WHOSE BUSINESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 144, 20 June 1934, Page 13

WHOSE BUSINESS.

MAYOR OR COUNCIL? CORRESPONDENCE ISSUE. ARGUMENT AT NORTHCOTE. The statement that the disposal of all correspondence addressed to him as Mayor was at his discretion was made by Mr. E. Martin, at the meeting of the Xorthcote Borough Council last evening. The matter arose when Mr. N. S. Davidson asked for information about an invitation for the council to he one of a deputation to wait on the Minister of Employment, the Hon. Adam Hamilton. He asked whether the Mayor, as representative of the council, had attended a conference and whether he had had anything to report. The Mayor replied that he . would report to the council, as was his custom, anything from any conference he attended which he thought was worth reporting. When Mr. Davidson asked for still more information about the particular conference, the Mayor told him he had wasted enough time, and that he (the Mayor) wanted to pass on to the next business. Mr. A. G. Osborne intimated that he had a question to ask. He wanted to know whether all correspondence received by the Mayor as Mayor came before the council. He remembered reading in the Press of several matters which he did not remember having come before the council at all. One was from the Maj r or of Palmerston North. He had received the letter, replied the Mayor, but since it had contained matter that was altogether beyond the scope of the council he had not brought it before the council. "I take another view," returned Mr. Osborne. "I say that it should have come before the council." Any correspondence addressed to the Mayor was not at his personal disposal. That was for the council to decide. "No," said the Mayor. "What is addressed to me is at my discretion." "Do you mean, sir, that of the matters addressed to you personally you withhold from us what you think lit?" asked Mr. Davidson. "I hold that they—" "Mr. .Davidson, that is enough," retorted the Mayor. He added that he used his discretion as Mayor. He asked Mr. Davidson to take his seat. Whereupon Mr. Davideson intimated that he proposed to take legal advice on the matter from the borough solicitor. The council would take a different view of the matter from the Mayor, said Mr. E. C. Fowler. Council affairs were council affairs. What the council thought or approved was one thing. What he thought was another, said Mr. Martin. And there the matter closed.