THE MAYORALTY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2485, 26 April 1909, Page 6

THE MAYORALTY.

(Continued from page 5.)

that the people were enduring greater losses and inconveniences than they ■would have if the other scheme had 'boon adopted. DRAINAGE. Under this heading Mr. Lysnar stated that his opponents might say it was Waimata water lie wanted, and that ho would have nothing else, hut he took the opportunity of saying that such was not the case. He wanted to see the .host possible drainage scheme adopted for Gisborne, and he was convince! that Jickell’s scheme was the best that luid boon ’aid before tlie Council on the question of economy and upkeep. He was very pleased to see that M'v Merchant was coming here to report, and if Mr. March ant could give t h.eni a bettor scheme than Jickcll s, witliin their means, ho would be prepared to follow it and do all he could tor if. His reasons for claiming th.at ' ) hkei ’s scheme was tho best were that i he sewage of the suburbs gravitated to tho outlet without pumping, while the town sewage gravitated to a certain point on Haiti, and from there was humped to its destination with the stirp’us water from the mams. Anothei thing was the question of which was inconsiderable in Jickeil s scheme, hut in Mestayer $ scheme had keen shown as at least IMOGO per ;. eai. \ trjeat deal of talking had been done through his allowing Mr. Dckel to report on a drainage scheme but- ns would ask them had they not got good value for their money. - RECREATION Tho matter of recreation - g™ l ™ 35 * continued Mr. Lysnar, was a dilutee to the town, because at mwseru Ohio were no grounds where children could ~,p for recreation and healthy amuscn,ent. Tho.day had gone by when thev t.oaid get large grounds ui toun, ant now they would have to b.f emiteiu n th T h r eo or four acres m diftonnt pAit* „ s practico grounds, but for their :argei -rounds they would have to get right S town. This position had an sen through the public men ot the pa»t not being foreseeing enough to WUu<. -rounds when they could be had. Through his instrumentality they won ; d m-csentlv be able to make use of the a.nkaraka Domain for recreative purposes, and trees had been plamed a I»‘tty and buildings erected, which, with other improvements, would be giea > appreciated in. too iutuie. A voice: Put the money on the

Mr’ Lvsnar: No, it. is right and proper to expend if for the development and encouragement of sport. \\ c c.o rrofc want nothing but work, _ and it sumo do not approve of recreation othvrs do. Besides, tho money being spent tliero could only be used for taut pin•pose alone, and not for roads. HARBOR MATTERS.

Continuing, Sir. Lysnar claimed that the opposition which he was meeting generally was largely spurred on by his attitude on the Harbor Board. It {he people would watch the names _ oi ’those who were instrumental in getting a candidate to stand against him, they w ould see that those person? were not concerned in borough matters at all. *,nt in harbor matters. Yfhile he and his party had a majority on the Harbor V.aard everything went on all right, hut at last election they, had lost that majority, and tilings were very different. While he he'd a majority, whari■ages had been reduced, and the rate abolished by shifting the charges on to the ships, "who ought to bear them, "do maintained that the revenue should he collected from the users of the port, and not from the people of the_ whole district; and they were charging m less ratio here shun in any other puit of the Dominion. While, he held a majority a saving of from £I3,UQO to ~ 16,000 had been effected, and they had stopped •all useless expenses in connection with r : ver works, such as blasting rock w itn Tour or five feet of sand on it. which would fid up the hole left by the removal of the rock. The qnuestion ot the Tauwhareparao leases, oontmued Mr. Lvsnar, would bo up m July, lai-L, and during the coming term or Mayora.tv the question would have to be con•sidered, as it the present tenants wan-, ’ted a renewal they would have to grj 6 Twelve months' notice, and then the matter of rent would aviso. It was-no good for Mr. Miller’s supporters to say (hat- the matter would not arise during tho coining year. Personally, he did ■jiot think a fresh lease should bo. given, hut he would advocate the cutting up of tho blocks and placing them An the open market, getting tho bo:t- va.ue they could for them. The fact of purchasing the proposed dredge, he maintained, would not lessen 'ho danger existing at the river entrance, and at present they never knew when an accident, probably attended with loss, of life, aught occur. 'Th© proposed derdge .would be absolutely useless for them, with the depth of water it required to work in, Amd also when they knew that from 2ft to "4ft of silt would come down in a night, and that it would take six and a-half months to dredge from the end of tho wharf to the end of the breakwater, lie had, on different occasions, advocated the locking of tho rivers, which could be done for £6OOO or £<ooo. It ■was not the big flood, but the little cno which was the trouble, and in this case

with a lock they could let the water go and wash the silt away. The lock vrould also cover up the unsightly mud flats, and thus improve the sanitary ■condition of the town. HIS OPPONENT. ‘Ho had nothing to say against Ins opponent, Mr. Miller, but he would like xo know what Mr. Mi.ler had done during the five or six years on the Council, and how ho bad acted towards important measures while a member of that body. When the question of the Waihirere water supply had been considered, Mr. Miller had been a strong supporter of that scheme, and he was consistently supported bv the party who were now trying to get him into power. Hr. Mi Her had also been an advocate of the spiral pipes for the water-works, ami now they found that tno contract could not he competed. Again, Mi. "Miller had been strongly in favorer the Nlimio system of drainage, but he (Mr. IfVsnar) saw by Mr. Miller's and."ess that he had altered his mind, or that his committee had altered it for him, and that now Mr. Miller was said to be in favor of submitting the question of tlfa inage to a hoard of experts, as suggested to- the Council by Dr. Mason. A 'wood deal was said about. Mr. Miner s connection with the .Victoria Domain, hut all that he had done was to.get n vested is, a syndicate, winch no (Mr. .. livsnar) thought was absolutely wrong, and he claimed that they hat, no t iglm to give it over to-.a. syndicate. Even when the St. Patrick s Sports Commit-tee-wanted to hold their meeting there 'they had to pay heavily tor doing so, hud he contended that such was- not

right. Another of Mr. Miller’s suggestions was to get a loan tor their main roads. This was wrong, as the loan should be for all roads, and the people living in tho hack roads must be considered. Mr. Miller said that If this wits'done it would effect a saving of £6OOO or £7OOO, hut ho claimed that such a statement had been proved by figures to be entirely misleading, and “it was not right to borrow for back roads, it was not right to borrow for front streets. Continuing, Mr. Lysnar claimed that Mr. Miller’s address was not really his. but was the address ol Mr. Miller’s Committee, and he also made reference to a letter published by Mr. A. F. Kennedy, who, lie. said, seems to base the qualifications tor. the office of Mayor on the cut of his chin, ft had been complained that a lot of capital wgs. being made out of the fact of Mr. Miller not addressing'them publicly. .He (the speaker) had heard that •. Miller had to go away a week before he went, and why, ho asked, had not Mr. Miller come beforcTthcm during that week. Ho, personally, would have liked to hear Mr. Mi.lor, especially on the question of recreation grounds, and lie could only concludo that Air. Miller's silence may mean that lie wants to secure the 11-acre reserve in Childers Road for a syndicate again. Ho (Mr. Lysnar) had been approached in the matter, but ho had replied that ho would not be a party to any such thing. CONCLUSION. In cone usion, ho would ask them to consider if there was any one matter that had been advocated by hint that the opposition could put their finger on and say ho was wrong. Ho challenged the opposition to point out anything ■that ho had opposed that had not been 'taken up in the interests of tho people. He did not shirk from receiving Opposition where lie thought lie was Advocating the right thing, and there 'was no public man who acted rightly hut had enemies. Ho was always ‘ready to respect -any man who would ■oppose him on reasonable grounds, but 'lie could not do so otherwise. A great 'deal of the opposition he had received 'in the Council had been altogether 'without reason, and in the case of ■jickcll’ s drainage scheme the Councillors registered a solid vote against him 'without speaking on Lie question. If the opposition was reasonable lie would' 'bend to and respect the opinions of others, and there were men in town whose help and guidance lie sought ami acted upon in public affairs. He woutu like to ask them, in considering about the new Council, not to send men m 'there for popularity or for purposes of Hostility to himself. There was a saying going about that if so and so were elected he would bo a “thorn in Lysnar’s side.” He wanted to see good men put in, and good work done by the new Council, and the people should remember that by tho Council they returned they could either help, on or retard considerably the progress’ of the nlace. Ho wished to thank them for their attendance to hear him that evening. and he hoped that ho had given them some information and rood for reflection. A good den 1 more work 'could have been done in the past year with a different Council, but nevertheless ho was glad to say that they had good work to show. QUESTIONS. At the conclusion of the address a large number of questions were put to dr. Lysnar. Many of them were entirely irrelevant, ami more than a few of them purely personal. In answer to others, lie said that spiral pipes were unsuccessful here because of tho instability of the soil. He could reply to “Dinkum Toiler’s” letter, whom he thought was one of the present Councillors, but one who was going to be put cut. He did not consider that any profit should be made from the abattoirs, which should merely exist to give the people pare and wholesome, meat. For short distances carting by the Straker waggon was much cheaper than railage. Regarding the Borough Council’s contract with the County Council for the supp y of stone, he said that ho was not in favor of being tied to the County Council, as they could undoubtedly do better. The County Council Were not acting as they should, and tho time would come when tho Borough Council would require little or no Patu-t-ahi metal, hut only a periodica; topdressing of shingle ami tar for the l oads. If they were compelled to take the quantity of stone contracted for from the County Council it would land them in bankruptcy. Asked as to whether he had not been instrumental in having the brick area altered in order that his brother might erect a certain building, he said that in the ■first instance he desired that what is no w the brick area shou'd be included ’in it. The Council altered this to exclude the back portion of the “Herald” block, and consequently it was decided to exclude the back of the .-opposite block. He also added that he never on any occasion allowed his private interests to influence his actions in matters of public interest. He had always advocated the policy ho. thought best for the workers. Lie had not given a promise to stand neutral on the liquor . question, and lie thought it his duty to speak when he saw anything proposed which would financially and morally injure the town. He had refrained from introducing into the Council the question of the municipalisation of the gasworks, as he felt'that the Council as it was constituted would not give the matter proper consideration. At the conclusion of the questions, a vote of thanks to Mr. Lysnar was proposed by Mr. J. B. Leydon, and seconded by the chairman, ant the gathering dispersed.