COUNCILLORS’ SONS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 248, 17 July 1935, Page 2

COUNCILLORS’ SONS

Appointment to Corporation Service THE RECENT DECISION The wisdom of the Wellington City Council in rescinding the by-law which, prevented sons or daughters of councillors from becoming employees of the City Corporation is still doubted by many people. The Wellington Ratepayers’ Association, which speaks for a good many big ratepayers, was uncompromisingly against the rescission of the by-law in question. It argued that there must at one time have been good reason for the enactment of such a bylaw. Now that the bar has been removed (by nine votes to six) opponents of the rescission regard this move as an open invitation io the very abuses the by-law was framed to prevent. Councillor W. Duncan, who voted for the rescission (though originally a Ratepayers’ Association nominee) stated yesterday that he did so on the broad ground that he did not see why the son of a City Councillor should be de- • barred from a career in the municipal service any more than anyone else. “I have no son or daughter who wants a job,” said Cr. Duncan, “so can speak quite freely on the subject. For that matter neither has the Mayor, Crs. W. 11. Bennett, W. J. Gaudin, R. A. Wright and H. A. Huggins. Cr. Appleton has sons, but it will be years before they will be looking for a job either in or out of <the council.” “Then,” continued Cr. Duncan, “I had in mind the fact that while councillors’ sons and daughters were debarred from entering the service, the sons or daughters of heads of departments were not so debarred. All they were debarred from doing was entering the department of which their father happened to be the head. All other departments were open to, them. The by-law on that point reads: ‘The brother, sister, or child of a head of a. department or sub-department will be ineligible for temporary or permanent appointment in that particular department or sub-department.’ “-So you see that the son of a town clerk could be appointed to the city engineer’s staff; the son of a city treasurer could bo employed by the director of parks; and the son of a tramways manager might be appointed to - the treasury, yet it was not legal under the city by-laws for the son of a councillor to be appointed. I think that by-law altogether too restrictive.”