MUNICPAL PICKINGS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 220, 18 January 1911, Page 8

MUNICPAL PICKINGS

EFFECT OF THE NEW ACT. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. In consequence of the disqualification of the new Harbor Act, Messrs. H. D. Heather, one of the representatives ol shipping and the payers of dues on the Auckland Harbor Board, and Mr. J. 13. Macl'arlane, the representative of the Chamber of Commerce on the same body, tendered their resignations to the Board to-day. Mr. Heather is a director of John Chambers and Son, Ltd., a company that is doing business with the Board, and he is also a director of two other companies which might at any time do business with the Board. Mr. Macfarlane is a director of the New Zealand Portland Cement Co., which also does business with the Board. The Mayor of Auckland (Mr. L. J. Bagnall) stated this evening that he had been placed in a disagreeable position by the new Act. Being a director of the New Zealand Insurance Co., with which the City Council had only a few months ago arranged a contract, it became necessary either for him to resign from the mayoralty or lor the contract to be cancelled. The loss of an important contract was a serious matter to the company, but fie" had been asstirred that it would rather relinquish it than that he should be compelled to give up his office. He purposed, therefore, to ask the Council to allow the contract to be cancelled.