DEPUTY-MAYOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 124, 28 May 1935, Page 11

DEPUTY-MAYOR.

POSITION AT CHRISTCHURCH

HALF-TERM APPOINTMENT.

Mr. J. W. Beanland will be deputyMayor of Christchurch for the first 18 months of the life of the present council, when lie will resign, and be 'succeeded by Mr. E. 11. Andrews. This decision has been reached, it is understood, by the Citizens' Association members of the council, and will be given effect to at the next meeting of the council when Mr. Beanland will be elected deputy-Mayor (says the "CJiristchurch Times").

The appointment of Mr. Andrews for the second part of the term will not come before the council at the present time, for there is no provision for electing two persons to this office, but it was gathered yesterday that Mr. Beanland has given an undertaking to resign when he has held the office for 18 months.

Both Mr. Beanland and Mr. Andrews havo been members of the council for many years, and it is an open secret that Mr. Beanland believes that he could have won the Mayoralty at the elections just held. The appointment is not expected to be unanimous, for the Mayor (Mr. D. G. Sullivan, M.P.) will, it "is understood, nominate the Rev. J. K. Archer as his deputy. In this he will have the support of the four Labour councillors, but it is considered that his ao J >-jn will be merely a gesture to support the contention that the Mayor should have the right of appointing his own deputy. The standing orders of tho council are silent upon the question of appointing a deputy-Mayor, but the Municipal Corporations Act, from which the council derives its powers, lays down that tho council shall appoint the deputyMayor. On the other band, it is the prerogative of the Mayor to lay before the council the suggested composition of the standing committees, but these can then be altered by the council. There is not likely to be" mucb controversy on the council concerning the composition of the committees, because it is believed that they have already been mutually agreed upon by the leaders of both parties. The Citizens' Association, with twelve members on the council, will have an absolute majority on all committees, and will be able to appoint, its own members as chairmen.