NO NONSENSE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 410, 19 July 1928, Page 14

NO NONSENSE

ENGINEER SPEAKS OUT CONTROL OF WORKMEN (From Our Own Correspondent.) TE AROHA, To-day. The newly-appointed engineer to the Piako County Council made it very clear at the council meeting yesterday that he would not allow the internal affairs of his department to be interfered with by councillors.

Cr. Kennedy asked why a bridge foreman appointed by the council had been dismissed by the engineer. Insufficiency of work was the reason given by the engineer, but two other men had since been employed on similar work.

Mr. Horner said he had given a confidential explanation to Mr. Kennedy of the reason for a change in this department of his (the engineer’s) staff. “Had I known,” said Mr. Horner, “that Cr. Kennedy was going to blurt this out in open council I should have been much more careful in my choice of a confidant. In future I shall know what to do when approached by Cr. Kennedy and shall not hesitate to tell him so. Hither I am engineer to this county or I am not its engineer. If I cannot discharge certain employees then I am not engineer. I want Cr. Kennedy to know that if I do not want certain types of employee I will not have them, whether Cr. Kennedy likes them or not.”

The chairman, Cr. W. R. Lowry, supported the engineer in his attitude, remarking that the council had implicit confidence in Mr. Horner’s ability to handle and control the council’s outside staff. The council did not want eight engineers, and Mr. Horner should be given full control over all outside workers.