City Council Tips

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23918, 9 April 1943, Page 4

City Council Tips

As his statement yesterday showed, his Worship the Mayor “ keenly re- “ sents ” comment in this column on the difference between assurances that he gave last month and an admission that he made on Monday. Why he resents it he does not succeed in making clear. He did assure Cr. McLean that control of the tips left no cause for complaint; he did assure a deputation that “ adequate precautions ” were taken at the Plynlimon road tip; he did, on Monday night, admit that he had been wrong. He said that the works committee had already taken action. He said that there was no need, therefore, for the resolution before the council, instructing the committee. But the council thought otherwise; it adopted the resolution. This may explain why the Mayor is in a resentful frame of mind. It cannot explain why he suggests that his assurances did not includethe tips complained of, or why he suggests that he had “ definitely ” not referred to these till Monday night, or what he thinks was under discussion, when the Plynlimon road residents interviewed him, if not the Plynlimon road tip. As for milk, the Mayor has forgotten Cr. J. N. Clarke’s jubilant discovery, in December, 1941, as chairman of the* council’s milk committee and of the committee of investigation, that the Christchurch milk supply was perfection, or the nearest possible approach to it. The public has a longer memory. It becomes a disturbing memory when it tells the public that what is admitted to-day to be wrong was yesterday declared to be right. If the Mayor resents having that said to him politely, it will become necessary to say it more bluntly.