STAFF EXPRESSES RESENTMENT

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22388, 29 April 1938, Page 10

STAFF EXPRESSES RESENTMENT

Remarks of Waimairi Councillors

PERSECUTION

ALLEGED

Retiring Employee’s

Statement

“I hope for the sake of the staff that after the election the Waimairi County Council will be changed in certain respects, and I pity the officials and employees, ■ but particularly the officials, who have to bear the brunt of persecution and. intimidation, if there is no change,” said Mr Charles Bond, a retiring member of the staff of the Waimairi County Council, at a social gathering in his honour last evening. Mr Bond is leaving the employ of the council after eight years’ service as motor mechanic, to fill a commercial position in New Plymouth. He has prepared a petition for submission to the chairman of the* council, and at the social last evening he gained 24 signatures of employees of the council. The petition reads as follows: —

“That we, the undersigned employees on the staff of the council strongly object to remarks made by Crs. Chapman and Scott as reported in ‘The Press’ and ‘Star-Sun’ on April 28, and ask that the persecutipn and intimidation by certain councillors of officials and staff of the Waimairi County Council cease immediatelyThis protest to be forwarded to the press and the present chairman of the'council.” ‘‘Reflection on Honesty” Mr Bond has drafted the following letter to accompany the petition:— “In fairness to the employees and officials ,of the Waimairi County Council I desire to make an emphatic protest against allegations ihade by Crs. Scott and Chapman at Wednesday’s meeting of. the council, which are a reflection on the honesty and loyalty of the staff as a whole. The employees to a man strongly resist the attack made on them, and as evidence of their feelings I enclose a protest signed by all the employees.”

A prercntation was made to Mr Bond by Mr L. Wilson on behalf of the members of the staff, of • the council. Mr C., Voice, county foreman; and other; speakers paying tribute to the personal qualities of the. retiring employee. In his reply, Mr Bond emphasised that the staff of the council worked loyally and with the utmoslj harmony-

“The majority of the councillors are fine men, and wc have been happy with them,” Mr Bond said. “There are others who have got their own views and who do not hesitate to express them in public even -though they know the persons they attack have no right of reply. That is a very hard thing to say of a man, but it is a fact There has been a by certain members of the council; there is no other way to describe it. Councillors have told me in confidence things that have been sgid about me at meetings of the council which are not the truth.”

Mr Bond said thfct all would have read the reports of Wednesday night’s meeting of the council. The remarks of certain members constituted “a shocking and damnable report -against the. staff. “Employees as a rule had no redress against such attacks, w£nt on Mr Bond, but in this case he ,was not in the position of having to keep his mouth shut. He hoped that the people of the county would express their own opinion of the methods adopted by certain members of the council- “Their time will come,” he concluded, amid applause.