MUNICIPAL ELECTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3173, 26 April 1909, Page 5

MUNICIPAL ELECTION.

ADDRESS BY COUNCILLOR YARR. ; Cr Yarr addressed a meeting of about 200 persons in the Town Hall on Saturday evening last. The chair was occupied by Mr F. Haughey, who in introducing the speaker said that it was a pleasing sign to see a Councillor and a candidate for reelection coming on to the platform to give an account of his stewardship. Cr yarr, who was greeted with applause upon rising, said that he was there to try and vindicate his actions in the Council for the past year. It was necessary for him to do this so that the electors would not be misled by the statements that had been inade by Mr Hunter. The fiance of the Borough had been challenged by a candidate tor the Mayoralty, who said that the overdraft had not been reduced by £2,038 during the year as stated by the Town Clerk. The speaker said he had no intention of dragging his hearers through a weary maze of figures in the shape of the Borough balances. He had a simpler and an easier method than that, and he was merely going to produce to them the balance as appearing in the bank passbook on the 31st March, 1908, which showed a dr. balance on general account of £6,116 3s 3d, while the dr. balance as, shown by the bank pass book on the 31st March, 1909, wa<* £3,520 4s Id, showing an actual reduction in the bank overdraft as per,the bank pass book of £2,595 19s. Cash in hand at each period, outstanding cheques and other matters that had to be provided for revealed a reduction in the overdraft of £2,038, as reported by the Town Clerk, whose statement or figures had never been challenged in the Council. Yet a certain Councillor immediately wrote to a newspaper' complaining about a matter that he had never mentioned. Regarding a dodger that had been sent round in that morning's "Wairarapa Age," asserting that Cr Hunter had voted for low rates and that the Mayor and Cr Yarr had voted for high rates. That statement was absolutely incorrect. The 2£d rate that was struck by the Borough Council was voted tor by every member of the Council. The only result of Cr Hunter's motion striking out the item contingencies £I,OOO, was this: —That every deputation that came to the* Council, and every ratepayers' petition that had been presented for improvements in various parts of the Borough, had to be refused the relief they asked, or merely get about one quarter the work done tW they were asking for and were justly entitled to have. Those [ratepayers and residents who had been to the Council for relief, and were refused and had now to wade through a mud-hole to get into | the town could thank Cr Hunter for | their present condition. If the , Borough had had on the estimates the £I,GOO that had been struck off on Cr Hunter's motion, then those ratepayers could have had the relief they wanted, but seeing that no money had been set aside for contingencies the work had not been done satisfactorily.

'WATERWORKS REVENUE. It bad been said that the water rata collected during the past year had been £3,371. This was not so. That sum represented the whole of the waterworks revenue, and not the rate alone. Part of tint revenue was derived from the rent of two farms at the waterworks reserve, part from the sale of water by meter to consumers outside the Borough, and part from the sale of material, etc. Now, as to the loan expenditure that a certain Councillor said he had been refused the particulars of, he (the speaker) had got the necessary information from the books of the Borough Council that morning without troubling anybody to get the statement for him. The speaker here read a detailed statement of the amounts expended out of loan money during the year, and he ridiculed the idea of a Councillor saying he could rot get the information when the same books were at that Councillor's disposal that the speaker had got his . information from. Surely a Councillor did not think that because he happened to /have a seat the Borough Council he should be fed with a spoon by the Town Clerk. It had been said that .the speaker was not a ratepayer, and would not watch the interests of the Borough as well as a certain large ratepayer. That sort of idea had been long exploded in a democratic country liKe New Zealand, and in any case the working men of the town would hardly forget the fact that the speaker had moved a motion to increase the wages of the Borough workmen by Is a day, and that he had got it carried too. A comparison in the cost of the office and other expenditure that had been referred to by a candidate was of absolutely no use whatever, as by different officers placing certain payments under different headings a totally wrong idea might easily convey a wrong impression as to expenditure. In any case, the fact that the overdraft had beenjreduced by £2,038 was a quite sufficient answer to ANY CHARGE OF EXTRAVAGANCE that might be levelled against the present administration of either the

Council or the officials. The opposition party in the Council who were posing as economists, had supported some extravagant jobs during the past year. For instance, the Borough Engineer was repairing Pine street with broken metal at a cost of 2s 6d per yard delivered on. the street from the Council's stone crushing depot. The opposition party moved and carried a resolution that broken metal should be brought from Fernridge by contract at a cost of 3s 3d a yard, an increase of 9d a yard. An unprofitable contract had also been undertaken in the erection of a stop-bank in the Park by the same parfy. Exemption had been taken to expenditure oh- a certain culvert in Kuripuni street, but as a matter of solid fact Kuripuni street as now widened was one of the finest streets in the town, and the money paid for the culvert was money well spent. The fact of the matter was that there were certain members of the Council—Crs Hunter and Ewington—who thought they knew more tnan any engineer in the world, and that had been the whole trouble. The speaker contended that good work at a reasonable cost had beer, initiated and carried out by the present Engineer. The septic tank and sewage farm, which had up to a I very recent date, been nothing more or less than a foul plague spot in I dangerously close proximity to Masterton, had now been made a com- , plete success at a cost of about £270. The Borough Engineer had applied for a sum of £360 for the purpose. This, however, had been opposed by the opposition party, and in consequence the Engineer had been restricted in his work. So far as the speaker was concerned he would have been quite willing to vote any sum in reason, even up to £SOO or more, to put the septic tank and sewage farm in a proper and sanitary condition, as he considered that the health of the inhabitants of Mast:rton should be considered, no matter what the cost was* If the septic tank and sewage farm had been allowed to remain as they were at one time, there was very little doubt in the speaker's mind that an epidemic of typhoid fever or other foul diseasa would have broken out in Masterton. This, however, had now been remedied, and at a very small cost, and the town had been put beyond the danger of an epidemic.

ANOTHER GOOD WORK had been accomplished by the Engineer at the headworks by improving the intake, a pipe line having been* carried right out into the middle of the river, and there was now no apparent danger of a water famine in Masterton. In connection with both those matters it was interesting to remember that it had been stated that the outfall works and sewage farm would have to be removed, and that the intake would have to be removed many miles up the river to the gorge. The cost of those works would have been £20,000, or possibly considerably more. The present Engineer, however, had succeeded in accomplishing satisfactory results for between £SOO and £6OO, and it was an everlasting tribute to that gentleman's professional ability that he had done 30. Yet the opposition party fought the Borough Engineer for no apparent reason from the fall of the flag to the winning post. Queen street was now one of the finest streets in the Dominion, and as such was duly appreciated by the business people, who not long ago had too flounder ankle deep in mud to get across the street. Lincoln road and JMne street, the main entrances to the town, were now a crsdit to Masterton, instead of a disgrace, as in the past.

REGARDING THE FUTURE, Cr Yarr said he was not going to try and catch votes on the eve of any election by stating that he was in favour of reducing the rates. He was certainly not in favour of an increase, but until he knew what monay was likely to be wanted for necessary works during the coming year he would not pledge himself to a 2d rate. In the past the rates had been out of all proportion to the expenditure with the result that the overdraft at one time reached £B,OOO, and so long as the speaker was on the Council he would never consent to such a state of affairs occurring again. Finally, if elected he would support any mayor or any councillor in any proposal that the speaker considered was in the best interests of the town, and he would strongly oppose any mayor or any councillor or any proposal that he considered was against the interests of the people. Cr Yarr then resumed his seat amidst applause. The chairman invited questions, and none being asked, he proposed a vote of thanks to the speaker, which was carried. A similar vote of the chairman on the motion of Cr Yarr closed the meeting.