A MAYOR’S PROTEST

Taranaki Daily News, 30 August 1922, Page 5

A MAYOR’S PROTEST

RESIGNS HIS OFFICE. REGULATION “BRANDS EVERY MAYOR AS A ROGUE.” By Telegraph.—Press Association. Te Awamutu, Aug. 28. Recently the Te Awamutu Power Board purchased goods to the value of £5 12s from Mr. L. G. Armstrong, who is a member of the board. This purchase, being 12s in excess of the legal limit, constituted a breach of the law, and Mr. Armstrong resigned. As a sequel to this, Mr. Armstrong is to-day resigning the mayoralty of Te Awamutu Borough, which position is governed by similar regulations. At a meeting of the Power Board the manager explained that the goods in question were not obtainable in the Waikato, and Mr. Armstrong had assisted the board greatly when he located a source of supply quietly after the manager, had tried to obtain a supply from other sources without success. Mr. Armstrong, whose business is drapery, says he is resigning the mayoralty as a protest against the regulation which brands every mayor or a member of a local body a rogue from the moment he takes office. He says the effect of the regulation is to set a premium on inactivity in public life, and hence successful business men do not readily enter local bodies. In the interests of public administration, he urges that strong public pressure should be exercised on the Government to amend the legislation so as to give the Audit Department discretionary powers before instituting prosecutions against members of local bodies.