A PETITION REJECTED

Evening Star, Issue 19786, 9 February 1928, Page 4

A PETITION REJECTED

HOT RESPECTFUL OR TEMPERATE MAYOR'S ACTION APPROVED On the ground that it was not drawn up in language suitable to come before the City Council, a petition from a number of residents of Anderson’s Bay asking for a more plentiful water supply has-been returned to the senders by the mayor (Mr W. B. Taverner). When Cr W. Begg rose to move the adoption of the report of the Water Committee at the meeting of the City Council last night he said he wanted a ruling from the mayor on a matter of some public importance. Some statements had appeared in the Press, and lie understood that the mayor and each councillor had received a copy of a petition from residents of Anderson’s Bay. Somewhat grave and serious charges were made in it, and he wanted to know if it should he dealt with immediately, or if it should first go before the committee. “ I regret that I found it necessary to return the petition to those who signed it,” replied the mayor. “The position was that it was not drawn up in language suitable to bring it before the council as a public petition.” .(Hear, hear.) The Mayor pointed out that the council’s _ standing orders required that a petition presented to the council or to I a committee thereof must be respectful, decorous, and temperate in its language, otherwise it was liable to rejection. In order to protect the dignity of the council he suggested that no other course was open hut to return it. He trusted that those responsible would redraft it, because the matter was of infinite importance to the district, and remedies were urgently required. In the circumstances, the matter was not open for discussion. Remarks witli respect to the water supply at Anderson’s Bay were made by Cr Begg when he was reviewing the whole of the water supply system later in the evening.