,662 inspections, in 1914 (first year of General Manager) four men made 22,257 inspections; £6OOO saved per annum in purchase of supplies; garbage re- ! moved reduced from 10s to 7s per ton; ! eight hour substituted for ten-liour day | for workmgp. In spite of this, taxation was reduced one dollar per head. Other towns have the same experience. Why not' New Plymouth? Since Dayton'a experience in 1914 over 140 other towns have adopted the General Manager scheme * ONE-MAN CAR SYSTEM. Mr. P. $. Pringle, Chief Engineer and General, Manager, Electrical Supply Co., of Victoria, in a report published in Electric Railway and Tramway Journal, September. 1915, says of the one-man car system of Ballarat:—"This system has much to commend in the way of reducing accidents to passengers. Comparing oneman cars with the two-man cars for equal mileage, the case of accidents due to people hoarding and leaving the cars whilst in motion was nearly six times as many with the two-man car as with the one-jinan car. There has not been one case of accident through failure of motor-man on the one-man system." Ballarat had 50 accidents with twoman cars in 1911, 45 in 1912 (the last year of two-man cars.) In 1913, first year of one-man cars, the number was reduced to 29, and in 1915 they were reduced to 14, although four times the mileage was run. Accidents often involve payment of compensation. More than 1166 towns of 25,000 people and upwards in Canada and United States have adopted the one-man car.*