ELECTION OF MAYOR.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2166, 13 December 1875, Page 2

ELECTION OF MAYOR.

According to advertisement Mr J. E. Macdonald addressed a yery large audience—so large indeed that of sitting room there was none —in the Academy of Music on Saturday evening last.

On the motion of Mr Comes, Captain Eichards was called to the chair.

The chairman said he accepted the position to which he was called in obedience to the wish of the assemblage. It was so well known that the people ©f the Thames were a law abiding and orderly community, that he felt sure the position would be an easy one for him. Mr Macdonald, who would address them, was well known to them, and if they wanted to ask him any questions they could have their say after Mr Macdonald had had his. All he asked for him was that they would give him a fair, patient, careful, and John Bull hearing.

Mr Macdonald, who was received with applause, said that the business why both he and they were there was that they might hear what he had to say, and question him if they wished "to do so. They knew he was a candidate for: the office of Mayor, and so in the outset of his address a question suggested itself to him, " What is the Mayor ? " It might be one of two things ; -it might be, in the first place, as he. had been led to understand it, the office of a person picked out from his fellow citizens because he

had at least sufficient talent and ability for the proper discharge of hia duties, and because his fellow citizens delighted to honor him, and that was the office ho sought; or it might, in the second place, mean a kind of office which he.had never seen except in the colony, and which he certainly did not seek, where the dignity of the office was sunk into a mere payment of services rendered. It was the first of these two kinds of Mayoralties which he sought, and even that he would not have sought had any one else more worthy of it come forward. He did not mean this remark to apply to the present Mayor, whom he highly respected, and whom he would have been I glad to see elected Mayor once, or even twice, but he did think that three times was rather too much. He had been asked to stand for Mayor but had given evasive answers, saying neither " yes " nor " no," as he was waiting to see if others would come forward; but seeing that Mr Macnab retired, and that no one other than Mr Davies came forward, he determined to stand, and he could most solemnly assure them that in so doing he was actuated by no desire or wish either directly or indirectly to serve his friends, nor yet by any other motive than that of being at least for once chief officer of the borough. His attention had been called to the efforts made in behalf of Mr Davies, and that brought him to notice proceedings at a meeting reported in the Thames Advertiser of December 9th. For his own part he had no committee or any other organization to secure his return, but the tactics of Mr Davies' parly were different. Mr Davies had held a meeting of those interested in securing his return, and had at that meeting given reasons for his reeleclion which he thought were really reasons against it. He had spoken of the fact that he had been Mayor, or in the position of Mayor, for seven years as a reason why he should be elected Mayor for the eight time. If that reason held good the same might be said next year, that having been Mayor for eight years he ought to be Mayor for nine, and so on, and thus they would never get rid of him as long as he chanced to be alive. He then likened the action of the Borough Councillors in supporting the candidature of Mr Davies, and their endeavors to confine the office of Mayor to their own number to that of the " Tammany Ring " at New York, and described how that ring from small beginnings absorbed all the political and financial power of the district. He thought, he said, that the Municipal Corporations Act of 1867 fostered institutions like this "Tammany Ring," which, though minute at present, were largely increasing their powers. The legislators no doubt had noticed this, and so had changed the power of electing the Mayor from the Councillors to the Burgesses. The Mayor had asked them to elect him in preference to an outsider, but he (the speaker) thought that the best thing they could do would be to drop himself into the ring, and then they would know what was done in the Council, which they didn't at present. He then criticised unfavorably the action of the Mayor and Council in giving a job of £300 to the foreman of works (who, he said, was a staunch supporter of Mr Davies) instead of letting it by contract, which ought to have been done, and also their action in embarking in business as carters. He had been told he must come out with a policy, and his policy was .this — First of all he would speak of the forshore without which no policy would be complete. He would do his best, and thought they all ought to do their best to get that foreshore ; it belonged to them apart from the promises that had been made about it, and they ought to have it; but in order to get it he would'nt go wailing about some Californian gentlemen who would leave the district unless they got machine sites granted to them on the foreshore. As regarded these Californian gentlemen he was rather sceptical as to their existence, but he believed their name was Harris, and that they were related to Sarah Gamp, and if so, he was like Betsy Prig and " didn't believe there was no sieh persons." He would say, however, that it was no use trying to get the foreshore without putting their hands in their pockets, arid like the borough of Wellington imagine they were going to have it to pay for streets. No, the foreshore when obtained would be secured to a harbour board for enhancing the value of the district, and of the whole province. He referred to Liverpool where splendid docks had been constructed on what waa within his memory a mere flat, and said the same thing might be done in this district too, but that it would not be brought about by talking of Californian gentlemen who didn't exist. The second point iv his policy was the waterworks, and about these, as Superintendent of a Fire Brigade, and from having devoted considerable time to the subject, he was well able to speak. The present pipes by which the town was supplied were bad. They were getting silted up or rusted, and might be made much better very easily. The present, 4-inch pipes ought to be taken out and replaced as far as Hogg's corner by 6-inch pipes, and the 4inch pipes brought round through Eolleston street to somewhere near the Pacific Hotel. By this means there would be a greater pressure, of water, and inhabitants of Rolleston street and surrounding parts Would have a suitable supplyfor fires and domestic purposes. The third item of his policy, second only to the acquisition of the foreshore, was the making of a road to the Waikato through Ohinemuri. He believed the life and soul of the colony to be roads, whether railroads or others. The great advance made in England since the year 1688 was due to the formation of roads, and a similar advance would follow the formation of roads in this colony, and nothing would tend more to the advancement of this district than the formation of a good road to the' Waikato, such as ihe had spoken of. This, ho said, was his policy, and he had already spoken as much as he intended to about it and about himself, but while, as he had told them, he did not intend to use any means or influence to get returned, he did not intend to submit to be injured by misrepresentation or falsehood, and therefore would have it out with two people whom he saw there. (Mr Macdonald then told some anecdotes relative to his connections, present and past, with Messrs. Macnab, Mcllhone, and John Butt, which led to mutual recriminations between those gentlemen and himself, which appear to have arisen from erroneous conclusions drawn from conversations between these gentlemen and the speaker.)

Mr Oldroy said lie would like to ask

Mr Macdonald if he was elected Mayor whether he was ready to help the citizens to get the foreshore r*

Mr Macdonald said that in every capacity he was ready to do his utmost to further such an object. Mr Oldrey said he should also like to ask Mr Macdonald if he was prepared to give his whole attention and time to the duties of Mayor? Mr Macdonald said he was prepared to do his duty, but as to asking him to give his whole time that was coming it rather strong. He would, however, tell them this, which he had omitted to do in the course of his speech, that he disapproved of the system of having a paid Mayor, and though he would not say that if elected he would give up the £150 paid to the Mayor, lest he might seem to be offering them a bribe to elect him, yet he would say this, that the whole of the money would be spent by him as Mayor for the benefit of the Borough, and very likely a great deal more. (Cheers.)

A vote of thanks to the Chairman terminated the meeting.