Cr. Murray Again

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 328, 13 April 1928, Page 18

Cr. Murray Again

LETTER TO CITY COUNCIL

“ Disrespectful and Insulting ”

A LETTER which Councillor W. H. Murray wrote to the City Council on March 30 was deemed by the Finance Committee of the Council to be disrespectful and insulting, and the Council last evening declined to receive it. An animated discussion preceded the decision.

THE communication was published in The Sun at the time, after being heavily reduced. It was in reply to a letter from the town clerk advising Councillor Murray that the Minister of Internal Affairs had declined to grant a commission of inquiry into the Murray charges. In his reply, Councillor Murray remarked that the council’s letter advising him that a reply was required within seven days was on a par with the council’s general pose of dictatorship throughout the whole business. The finance committee decided that the letter was contrary to standing orders in that it was not couched in proper terms. It considered that it was disrespectful and insulting to the Prime Minister and Government, the Mayor and councillors, and the town clerk, and therefore recommended that it be not received. * When the recommendation was received, Cr. Murray moved that the recommendation be referred back to enable him to meet the committee. AMAZING STATEMENTS “I have seen some amazing statements in the Press over. Cr. Murray’s name, and I express my strong disapproval,” remarked Cr. A. J. Stallworthy. Cr. Murray had stated, in the course of the letter, that all the councillors should resign. He was prepared to accept a challenge and fight the question out before the electors if Cr. Murray could produce a sufficiently serious and definite charge. Cr. Eady, who had seconded Cr. Murray’s motion to return the recommendation to the committee pro forma, expressed his strong disapproval of the letter. “If Cr. Murray has anything to justify his letter this is the time and place for it,” remarked Cr. Allum. Cr. Murray agreed with this, and said it was one of the things he had been fighting for for a long time. He would give an explanation of any part of the letter that was taken exception to. COUNCIL’S COMMISSION “I emphasise that the council unanimously asked for a commission, and they cannot expect me to pay,” he continued. “You don’t think I was going to be silly enough to pay everything.” NO POINT AT ALL Mr. Baildon pointed out Cr. Murray was making a great point of the council having asked for the commission. Why did it do so? Because it spent several weeks trying to get something final, and the only remedy was to try and get a magistrate. The recommendation was adopted. The Mayor then moved that, notwithstanding Cr. Murray’s failure to produce the evidence that would justify the setting-up of a commission,

the Minister again be asked to appoint a magistrate. Cr. Ellen Melville said the council had asked for the inquiry merely to give the officers a chance to clear themselves of a lot of vague insinuations and baseless reflections. It never agreed that the statements made by Cr. Murray justified an inquiry. WASTED ENOUGH TIME “I am against the motion. We have wasted enough time on this now,” said Cr. A. J. Stallworthy. “I absolutely deplore that any councillor should go round for ever crying ‘Fish—O! Fish—O!’.. and stinking fish at that. He has never said ‘Bravo!’ since he came on the council. “He is definitely taking a delight in filling this city with insinuations that are contemptible.” Cr. Stallworthy suggested that the Mayor, as chief magistrate of the city, and Cr. J. W. Court, should be empowered to hold an inquiry and settle the affair. During the course of his remarks Cr. Murray had started to say, “Why, only a few days ago I went to the stores officer ” when he was stopped by the Mayor. “He wants to bring along something fresh every day. It is never-ending,” remarked Gr. A. J. Entrican. NO MORE CHANCES He suggested that Cr. Murray should get another opportunity of sending in definite charges. Voices: No! No! What’s the use? Cr. Murray said that if Cr. Stallworthy was willing to resign he was prepared to accommodate him. He went on to say that had it not been for him the Nihotupu auxiliary dam would have been washed away by now. Cr. Allum: Absolute rot. There was no danger, and we had known about it for weeks. “I can’t ask the council to sit here and listen to such piffle,” said the Mayor, as he applied the closure to Cr. Murray. “Anything of any moment that Cr. Murray has ever brought forward was known already by the council,” asserted Cr. Allum. “He knows that he would have had to pay costs only if his charges were brought in bad faith or maliciously. So-called witnesses came before the council and made reckless statements, knowing that we had no hold on them. There are still people who believe there is something in this business, and one of the councillors took one of the slanderers to Court and got damages from him. “Cr. Murray says the -charges are legitimate. I have never heard any

other councillor express that conviction. I would almost say tlie parentage of the charges prevents them being legitimate.” Cr. S. I. Crookes: All I can say is that we can barely contain ourselves at the sheer waste of time. He goes to Press and public and makes statements without seeing whether they are accurate. Cr. Murray: I do not. Cr. Crookes: And yet he said the polar bear cost £I,OOO. Cr. F. W. Brinsden: It cost £35. Cr. Crookes: I agree with the Mayor that what we have heard is nothing but sheer drivel. The Mayor’s motion was carried.