ENCINEER DISMISSED

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 284, 21 February 1928, Page 1

ENCINEER DISMISSED

PIAKO COUNTY TAKES DRASTIC ACTION STARTLING ALLEGATIONS (From Our Own Correspondent) TE AROHA, To-day. On the casting vote of the chairman, Mr. W. R. Lowry, the Piako County Council decided yesterday that the services of Mr. A. Gibbs, county engineer, should be dispensed with and that he be given three months’ salary in lieu of notice. That was the sensational outcome of a biting and personal discussion at the meeting of the council yesterday afternoon, when the chairman moved the resolution that the engineer be dismissed forthwith. In a lengthy statement Mr. Lowry made the following allegations: That the engineer had. supplied misleading reports to the Public Works Department in connection with the various positions of loan works, in fact, besides wrongly stating the position regarding the Morrinsville-Mangateparu Road, the engineer had lost to the county a sum of £309 because lie neglected to claim it from the Public Works Department. That he had received direct instructions from the chairman to do certain work and had done the opposite in direct defiance of orders. Further, that the work which was not done as requested by the chairman was carried out, in ah inaccurate and misleading manner. That the reports supplied by the engineer were inaccurate and misleading, and had put the council in a position where it could not expect the assistance of the Highways Board. That lie had deliberately flouted the council in other directions, also <l I am not prepared to sacrifice the interests of the ratepayers any lopger, and I move that the engineer be dismissed forthwith, and be given three months’ pay in lieu of notice,” said Mr. Lowry. At. this . stage the engineer chal-lenged-Mr. Lowry to give a signed list of allegations, saying, “they are a malicious concoction.” However, he withdrew this statement upon Mr. Lowry threatening to order him from the room. The air was indeed electric at this stage, with bitter crossfires of personalities. Mr. Gibbs heatedly denied the allegations and told Mr. Lowry in regard to the alleged £309 lost that the sum had been removed from the estimates 13 months before the date alleged by the chairman. After further lengthy discussion a vote was taken a,nd the engineer lost the job on the casting vote of the chairman, who originally moved the motion.

The voting was: For: Lowry, Fitzgerald, McGill and Stark. Against: Kennedy, Walters, Whitechurch, McLean.