A STORM IN A TEACUP.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1814, 16 April 1918, Page 3

A STORM IN A TEACUP.

MAYOR’S ACTIONS QUES- : TIONED. CENSURE MOTION DEFEATED. TWO COUNCILLORS RESIGN; k » • A speeiaT meeting of the Foxton Borough Council, convened on the requisition of three councillors; was lield last night. Present: The Mayor (Mr John Chrystall), and Crs Coley, Stevenson, McMurray, McColl, Henderson, Walker, Bryant, Hurley and Thompson. The Mayor said he did not know anything about the meeting, and asked the Town Clerk on whose ■ authority it was convened. The Clerk produced the following written request signed by Crs Stevenson, McColl and Henderson: — 1 “We hereby request you to call a special meeting of the Foxton Borough Council for Monday evening , (the 15th instant), at 7.30 pan., for the purpose" of discussing matters in connection with repairs to Council Chambers, and the resolution of the Council passed at last Monday night’s meeting, authorising same to be done.” The Mayor said it seemed to him to be a most unusual procedure for councillors to call a meeting without seeing him. He knew nothing about it until be received his notice. The Council’s Standing Orders would prevent the matter for which th<3 meeting had been called from being discussed, but in order that the meeting could go on ho would move ' that the Standing Orders be waived. This was seconded by Cr Coley, and carried. Cr Stevenson then moved, Cr McColl seconding: “That this Council expresses its disapproval of the action of His Worship the Mayor in interfering with an officer of the Council whilst carrying out the duties delegated to him by a resolution of the Council, and also disapproves of the method in which (acting under the Mayor’s instructions) . certain repairs to the roof of the Chambers have been executed.” The mover said that he was the instigator of the meeting. The Municipal Corporations Act provided that a meeting could bo called on the written application of three councillors, and the Council’s Standing Orders couldn’t over-ride the Act. In the first place, he said, he went along to the Council Chambers to see what was being done, and he found that where there were holes in the roof new pieces of iron, iinpainto.d, had been tucked under the old sheets. He made enquiries, and found that the Town Clerk had, on finding that certain sheets of iron on the building needed replacing, ordered ten sheets of new iron at a cost of £6 6s 6d. The Mayor came along and cancelled the order, notwithstanding the fact that* the Council had passed a resolution authorising the Town Clerk to get any repairs necessary carried out. The Mayor issued instructions to .have the roof patched, and the cost of the iron for same was £2 IBs Bd, a saving on the face of it of £3 7s* lOd, but in the speaker’s opinion a waste of £2 18s Bd, as the job would not stand. He wanted to know why the work was not done in accordance’ with the resolution. They didn’t want the job botched. He didn’t think the Mayor had any right to interfere with an officer of the Council who was carrying out his duties in accordance with the instructions of the Council, and he didn’t intend to stay in the Council and be a laughing stock of the town.: • He would also like to know why the Town Clerk allowed the Mayor to interfere when lie (the Clerk) was carrying'out the instructions of the '.Council, and also why Cr McColl, who knew the position, did not point out that the Town Clerk was authorised to have the work done and, that the May:* had no fight to in-; lerfere. . . ■

Ci' MeColl said that at the request of the Town Clerk he had a look at the roof of the-building, and found, holes in the iron. On coming up the street ho met aim Mayor, and explained the position lo him. 'The Mayor -said tin; cost of new iron was too great, that they couldn’t; .alfford it, swd asked the speaker; what was the ted thing to do. Ho ttold him the roof eotijild be patched, 'in his opinion, however, this was, not the best thing to do. ; The Mayor: “And yet you recoin-; mended it being done I” | Cr MeColI: “1 didn’t want you foj think I wanted to sell iron. ” Con-; fuming, he said that when the May-; or cajacellcd tlio order for the iron' the Town Clerk should have pointed out 1 that the of the Coun- . eil was that he (thg Clerk) was to. have the work carried pjtf, The re,solution of Ih.e Council should li,avo jbeen acted upon without interfer-, •ence from the Mayor. , ‘ .Cr Walker said it appeared to him that Cr MeColl must take a,; share of the jblajne, as he, a praeti-; cal man, suggested patching to the; Mayor. He agreed with Cr Stevenson that replacing the damaged iron with new sheets was the only right way to do the job, and Cr McColl should certainly not have recommended patching, and must, therefore, take some pi the blame. Cr Bryant asked that the previous resolution be .read, which w&s done. It w,as as follows; — “Proposed by Cr Stevenson, seconded by Cr Walker, flint the Town Clerk be authorised to have .any repairs required to .the Council Chambers executed while the painters fire a.t work 0» the-building.” The Mayor said that prior .to .the last Council jneetiiig he saw Mr Walsh, who was .carrying out some repairs to the building, and iu?ketl

him what work was necessary to bo done. Mr Walsh pointed out where certain timber wanted replacing, and every councillor: present knew that the resolution passed referred only to repaii’s to the wooden portion of the building. At that time no one at the meeting knew -there were holes in the roof, and, in fact, the roof was not mentioned at the time. When it was found that the roof required attention it was quite a new situation,, and not covered by the resolution previously passed. In having the repairs carried out in the way he did he took into consideration the very high price of iron at the present time, and the fact that the quality of same is very poor compared with that of a few years ago. He considered patching would do and this was also recommended by Or McColl, who was a practical man. In his opinion the building will require re-roofing in four or live years’ time, and the whole thing reflected on all councillors who had sat at the table for the past six years; the roof should have been painted long ago. Cr McColl, in an explanation, said that when he met the Mayor he told him what .'the'State of the roof was, and also what it was intended to do. The Mayor asked how much the iron would cost, and he told him the price was about Is 9d per foot. Thu Mayor replied: “Absurd! Too dear. We can’t afford that. Is there no other way of doing it?” Cr McColl said he told him* it could bo patched, but he certainly did not recommend patching. Cr Stevenson got up to reply, when Cr Bryant interposed: “Arc you going to speak all night, and not let anyone else have a chance?” Cr Stevenson said he thought Cr Bryant had already spoken. Cr Bryant said he quite agreed with the Mayor’s action. In these times it was not advisable to spend any more money than was absolutely necessary. It was quite right to patch the roof now, and wait until things were normal before making a thorough job of it.

Cr Henderson said he hadn’t seen the iron, and couldn’t say anything about it. He was told that there were holes in the roof, and it appeared to him that the Works Committee was not doing its duty or this matter would have been attended to long ago. He thought it was ridiculous to paint the roof without something being done to the damaged iron, and didn’t know until that night that anything had been done. In his opinion, patching would not make a job of it. Cr McColl said that he explained the whole position to Cr Henderson; when he asked him to sign the requisition for a special meeting.

Cr Henderson: “Not about the old iron.”

Cr Hurley said the question was, did the Mayor over-ride the resolution of the Council or not? Cr McColl to the Mayor: “I understand that you limited Walsh to three day’s work in repairing the building.” Cr Stevenson: “Yes; so he did.”

Cr Thompson said that at the previous meeting he didn’t know there were holes in the* iron. He quite agreed that if there were holes there the matter should be attended to. If the repairs could he done satisfactorily by patching, then the iron should have been patched; if not, new sheets should have been put in.

Cr McMurray said if the ques-. tion was one of the Mayor over-rid-ing the Council he was certainly against this being done by the Mayor, a Committee, or any Councilloi 1 . They had a case of a resolution of the Council being .over-bidden in connection with the Avenue footpath. In the present case it would be hard to prove if the Council’s resolution had been over-ridden or not. If the iron on the roof had holes in it he thought it would have been better to replace the damaged sheets with new ones.

Cr Coley said he did not think there had been much over-riding of a resolution of the Council. TV hen the matter of repairs to the Council Chamber* was under discussion at the previous meeting he did not think any Councillors knew there were any holes in the roof. He was of opinion that new iron would have been best. There was altogether too much talk of .council business in the street. On Saturday h.c was asked by a Council employee to go and ->e,e what a botching job had been made on the poof of the Council Chamber. Cr Stevenson said jthat doubtless the'Mayor dieted, not! kpowipg ylmt was best to be done, but the job was no good, and he was absolutely opposed to that kind of thing continuing. If the Council would uphold the Mayor in doing things like this he would not continue. The Mayor said that situations were always arising in connection with which the Council must leave a certain amount of responsibility in the hands of the Mayor, If the Council expressed disapproval o£ his action itwouldbe better for him to leave. He was there in the interests of the ratepayers, he had no axe to grind, and had always en-> to carry out his duties faithfully.

The motion wss |lus. pujt, .and declared'lost'on the casfing yo& of the Mayor, the voting being:—For, Crs Stevenson, McColl, Henderson, ijjjrley and McMurray. Against; jfhe Mayojf and Crs Coley, Walker Thompson and Bjfyast ; This concluding the InisiwAfS f°r why/}; the meeting was convened* a?d the rose. Cr handed his re-s signniipjgi .as a menjber of <thje potm-* eil to the Mayoy., asd Cr jfeColl wrote .out his resignation handed it to the Town Clerk.