CITY RESERVES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 71, 23 March 1912, Page 7

CITY RESERVES.

CASE OF AN EMPLOYEE. COUNCILLOR FLETCHER ASKS FOR ENQUIRY. When the time came for questions, at the close of the City Council meeting on Thursday night, Councillor Fletcher brought up, in the form of an enquiry, the case of an employee of the council in the Botanical Gardens. He asked whether it was a fact that this man had applied for leave of absence on account of ill-health, and yet the leave had been withheld by the superintendent. Councillor Fletcher stated that the man was practically chained in the Gardens, being on duty up till 10 o'clock at night, after the full day's work. The episode was fully reported in yesterday's Post. At the time, shortly before 11 o'clock, Councillor Frost (chairman of the Reserves Committee) had left the chamber, but yesterday he gave a Post reporter a statement in reply to Councillor Fletcher's allegations. Councillor Fletcher to-day, in an interview with a Post reporter, took strong exception to Councillor Fiost's statement. Councillor Frost, had expressed surprise that Councillor Fletcher should have brought the matter up when he did. Councillor Fletcher said th-day that ho had mentioned to Councillor Frost before tho meeting began that he was going to bring the matter up, and that he was surprised i& had not been mentioned in the Reserves Committee's report. Councillor Frost know perfectly well that, ai> the matter was not mentioned in the Reserves Committee's report, the only time when it could be ventilated was at the close of the- meeting, when questions were tisked. It would have been quite out of order to mention it during the discussion of the Reserves Committee's report. If Councillor Frost preferred to leave the chamber before, the business of the evening was concluded, >t was entirely his own fault that the matter was brought up in his absence. Councillor Fletcher further stated, in reply to remarks by Councillor- Front about employees going direct to council' jors with their complaints, that the employee in question had never made any complaint to him whatsoever. The complaints had all come from citizens who had observed the position of the man. Councillor Fletcher is so convinced of the justice of the man's case that he- has declared his intention of calling for an enquiry, not only into this particular instance, but into the whole management of tho (Jity Reserves. The anticipation of a holiday i» in* deed pluat>unt. Tim titivelling' poitiuii can bo niado jnoiu coiiii'oi table by L\m I uee vi' a convenient "Gladstone"' or "portmanteaux" fioiu (Joo. Fc-uldt, Ltd., I ManiK'ib-bti«et. I'lic price» shown in [ our iiyisiywi arg .c£ttyiacing./~A.dvk