MAYOR REVIEWS POSITION

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8361, 22 February 1913, Page 2

MAYOR REVIEWS POSITION

WHAT GUIDED HIM. , REPLY TO HIS OPPONENTS. The Mayor, Mr McLaren, said: “The ground of my ruling, which was upheld by suoh a keen, critical councillor as Mr Atkinson, was based on standing ort|or nine in the council’s rules of procedure. This provides that a resolution may be revoked or altered provided seven clear days’ notice in writing shall have been given to each member of the council by the Town Clerk. I read this to mean that there must be notice of motion in writing. Now, no such notice has ever been given, and even if it were to be taken that the. clause in the committee’s report was a notice of motion to alter, yet ifce; seven days’ notice provision had not been complied with, as the'reports were only sent out to councillors on Tuesday last, two days before the council met. At the time I pointed out that in the London County Council’s standing orders. they have a special provision which requires that a motion to revoke or alter must be signed by a certain number of councillors, with the additional proviso that this Order shall not apply to matters which are moved by the chairman or other member of a committee in pursuance of the report of a committee. I made it clear that we have no such provision in our standing orders; therefore, I could only rule on our own standing orders as they are and not as 1 desired them to be. “I take very strong exception to the attempt made by Councillor Frost to mislead the council and the public by practically representing it as though I had endorsed the clause of the report which he was bringing down. His statement that I drafted the recommendation is absolutely incorrect, and as for any endorsement of the clause which he was submitting, he knew perfectly well—and so do all the councillors—that I opposed the policy all the way along. Councillor Frost came to my room and told me that the city solicitor had advised him that he could move to amend and not to rescind a previous resolution, and he wanted me then to tell him what to do. As 1 was very busy, I told him I could not deal with it then. Later on 1 went into the Committee roojn. and Councillor Frost was attempting to redraft' the resolution throughout.. I explained to him that if he wanted to move to amend or to rescind, the right way was to put that first, before the part dealing with the . adoption of a now noiicy. I didn’t write out or draft anv resolution at all. nor did I give him any expression of opinion as to lio>'* L would rule when the matter came before the council. So that what I stated at the council meeting was absolutely I only advised him with regard to the common-sense or literary form in which to put it as a clause. For a councillor to accept advice as to a simple matter of how a clause should be worded, and then to misconstrue that and misrepresent it as being an endorsement of what he has known all along I am opposed to, is a kind of trickiness that I don’t like, and it places mo 'in this position —that I will absolutely have to refuse to have any consultation with a councillor who will act in such a way. “It has struck me as very curious that whilst Councillor Smith was temporarily in the chair at the previous meeting of the council, he gave a ruling practically to the same effect as I gave on Thursday last. His ruling, I understand, was that a resolution embodying the policy of planting section 48 would require to be rescinded before a new policy could be considered. It is noteworthy that Councillor Smith voted against my ruling on Thursday last—a ruling he himself had laid down. It leads mo almost to think that this matter is being dealt with more on personal or on party grounds than on any other. It is being taken that I ruled thus for the purpose of shelving the matter of the lease to the Kelburne Bowling Club, but that cannot stand »hen it is considered that Councillor itkinson and others have repeatedly indicated that even if the committee’s revolution was adopted, a motion to rescind would be at once tabled. I mytelf have felt so strongly on the policy if parting with any part of the Town Belt or reserves that I have been prepared to call the citizens together in order that they might express their protest against such procedure. On the other hand, in face of the nearness of the municipal election, I cannot understand why some councillors are so anxious to have this matter rushed ,

through. It is surely a large matter of ixflicy and of the gravest import,' concerning as it does the estate that was rested in the whole of the citizens by the Provincial Government in tho early days, and Mayor and councillors alike are bound, as honest trustees, to preserve it for the people. If an alteration of policy is to .be effected, wo should at this stage let the matter go no further until the burgesses themselves have had an opportunity of expressing themselves with regard to the care of the property which belongs to tho whole of the people. “The disregard of a fair method of public debate by Councillor Frost really has led to a stage when honest and fair dealing in the representation of the matter in dispute seems to bo ignored, for instance. Councillor Frost says that councillors have asked that a special meeting should bo held to dispose of all the notices of motion on the or-der-paper, but that no such meeting has been called. The inference here is that I, as Mayor, have delaved calling a special meeting. I can only say that such a suggestion is false, and every member or the council is well aware that ft is so. Owing to his illness and the town clerk’s recent misfortune, ho was called away to some extent from the office. Further, for the purposes of the Easter Carnival, the committee clerk, Mr Mcßean, has been lent for that work, with the result that the staff has been very short-handed, and 1 am not going to put the extra work on the remaining members of the staff. I regret to have to make any reference to the officers at all, but I find it necessary to set the facts out in detail, so that the subtlety of tho attack made upon me can bo fully understood by tbo public.”