A MAYOR'S POWER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8820, 17 March 1914, Page 4

A MAYOR'S POWER.

CANNOT EXPEL A COUNCILLOR

AN INJUNCTION GRANTED

(Per Press Association.)

: 7 WELLINGTON, March 17.----judgment!' was delivered by his Hon-our-'the Chief Justice this morning in the-;;case. in. which Alexander Herbert Wilkie,. a, member oi" the .Ohakune. Borough Council, applied i:or a writ oi' injunction restraining the Mayor and other members of the Ohakune Council from preventing plaintiff attending- a ineeting,. .of the Council to-day or any other meetings and from exercising his lawful rights as a councillor (details of which appear on page 3). ■ / After, holding that the Court had jurisdiction to interfere by injunction if the circumstances of the case warranted, his Honour held that the action of plaintiff brought him under the Council's by-law relating to disorder, and that the Mayor and "Council-having found he was disorderly, the Court could'not interfere with the, finding. He held, however, that neither the Mayor nor the Borough Council had power to expel or suspend a member — the only power to impose a penalty being under part 2 of the by-laws and in section 349 of the statute, which agreed. -Ho also held that the resolution oi suspension was clearly illegal, and granted the injunction, with costs amounting to £5 ss.