THE BOROUGH ENGINEER AND CLERK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1882, 2 July 1888, Page 2

THE BOROUGH ENGINEER AND CLERK.

10 TUB EDITOR. £ir,— Mr Hugo Frledlander's letter Id Saturday evening's issu<> reminds me of the maxim onoe laid down by an Irish lawyer,, "lf yon have a weak case abase the oppoeing attorney ." Mr Friedlander seems to have been so anxious to adhere to this rule that he quite forgot to reply to my enquiries on the-" bonus" question. This oan only be accounted for by the faot that my statement of the case is the correct one, and that the Council had got themselves into a hole, and Instead of taking the straightforward msnly course of acknowledging their mistake, endeavored to get oat of it by pissing the so called bonuc Mr Friedlander is evidently very wrath that thia little manotJivre should be exposed, and if it is aoy satisfaction to him to know that I feel completely orushed by his very eatirioal bat not overgrammatical epistle I am very glad to state thai "such Is the case. Unfortunately I am oumpalled to admit that solicitors, like the* rest of humanity occasionally make mistakes. I mast, therofore, correot a slight error into which Mr Friedlander haa fallen, as my name is on the burgess roll, and I also pay rates, which I fear will be greatly inoreased If the present system of "retrenchment" continues, Mr Friedlander accuses me of giving my client's business publicity, but I fail to see how he oan make such an assertion, except m furtherance of hie mvi throwing policy, as I merely stated that I acted for Mr braddell. My other statements about the compensation and bonus are public property, as they bad been fully published m the reports of the Council's meetings, the only" question on which the publio were uao3rtaln being as to whether Mr Braddell was to reoeive a bonus and oom* pensaticn or whether the compensation was to be described as a bonus for convenience sake, I trust Mr Friedlander will enlighten as on this point m his next letter. If Mr Friedlander will read my letter again he will see I said v I understood the retrenchment had oost the Borough about £150." pn this point, however, lam open to correction. ITor Mr B'ried lander's information I will explain how I arriyed at thia araouuj;, although he has been careful not to answer t*he queries m my letter, besides It may be useful to him as Chairman of the Retrenchment Committee :— MrFookc, on losing his appointment as Engineer, reoeived £50: Mr Braddell has just been paid £80, and I calculated that the iopidental expenses would tgt i|p to about another £20. Ido not wish It to be thought for a moment that either Mr Fooks or Mr Bra4dell were overbid, but thero oan be no doubt that had tke old system oontlnued neither of these olaims would have been made, I am, etc., R. M. OUTHBKRTSCN. ?adjuly, 1888.