The Sun TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1928 STILL ANOTHER MYSTERY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 450, 4 September 1928, Page 8

The Sun TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1928 STILL ANOTHER MYSTERY

'THEBE appears to be no end in sight to the so-called Murray * charges against the Auckland City Council. The latest is more piquant than many of the others, and may prove to be more pertinent to its instigator’s purpose, and also to the council’s policy of getting things done either in a round-about or an obscure way. Cr. W. H. Murray’s new thrust for information probes fresh ground. It penetrates the crust of the city’s transport business and touches an adventurous visit to Auckland some time ago by a glib gentleman, who was subsequently convicted of different acts of imposture and punished, but not altogether with reformative perfection, for he later went to Sydney and there made an intimate acquaintance with the police, whose recognition of his ability to fool -some people occasionally brought about summary deportation. But all that is merely incidental to Cr. Murray’s quest. For the City Council’s consideration this week a singular notice of motion has Been promulgated by Cr. Murray, who wants to know all that ought to be known about some report “stated to have been prepared for and supplied to the Auckland City Council, or to the Electricity and Tramways Committee, or to the chairman of that committee, prior to the setting up of the' Transport Commission, by one Robert William Gunter.” This, surely, is an odd request, and very different in character from the laborious inquiry into the Murray charges concerning kerbs, pitchers, baths, streets maintenance costs, the Civic Square, water supply, the high mortality at the zoo, and all sorts of odds and ends in the City Council’s administration and activities. Is there really anything in or behind this latest demand by Cr. Murray for information about another municipal departmental mystery? What had this “one Robert William Gunter” to do with the City Council’s transport problem? Was he engaged by the city’s administration or by any one of its many official representatives to throw a bright light on the darkness of the tram-and-bus problem at that time, did he provide essential illumination, and was he paid well for his' service? Unless the new “charge” by Cr. Murray be nothing more than piquafit gossip, the ratepayers should be given the complete story of the unusual transaction. It is possible, of course, that the wisdom of one Robert William Gunter was secured in desperation and handsomely paid for in a grateful spirit of appreciation, for when people are sick and hag-ridden by anxiety they frequently consult a quack in preference to an expert physician. And sometimes quackery succeeds where orthodox medical advice and treatment have failed. If it be a fact that Mr. Gunter was consulted on the teasing problem of how to make the city’s trams and buses pay, and if it also be the truth that his advice was good enough to be worth a substantial fee, there is. no valid reason why his report should be withheld from ratepayers who are worried about the future of municipal transport. A man may be legally adjudged an impostor in many of his acts and assertions, hut such duplicity need not deprive him of the right and skill to deliver expert judgment on a big transport system which happened at a certain time to be in a bad way. It would be surprising, of course, to have it demonstrated that a convicted impostor in some things knew more about successfully running trams and buses than the experts knew, but the nature and extent of his knowledge should be revealed. Such a 5 revelation might even he so illuminating as to end the clamorous movement towSrd the establishment of a Transport Board and an entirely new system of management, and administrative control. Perhaps the City Council unaware entertained an expert. In any case Cr. Murray’s notice of motion should he dealt with in the open and disposed of one way or another. The ratepayers are tired of charges and inquiries that lead nowhere except to exasperation. And while the council is again at the Murray charges on Thursday evening it should agree to let the ratepayers or their representatives in municipal government know everything about the Civic Square muddle.