THE MAYORAL CONTEST.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9066, 15 April 1908, Page 5

THE MAYORAL CONTEST.

MR HOLLINGS AT THE TOWN HALL. There was a large attendance at the Town Hall, last evening, when I Mr P. L. Hollings, a candidate for the office of Mayor, addressed the electors in support of his candidature. Mr Geo. Heron occupied the chair, and in introducing the speaker, mentioned that Mr Hollings was . no stranger to Masterton ratepayers as a candidate for munic-pal honours, adn asked that a patient hearing be granted to that gentleman. Mr Hollings, who, on rising, was greeted with applacsj," said that he had already spent one year in the Mayoral chair, and although that year was one of the most arduous of any which fell to the lot of a Masterton Mayor, on account of numerous important public happenings, the speaker had enjoyed the honoured position much, and would certainly have stood for re-election at the expiry of his term but for private business reasons. In addition to this experience, he had acted for two years on the Council. Now he had received a requisition signed by two hundred and fifty townspeople asking him to stand again for the position, and he thought he should consult their wishes fh the matter. He had consequently decided to re-offer himself, especially so ts he was far from satisfied with the present administration of municipal affairs. He would explain very fully the reason he was dissatisfied. A month ago the present Mayor, Mr Coradine, had announced i hat he would be again a candidate for the office of Mayor, and the announcement had been made in big letters, too. One would naturally have thought that Mr Coradine would, before doing so, have come before the public and given an account of his past year's administral tion. He had not done so, however, in spite of knowing that another candidate was out for the position, and it, therefore, he was subjected to some wholesome criticism by him (the speaker) it was what he was justly entitled to. He (Mr Hollings) was goi-g to fight fair, and indulge in 110 personalities, but he claimed the fullest right to criticise the past administration of the Borough as a ratepayer and a citizen. The Mayor's policy had been one of procrastination, extravagance and neglect, and yet nn man who had been in the Mayoral chair had enjoyed the same opportunity to do more and better work than Mr Coradine. Besides the £12,000 of loan money available for expenditure—and which the Mayor ! had not the bother of raising—there was a sum of £7,292 of ordinary revenue for the maintenance of the various works o" the Borough, and yet this had not been enough, a'd £3,000 more had been spent. In spite of all his chances, the Mayor had made an ignominous failure of his work, fur wha: had the ratepayers to show for the great expsmiitnre ? So far their return was a series of variety entertainments',, comedies and pantomimes, with Council meetings where resolutions were passed one day and rescinded the next. The Council had manufactured enough gas at its meetings to b'.ow up the town* arid it was surprising that the gas charges were still so high. It was somewhat strange that there had been so much bustle about municipal works of late. It was really amusing to see the hurry and »curry, with the Mayor and Works Committee tumbling over one another to make a show of work for the election. Resolutions were passed to widen roads, and drainage work was started all at the last minute, those responsible being evidently oblivious of the fact that their present bustle only served to magnify their pr°vious inactivity, lasting some ten months. The speaker wanted to know why all these works now being pushed on were not started twelve months ago —why Kuripuni Street, for example, had not been widened when the money W2S in hand and the Council was paying interest on it? It was all as plain as day—the Mayor now hoped to propitiate the Kuripuni peop»e, but the speaker believed they were not foolish enough to be now smoothed over by tha passing of a resolution to do the work on the eve of an election. This delay had typified the work of the Council throughout the year. The policy was to put off everything. He thought the ratepayers were now entitlled to know what had been done with the I £12,000 of loan money, and how much remained for the balance of work to be done, also what had been done with the £7,292 of ordinary revenue-'-the largest amount ever [ raised for. the purpose of ordinary ' works. Never before had the roads been in such a bad condition. Residents would doubtless remember the mud and slush of most of the roads last winter, and were any of them now in a better state than they were last year? It was a shocking state of affairs when the ratepayers had to pay so much and the roads were no better, in fact worse, the mud and slush being, in wet weather, a positive disgrace. For the height of procrastination the drainage was a sample, and it was truly a most striking instance of the neglect of public duty. The Mayor knew perfectly well before the long and dry summer that the water supply was in a dangerous condition. What did he do? Nothing. He singly sat on a rail and refused to budge. On the occasion of an outbreak cf fire the pressure was less than 15lbs, where it should have been 701bs, and had the wind been favourable to the fire's spread the whole town might have been swept. The Mayor's attention had been drawn to this state of affairs by the Engineer, the Press, and by Councillors, and yet not until the report of an outside engineer had been procured, which had entirely borne out the Borough Engineer's report, did? he bestir himself. The matter should have been attended to long before, even if it had cost £I,OOO. The Mayor, when remonstrated with on his dilatoriness, had said in open Council, "I'll do it when I like." The paper reports made the Mayor to say on another occasion. "I'm chairman here!" That was all very well, but he evidently forgot that people paul a water rate. Procrastination was too mild an expression to apply to the case—it was downright indifference and neglect of the public welfare. Speaking further on the water question, iVr Hollings said j that ten months ago Qr Ewington

had asked that a report be prepared by the Borough Engineer as to the best means of putting the water supply and drainage system in order. Mr Dobson duly reported, and nothing was done. Two or three months ago the Council decided to get a report from another engineer, VJr Laing-Meason, at a cost of £l5O, which, by the way, entirely corroborated Mr Dobson's, and even then i Council did nothing. The repjirt was duly received, and yet wasffot even discussed, and he asked, what was the Mayor and Council there J for? The report had been thrown aside as if it was so much waste paper. He submitted that it was their duty to put the true position of the two systems before the ratepayers and throw the responsibility of further improving them upon the ratepayers. The Mayor had not done so—in fact, he had not the pluck to do so —and yet he expected to be put back into office. What for? the speaker asked. To get more reports to throw aside? The ratepayers were not willing to pay £l5O for reports |o be looked at only. If the Mayor had approved of Mr Dobson's scheme why did he not act upon it? If not, and he now approved of having Mr Laing-Meason's scheme, why did he not act on that? Coming to the office management, Mr Hollings said that the Mayor's action in this connection would not bear the light of day —in short, it was scandalous. When he (Mr Coradine) had entered into office someone suggested that £3OO a year might be saved if certain combinations of offices were effected. The result was that the Mayor and certain councillors "pitched out" the Town Clerk and the Borough Engineer, and put one man into the two jobs. Yet the result had been an increase to the ratepayers of £2OO more than with the two officials, and then they had dispensed with the services of an j old and trusted officer. This was what the Mayor had facetiously , termed "cleaning out the stable." I To quote figures, the speaker said ' that last year office salaries were £737 16s, and office expenses £ 9 ,59 18s 3d-total £997 14s 3d. This year \they proved to be £BO7 2s 7d for salaries and £368 9s 2d for exj eises —total £1175 lis 9d; an increase of £2OO. The speaker heard a few things in his jaunts around town, and one was that Mr Coradine was saying the electors were going to put him back because he had "cleaned out the stable." He had certainly swept out £2OO of the ratepayers' money, and if that was his strongest plea for* return to office it was a very weak one, and he must surely think that people were either blind or fools. Speaking on the retirement of'Mr Brown, Mr Hollings declaied that the Council had dispensed with a faithful and valuable servant of 30 years' standing 1 without giving a reason. If there was any reason for doing Sv> the speaker would certainly not criticise their action, but here there was none, or it would have been disclosed long ago. Mr Brown himself had been at his wic's end for six months to try and discover the reason and had found none. As if to excuse his action the Mayor had allowed a report to be read at a Council meeting containing an insinuation against Mr Brown, and when Mr Brown had written to the Mayor for a copy of the report the latter had actually treated a Council letter as his privata property, and taken it to his own office.. When a second letter was written, and cue which the Mayor could not disregard, hj? had, the speaker felt sorry to say, secuJed a majority in the Council to refcsi Mr Brown a copy of the report, atid thus denied that gantleman a chance to defend himself. There had not been one valid reason advanced for the retirement in such a disgraceful manner of Mr Brown, and the whole business was a scandal- the biggest the town had known for years. The Mayor's policy had been to hang a man first and try him afterwards. As a Justice of the Peace, sworn to give, every man a fair hearing, was that the way to do it? The speaker challenged Mr Coradine to give one legitimate reason for his | action regarding Mr Brown. The most shameful part was that the Mayor had not the courage to move the resolution himself but had procured Cr Yarr, a thrremonths • old councillor, to move it, and another young councillor Cr Prentice —' to second it. The Mayor was, in fact, up a, tree, while Cr Yarr was below "doing the dirty work." If such a sweeping change was necessary surely it was the Mayor's place to take the leading step. Cr Elliott had appealed to the Mayor to do justice to an innocentman, and what did the Mayor reply? With a cold-blooded sneer he said: "You make rue laugh!" Was it anything to laugh at? Had the Mayor no conscience? Whether Mr Brown were to blame for anything or not surely he had the right of a Britisher to be allowed to defend himslef Mr Hollings also twitted tho Mayor with promising the Ratepayers' Association five years ago that if he was elected he would have the Borough Engineer out of office in quick time, whereas three months after election he was ' being led round the town by that official like a well-chained and well-muzzled dog. Five years later ha had another go at the Engineer, but through Cr Yarr! And the "cleaning of the stable " meant, moreover the payment of £l5O of the ratepayers' money to this "jibbing horse," who kicked until he got it. And this was the 'performace the Mayor seemed so proud of. Passing on to the balance sheet Mr Hollings quoted instances to support his allegations of extravagance. What could his hearers think of a'private individual who lived £2,000 beyond his income! And it was interesting to know where this £2,000 had gone. Office salaries were estimated to be £553 10s,' and yet £BO7 had been spent. Office expenses were estimated at £240 and £368 had been expended -- more than £350 above the estimates on these items. On roads and streets the expenditure had exceeded the estimates by £SOO. Plant and material had actually absorbed £972, for which no estimate was made. Fire prevention had been estimated at £l5O, yet .£325 was found to be needed. Interest had gone o\er £IOO beyond the estimate, and on street widening and stables, , for which no estimate was set down, the bum of £I,OOO was to the bad. I In round figures, the general account

had drifted some £3,000 to the wrong" side of the ledger, anid as the Council had really exceeded the limit of its overdraft allowance, there would be something heard from the auditor, no doubt, when the proper time arrived. And with all this expenditurenothing could be shown for it, which' was the most unsatisfactory side of the question. Mr Hollings then summed up briefly the points he challenged the Mayor to answer, as outlined in the foregoing remarks. He particularly wanted the Mayor to explain how he proposed to liquidate' the overdraft, and yet carry un theordinary maintenance of the BoroughHe also desired an explanation of why "advertissments by- the >ard" had been inserted to announce the Mayoral election, when one quarter or less of space would nave sufficed at a considerably decreased cost to the ratepayers. He defied Mr Coradine to explain in a way that woula satisfy the electors why Mr Brown had not been permittsd to defend himself. Mr Hollings concluded by announcing that he proposed to deliver another speech after Mr Coradine had replied to his criticisms, and on that occasion he would in turn reply to Mr Coradine, and also outline his own policy if elected to the chair. He contended that the water and drainage improvement scheme must be faced by the ratepayers, and, if elected, he would not hesitate to place the issues before them. The two positions of Town Cleric and Borough Engineer should also, he maintained, be separate appointments, in the interests of good work,. Mr Hollings resumed his seat amidst applause. Throughout he received a sympathetic hearing, only one individual in the audience causing any interruption, and he desisted on the Chairman threatening to have him ejected. A hearty' vote of thanks was proposed by Mr E. McEwen and carried by acclamation, the Chairman also being accorded the same compliment.