HIGHWAYS BOARD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 141, 15 June 1923, Page 7

HIGHWAYS BOARD.

COUNTY REPRESENTATION. A FIGHT WITH A MINISTER. (By Telegraph.—'Special to "Star.") , WELLINGTON, this day. ' The announcement of the final consti- * tution of the Mafn Highways Board dis- ' closes that after a strenuous fight by the ' Counties Association against the Minis- ' ter of Public Works to secure the representatives it originally nominated, Mr. Coates has had to accept defeat. The dispute, I however, has delayed the completion of the board's personnel for several months, When the Counties Association executive - was requested to nominate two representatives on the Highways Board it , selected Mr. J. H. Jull (chairman of the Counties Association of Waipawa) and . Mr. J. D. Bruce, of Akaroa. The clause . in the Act under which this recommendation was made reads: "Two members ( shall he appointed with the approval of j the Minister of Public Works on the , recommendation of the executive body , of the Xew Zealand Counties Associa- , tion." Mr. Coates declined to accept ( these names, asking for a further list , from which to make a selection. The Counties Association in turn declined to ] accede to this request, maintaining that , as almost every other member of the j board was a Government servant there i would be no real representation of the general public unless the Counties Association had unfettered selection of two members. The Ministerial answer to this ultimatum was that the highest legal authority supported his view that the sole right of final selection rested with the Minister. Then the Counties Association executive took high legal advice, which fortified them in their positive refusal to submit more than two names. Ultimately the position resolved itself into a silent stonewall, which ended after the lapse of some months by the Minister quietly receding from his position and approving Mr. Jull and Mr. Bruce, the nominees originally submitted to hitn. During the course of the controversy the Minister was challenged to show gooel cause why the gentlemen suggested should not be appointed, as it was held by the Counties Association that nothing short of unsuitability on account of character should debar its nominees. To this challenge the Minister made no answer, but his critics suggest that the Government never lost sight of the fact that for several elections Mr. .lull, as Liberal candidate for Waipawa, has challenged the'representation of that seat by "a Reform member. This aspect of 1 politics was raised in the House to-day by Mr. Mcllvride, member for Napier, who asked the Minister of Marine to explain why Messrs. McGrath and Blake, former Government nominees of the Napier Harbour Board, had been superceded without notice by two new Government nominees; also whether it is customary not to give superseded nominees sufficient notice so that they may secure election in the ordinary way, whether it is customary in making the selection to consult the member for the district, and, as the Minister has stated he had certain information regarding the actions of the superseded nominees, will be state the source of that informa- , tion.