Mayor’s Opponent To Become Deputy-Mayor

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29059, 23 November 1959, Page 14

Mayor’s Opponent To Become Deputy-Mayor

One unusual result of the municipal elections on Saturday will be that Mr H. P. Smith will be DeputyMayor of Christchurch although he was defeated for the mayoralty by Mr G. Manning. Mr Smith stood for the City Council as well as the mayoralty and the new council, comprised solely of Citizens’ Association members, will undoubtedly appoint him Deputy-Mayor. Mr Manning will thus have as his deputy an opponent and one who will probably be the mayoral candidate again in three years’ time. No matter how assiduously Mr Manning attends to his mayoral duties, there must be times when Mr Smith will have to act for him.

When the council results were made known on Saturday night, Mr W. P. Glue, the senior councillor, said there was no doubt that Mr Smith should be DeputyMayor. “He has shown sound leadership, and much of the cr-dit for the Citizens’ sweeping success must go to Mr Smith,” said Mr Glue, who added that while he was the senior councillor in years of service and had been a previous mayoral candidate he had no wish whatsoever for the office of deputy. A Deputy-Mayor is appointed by the council, and the Mayor’s personal preference need not be considered by it. Mr Manning has had Mr L. G. Ames, a Citizens’ councillor who did not seek re-election this year, as his deputy for the 18 months he has been in office. Mr Amos was. Deputy-Mayor during the interval between Mr Manning and Mr Glue resigning to contest the by-election and the return of Mr Manning, and the Mayor made no objection to him when he was elected. But he gave Mr Amos very little to do.

There were several occasions ' when, instead of inviting Mr : Amos to act for him, Mr Manning called on one of the Labour city councillors to represent him. ' That was quite in order, but it is a step not now open to him. Committee Chairmen No real thought has been given to any reorganisation of committees or chairmen of them yet, and it seems unlikely that many changes will be made. Mr Smith is almost certain to remain chairman of the important by-laws and finance committee. The only vacancy for a chairman is that of the electricity committee, previously held by Mr Amos, whose local body activity is now confined to the Lyttelton Harbour Board, to which he returned on Saturday, and the Christchurch - Lyttelton Road Tunnel Authority. Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon will probably be chosen to take over the post. He is an experiemed councillor and one who twice carried the Citizens’ Association flag in bids for the mayoralty, yet he has no*t been chairman of a council committee. Mr G. D. Griffiths used to be chairman of the housing and town planning committee (housmg has since been made a separate committee), but he has been away front the council for nine years; and Mr Glue will almost certainly retain the town planning “portfolio.” It is a particularly important one now the council has decided on the zoning provisions of its district planning scheme and there is a host of objections and objection to objections to be heard by the council committee of sub-committees appointed specially. A possibility, and no more than that, is that the veteran woman councillor, Miss Mary McLean, may consider a chair- : manship less arduous than her present one of the tra-iic committee, the work of which is expanding rapidly. , If Miss McLean does think she i should hand over to a male couni cillor, it could well be that she ; might find a niche as chairman i of a libraries committee separi ated from the baths and enter- . tainment committee.

Othet - committee chairmen likely to be reappointed are Mr A. R. Guthrey, works and airport; Mr W. J. Cowles, reserves; Mr M. R. Carter, housing; and Mr R. G. Brown, baths and entertainment Replacements Due A secondary matter of appointments is the replacement of def :ated Labour councillors on several outside bodies, among them the Metropolitan Milk Board (Mr L. Christie), the Christchurch Milk Company’s directors (Mr H. E. Denton), the Christchurch Fire Board (Mr N. R. Forbes), and the Canterbury Museum Trust Board. The Jast Citizens’ Council established the principle of appoint-

ing some members of the minority on the council to outside positions, something which had not been the practice of Labour councils, which kept such appointments among themselves. Now the Citizens will find that they have only themselves to choose, but they have plenty of younger councillors to call on for such duties. Now that members of Parliament have disappeared from the council table, it is possible that the council will consider changing

the normal meeting day of Monday. Council meetings are held every third Monday at present, and most committee meetings have been on Mondays, largely to meet the convenience of Labour members of Parliament. Monday meetings pose some problems of organisation, as everything must be completed for them by a Friday, normally a busy day at the council office. Holiday Break . The new council will hold one brief meeting this year for the formal swearing-iin of Mayor and councillors, and will then have the holiday break, probably until late January or early February. No meeting can be held until the official count of votes is completed. Th- first steps towards that will be begun today with the scrutiny of the roll to check against plural voting and the special votes, comprising sick, absentee and declaration votes, have to be checked for qualification. It is expected that Mr H. S. Feast, the Town Clerk and Returning Oflicer, will be able to announce the final result in nine or 10 days’ time. “No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.”—Samuel Smiles.