THE MOUNT ALBERT CONTROVERSY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 226, 24 September 1927, Page 8

THE MOUNT ALBERT CONTROVERSY.

As a ratepayer of the Borough of Mount Albert, will you kindly allow me space to enter a protest against the high-handed method adopted by those who are responsible for the indignation meetings being held in connection with the dismissal of the borough engineer? The main cause of the meetings appears to be the council's refusal to lay a definite charge against Mr. Cook, and for this reason resolutions are passed asking the council to lay a definite charge or resign. la my opinion it gave a very good reason for his dismissal when in effect it told him that it had lost confidence in him as its enginew. Surely we could not expect the council to carry on with the amount of works under ite charge and leave the supervision in the hands of an engineer in whom it had no confidence. All the members of the council are strangers to me, and I do not know why they ,lost confidence in their engineer, but I am ijuite convinced that they have acted in what they considered the best interest of the ratepayer! generally. If Mr. Cook's charges against the council are correct, then he should hare resigned long ago as a protest. We must remember that we have heard only one side of the question. I would rather have seen Mr. Cook carry out the work than trust it to a new man, but at the same time I have confidence enough in our council to believe that it carried out an unpleasant dutv to the best of ita ability. " EXPERIENCE.