EASY WAY OUT

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 11, 14 January 1932, Page 13

EASY WAY OUT

LOCAL BODY PROBLEMS

REFERRED TO OFFICERS

There is a familiar phrase at local body meetings which seems to lift clouds of uncertainty with considerable case—"Leave it to the engineer." If the matter under discussion happens to be in different category it may be that the phrase is: "Leave it to the secretary," or. "Leave it to the clerk."

Any one of those decisions brings an atmosphere of relief to the council table. Weighty discussions take their trend, move over this aspect and that, and finally, reach the stage where the ability of the engineer, the clerk, or the secretary provides a glorious haven.

A local body not far from Wanganui had before it a particularly knotty problem—how to let a ratepayer off the 10 per cent, penalty when there was a legal duty to collect it (states the Wanganui "ChronieleV). "Leave it to' the engineer," said a member. "He can find a way out," "That's a good idea," said another councillor, replacing a frown with a smile.

"The engineer in the boom again," said the chairman. "If he fails you fellows 'might have to find the 10 per cent, out of your own pockets." ' MEN OF MANY PARTS. Frowns developed again and there was a, mumbling about charging1 the ratepayer 15 per cent, and making him pay. "Leavo that part of it to the clerk," said a councillor,' and the mists of uncertainty .rolled away again; -Engineers, clerks, secretaries, and executive officers in general have to play. different parts at times. They execute the will of their employers and War the brunt of ■ criticism: True, they are paid to do it. If there is a slip on the road, blame the engineer^ If the rates are high, blame him still harder! If the road is in good order, thank the council. If thea'ates come down, praise the council and return thanks to Almighty God. In between the two stages of depression and'joy there are: buffers to take the • shocks:; .—the engineer; the clerk, and the.secretary.. Sometimes it is the chairman who gets' his hapless head where the engineer's should have been; The occasions a^e rare when individual mem-, bers >of local bodies stepi out to the block and find the knife iof criticism above them. _More ; often than not they wield the.knife themselves,, and painstaking officials "get it in the neck."