The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5,1885. Graff v Park

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 37, 5 September 1885, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1885. Graff v Park

Thb result of the action, Gbapf v Pabk, to recover certain penalties for the accidental or unintentional infringement of certain vague clauses of the Municipal Corporations Act, was that Mr Pauk was fined £50 and costs. We have nothing to do with the legality of the decision, which is, we understand, justified by the interpretation of the clauses under which the charge was laid, and by a previous one which was supported on appeal. The intention of the Act wis that no Councillor should be able to use his position as such, to the disadvantage of the ratepayers by taking contracts, or otherwise doing work for the Council, where such came within the meaning of public works, as roads, bridges, buildings, Ac., where sums of magnitude were in question. Custom has made it imperative that all large undertakings should be the subject of open competition by tender, so that operations of this kind are conducted with all the advantages of publicity. The amounts j of the several items oi Borough expenditure over which Councillors have any control are therefore reduced to a minimum. Unfortunately this minimum is not small enough for "the mean man" to be unable to make out a case sufficiently strong to get a Councillor into trouble. The case in question is sufficient proof of that. The man Gbait was not actuated by any motive or desire of doing public good, but according to his own letter in a contemporary, bo was actuated by one of the basest passions of our nature — revenge — and that of the very lowest kind. All history has agreed that the most contemptible of mankind is he who seeks to make a profit out of his revenge. In such ratio as' Graff has been condemned, so has the sympathy of his f eUows gono forth to Mr P-jtK. All seem to think that this gentleman has been the victim of circumstances the outcome of which it was impossible for him to have guarded against. It will be some gratification for Mr Park to know, that every burgess in Feilding — without exception-:— sympathises with him, and in case of need would give more substantial tokens than mere words.