WAITARA HARBOUR BOARD ELECTION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 656, 1 April 1914, Page 3

WAITARA HARBOUR BOARD ELECTION.

MR JENNINGS' EXPLANATION. In connection with a paragraph in our isaua of Saturday in which the decision of Judge Edwarda in the case of the Government /ersus Mr \V. T. Jennings was given, that gentleman informs us that ha has been asked by a number oE people in Te Kuiti what the facts are, and requests space for the following statement: —1m 1903 he was appointed Government nominee on the Waitara Harbour Board, and aat continuously on that board until 1911, being reappointed in that year for a further period of three years. At a meeting held in April, 1913, after sitting for two years and one month, his right to sit was challenged by three members of the board on the ground that his name was not on the roll used for the Habour Board election. Mr Jennings claimed the right to sit until hia successor was appointed; and if there was any illegality, he was unaware of it; and the Government should validate any mistake that its Department had made. The next step was taken by Hon. Mr Fisher, who suggested resignation. Then folllowed a citation from Hon. Mr Herdman, in which Mr Jennings had to appear before the Supreme Court in Februuay last, and he conducted his own case. His grounds of defence were—that he should not be held responsible for a mißtaks of the Crown, especially when no attention was drawn to it until he had sat over two years; that even had he resigned when called upon, there was no provision in the Harbour Board Act of 1910 to appoint any person in his stead, and this omission was only rectified by an amendment made in a Bill brought down on December 9th, 1913, by the Hon. Mr Fisher; that in equity, the Government had a right Jo validate his appointment aswas done in connection with the election of a Rivpr Trust Board, dealt with in tha Bill passed a few days before the last Parliament rose; and "finally, that he was entitled to be on the Waitara Harbour Board roll, and it was not his fault that his name did not appear, as ho was both entitled and qualified to be on the roll, as at the date of his appintment in 1911, he was the holder of a section in the Harbour district. However, the judge held that the whole trouble was caused by a Government Departmental blunder, therefore Mf Jennings has to bear the costs of a Supreme Court action which he thinks may be law, but it certainly is not justice.