PORT CHALMERS AFFAIRS.

Evening Star, Issue 24286, 29 August 1942, Page 6

PORT CHALMERS AFFAIRS.

TO THE EDtTOK. Sir, —The explanation given by Mr H. Watson, Mayor of Port Chalmers, in your issue of August 18, of his method of filling the recent vacancy in the Port Chalmers Council has been read with a. great deal of interest and no small measure of amusement by the people of this town. His reference to ” the resolution by .the local branch of the Labour Party has, with the official reply, been considered by the Executive Committee of that oraginsation, and; we can only arrive at the conclusion that His Worship is a very poor exponent of the art of evasion. Mr Watson goes to great pains to impress on us that the election was carried out according to the law, and that “ Cr Broomfield’s was the only nomination.” No one who knows Mr Watson would accuse him of acting outside the law, surely; but we do accuse him of failing to make the vacancy known to the public, thus giving an opportunity of a. nomination other than his own choice. He then takes exception to .the audacity of , the branch in “ demanding ” an explanation of his actions. Definitely we, as an organisation comprised mainly of ratepayers, have a right to “demand” if we consider any action taken by our municipal custodians to be contrary to the spirit of democracy. We have no apologies to offer on this score. The blame for the “departure from the decent, straightforward method ” has been laid at the door of the Government by virtue of the Local Elections and Polls Emergency Regulations, 1942, and he suggests that our quarrel is with the Government. This was apparently to be Mr Watson’s trump card. Surely he does not construe this particular regulation to give him the right to act against all precedent and totally disregard the rightful claims of every ratepayer in the town? Mr Watson knows, as do we all, that the Order in Council merely has the effect of making the existing regulation more elastic in that it abolishes for the time being the prescribed “ yvithin 12 months of the date fixed for the next triennial election.” Mr W'atson and bis henchmen would do well _to remember that there will be an election by the people one day, and these littlo acts of indiscretion will be remembered by more than a fgw."—l am, etc., . H. Williamson, Secretary,. Port Chalmers branch, August 28. N.Z.L.P.