THE MAYORALTY

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 45, 17 November 1926, Page 11

THE MAYORALTY

MR. NORWOOD REPLIES TO CIVIC LEAGUE “ENTITLED TO MORE COURTESY” While remarking that he had no wish to enter i«‘o an endkss controversy so earlv in the day, the Mayor Sd yesterday that he could not al ow the latest statement from the Civic League to pass unanswered. "It appears to me, said Mr. Norwood, “that the Civic League, m its desire to endeavour to discredit ** almost any cost, wishes to mislead the pubhe U the’idea that I had been treated with all the courtesy that is due to the office I hold, and that I, on mv vart, had failed to return that courtesy. Is there any d.gnity about the office of Mayor -of this city Jo mv mind, ves, and to my mind, the.e fore, the Mayor in office ts entitled to more courtesy than I have been ac"In tlie course of hts statement the secretary of the Civic League says: ‘Before Mr. Norwood went to Sydney about three months ago, he was first waited upon by the league s officers, under instruction, and asked if lie <lesired to seek another term of office. He replied that he could not then say, but would go into the matter and would be in a position to answer after he returned. . . .’ ... “I do not wish to be discourteous, but I make the emphatic statemJilt that I had no conversation whatever about mv trip to Svdney with Mr. McLaren of with any other member of the C ivic League, it is a fact that Mr. McLaren waited upon me some time late in June last ‘under instruction, and asked me my intentions as to retiring a further term of office. I trust frankly admit that I felt some resentment that I should be questioned by -.n officer of the Civic League ‘under instruction ’ ten months prior to the date of the municipal elections, and I merely dismissed the matter by stating that I ' would consider the matter in due course, but fixed no time by which my decision would be made. “Surelv those people of Wellington who do regard the office of Mayor as a. dignified position will not think it proper that an officer of the Civic League can demand when be or his league think fit—in this case ten months before the election date-a statement of the Mayor’s intentions. “When the president of the league and the officer in question waited upon me, two or three days prior to the announcement of their selection of Councillor Troup, I still considered that their inquiries were premature, but on this occasion the league certainly paid the office of Mayor the compliment ot sending its president along. He said that the league wished to know mv position in the matter, and in reply I said that I would go into the matter, but first it was only fair that I should consult some of my friends. hey left the room without giving any indication that they were about to make a selec- “ \S thev immediately proceeded with their selection, I cannot regard it as anything else than a grave discourtesy to 'the -Mavoral office and to myself m particular that mv name should be put in with other names for discnssion-aUd rejection, not by the people of Wellington, but by the members of the Civic League present at that meeting. T can come to no conclusion but that mv name was so included that the public might be led to the opinion that after careful judgment I. was found wanting. - "At the end of my term of office! shall have given two years of public service, nnd during that term,. I feel* the citv’s immense organisation lias been placed on a footing which leaves the way clear for clean and economic management. That is not niy work — I have had a share in it—but is the work of the Wellington City Council, battling along under difficult conditions. Still, having had a share in this I feel that T must go to a higher court than the Civic League for decision as tc whether I am a fit person to occupy this chair for another term. “Wheti the Civic League proposes to thrust me out I shall assuredly not go, but if the’ electors of Wellington decide that 1 must give place to another then I shall accept that judgment with very good grace. But if lam defeated next April as the result of a triangular contest the Civic Leagre may not have reason to be ns happy over the occasion as their present comments wonld imply ” ,