BOROUGH COUNCIL APPOINTMENT.

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 34, 30 January 1930, Page 2

BOROUGH COUNCIL APPOINTMENT.

To the Editor)

Sir, —It is quainty anomalous that our Borough Council, whilst advocating the progress of Lower Hutt and maintaining the policy of "Support Local Enterprise >> should feel it incumbent upon themselves to reject, all th» local applicants for vt3ie position upon their staff—recenty advertised—and give the appointment to a man , from another city. While extending every eongratalation to the fortnsiafce individual seeking the charms and opportunities of Lower Hutt, one. cannot out feel that this action of our Mayor and his Finance Committee is, to say the least of it, extremely uncomplimentary to t2i!e local gentlemen who, "by force of circumstances were urged fco apply for the recent position. Surely it is not an "exaggeration to suggest that, out of the approximate two hundred applicants reduced to "six local men, one of these should possess the necessary brains and ability adequately to fulfil the duties of a position valued, at commencement,

at £250 per annum; without having to seek assistance in the management of our borough affairs from an outside source. However, it is v^ell known that City Fathers, Aldermen and Councillors, from time immemorial, and in all parts of the word, have been possessed of such crass blindness to internal'affairs as to cause the electorate " furiously to think" (when it is too late) ! why they could ever ha 76 been put into office.. -Still it is a happy thought to think that Lower Hutt is not seeking cheap notoriety by possessing a Borough Council which diffeTS in local administration from the rest of the breed, and we should be thankful to. know that at least they are following In the footsteps of "Tweedledum and Tweedledee," and are maintaiuing i>he ultraconservative policy of defying all attempts at establishing anything in the nature of a precedent;—l am etc.,

USQUE AD NAUSEAM!.

[In reference to the above letter, enquiries have been made and it is learned that the gentleman appointed to the position has M qualifications of outstanding merit. The appointmeat was made by a select committee of the' Borough Council, after the fullest investigations. The question of ; engaging one who was resident in the district was fully considered, but the members of the com-, mittee had no alternative but to appoint the person,, who in their opinion, had the highest qualifications to fill the position regardless-, of his residential qualifications. I—Ed.]1—Ed.]