"PICKINGS" AT NAPIER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 312, 11 February 1910, Page 2

"PICKINGS" AT NAPIER

BOROUGH COUNCIL SEATS " [ ■' 'VACANT*. '■■' •''•• .. THE CHARITABLE 'AID BOARD

' ' ' CHALLENGED. Napier, Tuesday.

.Another phase of the ■'municipal pickings'* ease"( Writes #' New' Zealand Times correspondent") is the decision of the borough solicitors, upon the facts

stated to them, that Messrs. Crowley, A. J. Williams, Eagieton, VVidere'trom, ■and K. Beecliam have rendered their seats Vacant' by" having 'exceeded the legal limit-in > the,-matter-: of supplies to the corporation. This, with the vacancy due ,tp Mr, Thomson's resigna-" .lion 'as' a" Wsulfc of'the 4 ;-Government auditor's" tag"''to'" 'the"'' Daiance*heet, leaves six's'eats to fill 1 and""the" Council without a quorum. i;

Some people: who 'describe tjhenisslves as' "friends of - seats are declared vacant attempt, if not fto 4?i eI Hl them, then to deprecate •anything being said about the question on the ground that it will give Napier a-had-name and that it.j's the "d newspapers that have made i the trouble;" Otherg say; that proriably every town in New Zealand would have its 'own ''picking''' exp'osuites'if the facts could be known,, This, if true,"would argue a very low standard,,of morality, but it would not excuse what has'''already been proved as a uesult/of "that, tag."

.Now comes, the suggestion,of another '■ sensation, the Telegraph, making some : awkward accusations, against the Charitable Aid' Board. It is., charged with-•■failing to-invite tenders'for supplies of certain goods and of purchasing from somebody so /uncertain of his' own identity that he. spells his hame one way on the account sent in and in another way on the receipt. "The Telegraph further, says .that this person did not attend Hire* 'Office for payment, but had' the' him by some intermediary. The Board is .challenged to name the intermediary who liroiight" back the receipt.' the only .person in Napier of the name on the receipt whom the Telegraph can '<"scover is a man who was employed as caretaker of the Arcade buildings, and itt tis'ks why, if the' 'Board resolved to tr.susaress the' piihlic 'fender clause in thv Act, it did not buy off some known tradesman in the town instead of trom /a person 'who ■ appears to have l'-en none to;i confident of his own identity.