WAITARA HARBOR BOARD.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1914, Page 5

WAITARA HARBOR BOARD.

< r' : : * THE JENNINGS CASE. At the Supreme Court at New Plymouth yesterday, the Crown (Mr C. H. Weston) applied for an order of the Court relieving Mr W. T. Jennings of his seat on the Waitara Harbor oßard, and for costs against Mr Jennings. Mr Jennings conducted his own case. The facts of the case, as outlined by Mr Weston, were that Mr Jennings was, since, 1903, the Government ap-

pointee to the Waitara Harbor Board, and he was re-appointed for a further terms of three years in 1911. After he had sat for two years and one mouth of that term, he received notice that as his name was. not on the electoral roll of Jhe Waitara borough, he was illegally holding the, seat, which he was asked to vacate.. This Mr Jennings refused to) do, As his name was not on the roll at the time of his appointment, said Mr Weston, it was clear that Mr Jennings’ re-appointment had been illegal, hence the present application. Mr Jennings would urge that he should not be made to pay the costs of the action, but as he had, in spite of warnings, refused to vacate his seat, it was clear that the costs should be paid by him. ‘Various affidavits were put in. Mr Jennings, in opening his ease, pointed out that it was not by his mistake that be had been appointed, but by a departmental error. Regarding lus re-appointment in 1911, he stated that he had not sought his re-appoint-ment, nor had he been aware of it until he saw the Gazette notice. Referring to the Harbor Boards Act, ho sought to show that it contained no power for the Government to appoint a member who had vacated his seat during the term for which he was appointed. It was not until the Harbor

Boards Amendment Bill was brought

before the last session of Parliament fthat this was amended. At the time of his appointment he had held property in the Clifton county, so that the absence of his name from the roll was a mere omission.s If he had.resigned his seat it would have caused a deadlock on the Board. He had, he pointed out, sat for 25 months without a protest. Since 1903 he had been a member of the Board and had received a public recognition of his services. Mr Weston quoted a letter from Mr Jennings acknowledging one from the Minister for Marine, which had stated that his name was not on the roll. Why \ had he not resigned then? w Mr Jennings, in reply, said that he , fore he replied to the letter he saw a report of a similar case in Hawke’s Bay, in which the Magistrate upheld his view of the case. Moreover, he remarked, the members of the Napier Harbor Board had taken a friendly stand, which the members of the Waitara Board had certainly not done. He asked his Honor to remember that the original mistake was not his, that he had served the Board faithfully, acting in what he considered the best interests of the community, and that his successor could not have been appointed till the law was amended. He .submitted that he should not be mulcted in costs.

His Honor received his decision