"City Fathers."

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7925, 5 October 1904, Page 8

"City Fathers."

The Eketahuna Express publishes the following" from its Carterton correspondent : Monday night's Grey town Borough Council meeting was the funpiest. ever recorded. The " scenes " were so absurd that at times the spectators- and Councillors laughed long and loudly. On several occasions, when the spectators laughed too loudly, they were called violently to order by Mayor Bicknell. In a discusssion respecting the generator box, ahe Councillor alluded to a clergyman, who was present, as a " sky pilot," and later implied that somebody was a " polished liar." This statement provoked an indignant protest from the Mayor, who threatened to expel the turbulent Councillor, but the rebel refused to leave.

Then another Councillor stood up and quoted John Bright to prove that " liar " was perfectly Parliamentary. At a later stage another Councillor referred to a colleague as an " unmitigated perverter' of the truth," and the object of this attack was so staggered that he fell from his chair to the floor. One councillor, who had resigned at a previous meeting, took his seat, although he was classed as a stranger, and was welcomed by the Mayor. A councillor's motion to reduce the clerk's* salary to £50 a year was lost. Amongst those who voted against it unknowingly was Cr. Harrison, who some time ago unsuccessfully proposed that the Council should go in for spar-row-catching and sell the birds to the Gun Clubs, so as to reduce the overdraft. Percy Dix could make some money out of the Greytown Council.