COUNCILLOR EXPLAINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1941, Page 6

COUNCILLOR EXPLAINS

WHY HE DID NOT VOTE. AID TO RUSSIA MEETING IN AUCKLAND. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. Explaining why he did not vote at a City Council meeting when the use of the Town Hall for the holding of an aid to Russia meeting was refused, Mr C. J. Garland said today that the time of the meeting was changed from 12.30 to 3.30, and meanwhile he had made an urgent business appointment for 3.30 with a client who was coming to Auckland by service car. However he went to the meeting and expressed his view, advising the Mayor that he would have to leave early. Had he remained, the Mayor's motion would have been defeated, but he was not to know that. “I did not walk out as the vote was taken, but left shortly after I had spoken,” said Mr Garland.

At a special meeting the Auckland City Council decided on the casting vote of the Mayor (Mr Ahum) to refuse an application by the convenor of the Aid to Russia Committee for the use of the Town Hall for a public meeting to celebrate the signing of the pact between Great Britain and the Soviet Union and extend the cordial greetings of citizens. With 18 of the 21 members of the council present, nine votes were cast for and as many against the motion refusing the use cf the hall. The motion was carried on the casting vote of the Mayor.