WELLINGTON CITY COUNCIL AND ITS SOLICITOR.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2419, 6 January 1882, Page 3

WELLINGTON CITY COUNCIL AND ITS SOLICITOR.

[press association telegram. I WELLINGTON, January 5. The committee of the City Council ap. pointed to consider whether any more satisfactory arrangement can be arrived at than now exists between the Council and City Solicitor have reported upon the city solicitor’s accounts laid beforo'.them and sub* mitted for consideration, that they have arrived at the conclusion that the examination of the city solicitor’s accounts has been conducted in so lax a manner as to render it desirable that some better and more effective system of audit be devised in respect to these accounts. After reviewing the various evidence, &c., they report that the present mode of passing the city solicitor’s accounts is unsatisfactory, and would in a measure be calculated to permit the passing of improper claims, should such exist. The information generally elicited by the committee renders it incumbent upon them to report that in their opinion no proper check exists upon the city solicitor’s accounts, or upon any possible illegal issues of public money by the city solicitor. It also appears in some oases that Mr W. T. L. Travers is solicitor, and in other oases Mr H. H. Travers is city solicitor, without the authority of the Council, thereby causing very large and unnecessary expenditure of public money. The committee therefore recommend that no moneys be, on any pretext, paid away by the city solicitor, such as has been done to printers and others, without the authority of the Council being first obtained to warrant such payment, and that such payment be duly attested by properly receipted vouchers ; that no person be employed as heretofore by the city solicitor without such authority; that the city solicitor’s accounts be taxed, and attention paid to the terms of his appointment ; that in the event of a vacancy occurring in the office of Town Clerk, the committee strongly recommend the appointment of a solicitor to the office, this course being, in the opinion of the committee, the only effective remedy for the present unsatisfactory state of affairs.