THE CHAMELEON ON THE WARPATH.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2144, 13 November 1885, Page 2

THE CHAMELEON ON THE WARPATH.

A deputation consisting of Messrs H. Bunny and S. Danks, the respective Chairmen of the Masterton and Wellington Hospital Boards, interviewed the Premier yesterday with reference to bringing the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act into operation. Mr Bunny desired to speak first, in order that lie might explain his own position, and he is reported in the Evening Press to have said

Our Board only consists of four members, instead of five. We met the other day, and there wore two against two, The acting chairman appointed by the Government (Mr Caselberg) wanted to give his casting vote, and I told him lie could do nothing of the sort, Wo separated without fixing any place of meeting, and I am the Chairman now, and I don't sec that I have power to call a meeting,

The conversation on the subject continued as follows

Mr Stout: Why can't you agree ? Mr Bunny: Why can't you agree? (Laughter) Mr Stout: So we do in many things, Mr Bunny: So do we; but there are some things we can't agree upon. Mr Stout: Why can't you settle your dispute by meeting at Featherston one week and Masterton the next ?

Mr Bunny: We won't meet at Masterton at all, Mr Stout: Why not?

Mr Bunny: Because we won't. Mr Stout: Well, your hospitals at the Wairarapa could be incorporated, and then you would have very little to do, Mr Bunny: I know they are going to incorporate, but I want a place of meeting fixed. It will be remembered that at the meeting of the Wairarapa' Hospital Board, Mr Oaselbekg, the Chairman, wished to refer the very question in dispute to the Government, and that Mr Bunny then replied, " A fig for the Government ;-1 don't want their opinion. There's the Act to go by, and that puts it plain enough. I say the Chairman has no vote under the Act," We then expressed our beliof that Mr Bunny would turn round now that he is Chairman, and find some way out of the difficulty. The way he does it is by first of all swallowing the sentiment just quoted, and going to the Government direct, without any authority whatever from the body he represents, and then to proceed as if he had ( never argued that the Chairman had no original vote. He supports this by saying that he has no casting vote. Unfortunately for him-: self, he went the wrong way, and also denied himself the power of convening a meeting. If his own view of the position is to be accepted, then there will be a deadlock throughout, without any legal meetings, Had Mr Bunny succeeded in showing that he had power to call meetings, he would have been in a position to hold them where he choose, but by trying to prove too much, he put himself in a worse position than ever. The Premier has allowed him to remain in blissful ignorance, so that he, the only selfelected Uhairman of a Hospital Board in the colony, will have to devise fresh means to defeat the Hydra which has sprung from his own schemes.