“NO RED HERRING!”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 403, 11 July 1928, Page 13

“NO RED HERRING!”

MR. BLOODWCRTH REPLIES LOCAL BODY CRITICISM Mr. Tom Bloodworth, former Auckland City Council member, denies in a communication to THE SUN that he had any intention of “drawing a red herring across the track” when he spoke at the annual meeting of the Advertising Club on Monday night. He writes: “'Speaking at a social function on Monday evening, quite without preparation, I entered a plea for tolerance of local body administration, and said that while I had often differed with my colleagues on local bodies, I had never seen anything which had caused me to believe that anything improper was being carried out. “That statement rouses Mr. H. P. Taylor, of the City West Ratepayers’ Association, to say that it makes one think that I ‘was influenced by the desire to make, political or municipal capital, by drawing a red herring across the scent.’ “Let me assure Mr. Taylor that I was influenced by no such motive. I have no desire or need for political or municipal capital at present, and as for red herrings, in my opinion the whole place has been literally littered up with things of that kind for months past, and quite a few of them have been thrown about by Mr. Taylor and his friends.” Mr. Taylor’s action in at once suggesting a motive for a statement he does not agree with is typical of the kind of criticism which has been launched at local bodies, and it is that kind of criticism which I think is wrong. I said what I honestly believe, as I have a habit of doing. If Mr. Taylor can prove me to be wrong, .it is for him to do so. Pie is perfectly free to criticise me, and he or anyone else is perfectly free to criticise a local body. I should be the last person to object t.o that, for 1 have been and still am a frequent offender in that respect. There are, however, different kinds of criticism. There is constructive and destructive criticism, and the latter sometimes destroys more than it sets out to do. It was this kind of criticism, of which we have had rather much of late, which I had in mind when I asked for a more tolerant spirit to be displayed. SYSTEM NEEDS REVISION “I think that our whole system of local government needs revision, not because I have any doubts as to the integrity of the members or officers of local bodies. I have not. But because I think the forms of local government they attempt to administer are in some essential parts quite unsuited to present needs. I think many of the things which Mr. Taylor and his friends have criticised, in so far as that criticism is justified, may be traced to these unsatisfactory forms of local government, rather than to unworthy motives or even lack of supervision on the part of administrators or officials, and because the criticism has been levelled at alleged results rather than at causes.

“I think a good deal of it may be said to be of the red-herring variety. Mr. Taylor rightly points out that I was a member of the council most of the time when the things happened of which he and his friends complain. In that I had the advantages of Mr. Taylor and his friends, because I was* a member, and they were not members.

“If during that time I had seen anything done, which I had thought was done with an improper motive, I should have been dishonest had I kept silent, but I saw no such acts, and I am generally credited with being fairly observant. I voiced my disagreement on questions of pi'inciple, policy and administration many times. I was more often alone in my opinions in the council than any councillor has been since. I thought other councillors were wrong many times, in some instances, even, have proved they were. In others I have been proved to have been wrong, but nothing so far has proved to my satisfaction that either they or I based words or actions on other than honest opinions, however mistakenly their opinions may have been held.

“I am in part responsible fo rtlie things which have been the subject °J- criticism, but it is one of the peculiarities of our electoral system that while I had more votes recorded for me at the elections than over half of the present councillors had individually, yet I am not at present a member of the council. lam not complaining about that; it is a circumstance which was the result of my own choice. I mention it as one of the anomalies. ONE OF THOSE CONCERNED “I do not know any more of wiiat Mr. Taylor and his friends have put befor6 the committee than I have seen in the Press or gathered in conversation, and I have no desire to see the statements which Mr. Taylor offers to show me. If the inquiry which has been asked for takes place, I shall, as one of the persons concerned in the administration during the time the events complained of happened, get an opportunity to state what I know concerning those events.

“I arn n ot concerned to defend the council or any local body. I have not asked people to have more confidence in the personnel or* any elected assembly. What I have asked is that criticism be tolerant and fair, that it should not be such as while destroying confidence in individuals also destroys confidence in institutions, and in what I i egard as a fundamental principle—government, local and national, by representatives elected on the broadest possible democratic franchise. I am afraid that criticism such as I have complained of plaj-s into the hands of tl*ose who favour the autocratic rather than the democratic form of government, the policy of appointed rather than of elected administrators; the city manager and commissioners rather than the City Council form of administration.

“And though the democratic methqd does not always bring- the best results immediately, and may sometimes result in mistakes being made. I am satisfied that for the mass of the people it is the safest form of government, and that we ought to be careful that words and actions strengthen and do not weaken that for which so much sacrifice has been made in the past.”