The Sun FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1928. THE CITY COUNCIL INQUIRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 257, 20 January 1928, Page 8

The Sun FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1928. THE CITY COUNCIL INQUIRY

ALiATE wisdom has been shown by the City Council in referring the charges of waste and extravagance, made by Councillor Murray against the administration, to an independent investigation. Had this been done in the first instance, the City Couneil would not have been made to look ridiculous by forming itself into a court in which it was its own judge and jury. Public opinion has very openly asked how the council could convict itself or its trusted officers: how it -could be expected to regard the evidence with an absolutely unprejudiced eye. The councillors might consider they could do so, and, doubtless would, according to their lights; but there would naturally be inability on their part to view the position and the evidence from the same disinterested angle as an impartial tribunal. . Though the charges made by Councillor Murray at first appeared to be rather vague, and although some of the evidence tendered at the inquiry was of an irrelevant nature, from the whole it appears that there are allegations which cannot lightly be regarded or lightly be dismissed. This is apparently now recognised by the council, as is its awkward position as a board of inquiry; henee the decision to refer the charges to a tribunal to be appointed by the Government. It is very unfortunate that charges of the nature made by Councillor Murray for the time being give rise to criticisms which may prove to be unjust. However, the case is now sub judice, and to comment on it would not be fail - either to the City Council or to Councillor Murray. Doubtless a judicial inquiry will sift the truth from the mass of evidence available, and the blame will be apportioned, if any serious breaches of duty, of trust or of zeal in the interests of the ratepayers are proved.

A TENNIS CRUSADE

JEAN BOROTRA, the skilful, volatile French tennis player, is the representative, in his own country, of a powerful American business house which deals chiefly in petrol pumps, and he transacts its business in between hurried trips to an apparently endless round of tennis engagements. This, in itself, reflects the international application of what is now the world’s most popular game. Borotra, a French ehampion, represents American business interests. He is as popular in England as he is across the channel, a true international figure, and a smiling ambassador of goodwill and amity among the nations. At the moment, Borotra and two compatriots are in New Zealand, participating in a friendly crusade that has brought them half aeross the world. They are finding no Anthony Wilding among contemporary New Zealand tennis players, but tbey are finding such sporting spirit as that of the Aucklander, Edgar Bartleet, who, through a deliberate double-fault, loosened his hold on victory, when under the Impression that a wrong decision had gone against the visitor from France. Moreover, Borotra, a true Basque, born of a mountain race which cherishesRugby as its ruling passion, will perhaps overlook New Zealand’s tennis shortcomings in the acknowledged superiority of its footballers. He and his colleagues, after all, are only now wiping off the three-year-old seore which is a legacy from the All Blacks’ visit to France in 1925, and they will agree that the extinction of the debt, under such delightful circumstances, has been a cordial and a pleasant process. From New Zealand the three enthusiastic Frenchmen, like three debonair and gallant musketeers, go to Australia to carry their crusade a little further, and their progress will be watched with interest. Representing the nation that holds the Davis Cup, and is consequently the leading term is nation of the world, the Frenchmen have a prestige to maintain, but that which will concern them is less the sequence of matches won than their record of irreproachable sportsmanship. For the world’s count- ' less tennis players the trio might serve as models. Their gospel will strengthen the ties of international friendship, and advance the day when the jealousies of nations will he lost in the rivalry of friendly sport.

EURASIAN LABOUR

FOR some years past parties of Eurasian girls have been landing in the Dominion to take up domestic work in homes throughout the country. Eleven arrived last year, the same number the 4 previous year, and five girls have recently taken up situations in the North Island. All told, about 36 are now making their homes in New Zealand. It would be interesting to know exactly what has become of the original party, consisting of about 10 members, who have been for some time now resident in the country. Though one has all sympathy with these unfortunate girls, the playthings of fate, the arrival of these particular immigrants should not pass unnoticed. They come from the plains of India, from squalid and indifferent homes, and, though they are educated in mission schools, their standards of life must necessarily be very different from those ruling in the Dominion. Who is responsible for these workers, once they have landed in a strange country? The fact remains that at the present moment there is no shortage of female labour in the Dominion. There is any amount of help, and the requisite polish can be kept on the linoleum or the copper kettle for reasonable pay. What wages are these girls from India receiving? Even for the most benevolent of motives, the thin edge of the wedge of cheap labour from the East should not be inserted into the country.