PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INTERESTS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1070, 8 March 1911, Page 4

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INTERESTS.

The letter which we publish this morning giving the reasons for the resignation by Mil. J. U. W. Aitken of his office of Chairman of the Wellington Hospital Board affords an illustration of the difficulti , . , :; with which public-spirited citizens find themselves confronted under a law designed to safeguard the interests "of the community in the matter of public contracts. No member of a local body can, under the existing law, have any interest in a trading concern which doe;; business with the. local body he is connected with. The idea underlying this provision is a good one. It must be obvious that a member of a local body must have an advantage, or is at least liable to have an advantage, over business rivals in tendering lor supplies to the local body with which he is connected. Where tenders are not invited fjr supplies—that is where small orders are given—it is still more necessary to protect the public interest by some assurance against members of local bodies using their positions to their own benefit at the expense of the public. But while these safeguards may be necessary it is inevitable that the effect of the restrictions thus imposed must result in the. loss of the valued services of some of our best known and most respected citizens. A great many of cur leading citizen s are connected in one way or another with various interests outside their own immediate business, and while those outside interests may be very small indeed, they are at times a sufficient bar to holding ' office on a public body. In the case of Mn. Aitken, for instance, his interest in the business which has caused his resignation from the Hospital Board is a small one, but in fairness to others more deeply conearned he cannot penalise them by continuing on the Board; and, as he points out, t>l2 circumstances of the case prevent him from relinquishing his connection with the uusiness. Thus the city and district ava row deprived cf his services. There arc very few people who will not recognise that Mi;. Aitken's resignation is a distinct loss to the public, as well as to tha Hospital Board. He has already, we know, mads material sacrifices in order to carry out the duties attached to the office, and it is unreasonable to expect that he should continue to make such sacrifices and penalise as well those associated with him. The disquieting feature is that it is difficult to see where the effects of the disqualifying provisions of the law arc going to end. By a process of elimination, all '.he most active and enterprising: spiiits in our business life may be gradually debarred from rendering service on public bodies—either that or they must sacrifice business interests which it may be difficult to dissociate themselves from. This certainly cannot bo a good thing for any community that desires its affairs to bo well managed. No oim would be prepared, wo think, to swoop away altogether ,thc existing safeguards against abuse of office, but they certainly have their disadvantages and I might bo modified.