City Councillor Has No Mandate

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 140, 3 September 1927, Page 12

City Councillor Has No Mandate

AVONDALE’S UNION AUTHORITY QUESTIONED Avondale woke up this morning to find itself in Auckland, but nothing unusual happened. “The lady with the dowry,” to use the phrase coined by the antiamalgamationists, has been taken for better or for worse. But however mixed sentiments may be with regard to the wisdom of the Linion there is a large body of opinion that the selecting of the representatives for the three seats on the Auckland City Council was not done with due regard to the formalities. “NOT DEMOCRATIC” A prominent citizen stated yesterday, that though he had nothing against amalgamation lie held the view that the selection of Mr. E. E. Copsey, who was appointed Mayor under the legal powers and not by election, was not democratic and that this should be pointed out to the Government. Avondale had not as far as Mr. Copsey was concerned had any opportunity of expressing itself, and the council should not have selected him against older and elected members. The opinion was also expressed that the amalgamation and the selection had been put through much too hastily. In the council meeting the formalities of calling for nominations were clipped too short. As stated in THE SUN on Thursday when thre names had been proposed in a block, no further nominations were called for, and the three were simply put to the “Ayes” and the “Ayes” had it. The selection of Mr. Copsey, who had been appointed Mayor until an election took place, was not justifiable for he had no mandate from the citizens to represent them especially on another body such as the Auckland City Council.