MEMBER LOSES SEAT

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22506, 14 September 1938, Page 10

MEMBER LOSES SEAT

CHRISTCHURCH FIRE BOARD EFFECT OF PROVISION IN ACT MR J. U. CAREY’S ABSENCE FROM MEETINGS For being absent from the last two meetings of the Christchurch Fire Board without leave, Mr J. D. Carey has lost his seat on the board as the representative of the Christchurch City Council. This was announced at a, meeting last night of the board. It was stated that membership qf the board had been lost in similar circumstances only once before. Reference to Mr Carey s absence from the last two meetings of the board was made by Mr K. W. Robinson, who drew the attention of members to section 18 (1) of the Fire Brigades Act, 1926, which states that if a member is absent without leave of the board from two consecutive meetings, his office shall become vacant.

Mr Carey had been absent without leave from meetings of the board on August 19 and September 13, said Mr Robinson. It was mandatory by the act that Mr Carey should lose his seat. It was therefore the duty of the board to advise the Minister for Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) of the vacancy, so that the seat could be filled. “Need Active Members" “My reason for bringing this up is that all the work of the board is falling on certain members,” said Mr Robinson. “We do need active members. I think it was the intension of the legislature that members should not be ‘dead-heads.’ ” The chairman (Mr T. M. Charters): It is quite definite according to the act that Mr Carey has lost his seat. Mr E. A. Sharp, who was appointed soon after the municipal elections this year with Mr Carey to represent the council on the board, explained that Mr Carey was attending a meeting of one of the council’s committees of which he was chairman. Mr Sharp asked whether the council cpuld reappoint Mr Carey. Mr Charters: I should say so. The board then decided to advise the Minister for Internal Affairs th-t an extraordinary vacancy had occurred on the board.