HOW A MEETING IS CONDUCTED

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 18 March 1915, Page 3

HOW A MEETING IS CONDUCTED

BY WAITEMATA COUNCILLORS

AN exceptional, if not an important, meeting of the Waitemata County ■ Council was held on Friday last. The Council commenced its business by . retiring into a room, and locking the door, the '- Star " reporter assigned to cover the meeting being left outside to do policeman's beat in the passage. The Council usually transact their business to the accompaniment of a great deal of noise, but the din that proceeded from the business side of the door that morning was loud enough and disturbing enough to bring people from various parts of the building to make inquires. Had a dentist come to practise in their midst, or were election candidates opening up: committee rooms on the premises ? These queries and others to the same effect were put to the reporter, whose explanation that the Waitemata County Council was holding an important meeting was received in most cases, as an endeavour to explain away something that wasn't quite respectable.

The uproar in the board-room lasted for about an hour and a-half without abatement, and to all the reporter's inquiries came the answer, that "the Council was in committee and would be all right in a minute." It appeared that being in committee was«ynonomous with a general argument amongst the members, in which most of them spoke at the same time, the man with the loudest voice obtaining most points. Promptly at one o'clock the din ceased, and the Council issued from the room, the patient reporter being rewarded with the information that the two-hour sitting of the Council had been devoted to the consideration of tenders and the examination of a new system of book-keeping.— " Star."