POLICE APPEAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 67, 16 September 1936, Page 12

POLICE APPEAR

EDUCATION BOARD

ATTITUDE OF COL. T. W.

MC DONALD

TERMS OF A LETTER

After Colonel T. W. McDonald, at the meeting of the Wellington Education Board last night, had refused to comply with the terms of a resolution calling upon him to make an unqualified withdrawal of a letter he had written concerning the motion of censure passed upon him at the previous meeting, a sergeant and a constable appeared on the scene. The board had taken an adjournment for twenty minutes. Five minutes before the meeting was due to resume, Colonel McDonald, after making some comment, left the room. That was at 8 p.m., and the sergeant and the constable remained in the, building for about another hour. Colonel McDonald did not return last night. In reference to the letter, Mr. L. J. McDonald moved the following resolution:—

That this board repudiates the letter received from Colonel McDonald on the ground that# is couched in terms of gross bad taste and contains slanderous statements concerning an officer of the board, its chairman, and by clear implication the board itself and each individual ■ member of it. The expressions contained in the letter are quite unrelated to the motion of censure passed on him (Colonel McDonald) at the last meeting, to which he has striven to relate them, and in themselves constitute a further and aggravated offence, by virtue of the insulting and abusive language employed which completely disregards the common decencies of ordinary procedure. Consequently this board requests the unqualified withdrawal of the letter by Colonel McDonald. The board at first met in committee, and went into open meeting about 7.30 p.m. Colonel McDonald made a statement in which he restated and emphasised the statements contained in his. letter. REFUSAL TO WITHDRAW. The chairman intimated .to Colonel McDonald that the resolution required him to make an unqualified withdrawal of the letter. This Colonel McDonald refused to do. After reminding Colonel McDonald of the seriousness of the attitude he was adopting, and asking him to do the reasonable thing and abide by the decision of the board, Colonel McDonald still refusing, the chairman asked him to leave the room while the board considered his conduct.

Colonel McDonald refused to leave the room.

A motion was then submitted to the effect that Colonel McDonald be requested to leave the room while the board considered his conduct.

Colonel McDonald, however, remained adamant, and the' next step was a motion by Mr. L. J. McDonald that Colonel McDonald be susirmded.

Colonel McDonald still insisted that he would not leave the room. <■

The chairman then moved an adjournment of the meeting for twenty minutes. That was at 7.45 p.m.', and at 7.55 p.m. a sergeant and a constable arrived in the board room.

The sergeant and the constable were told by the chairman that the board had adjourned because of Colonel McDonald's refusal to abide by the resolutions of the board and the rulings of the chair, and that the meeting was to resume at 8.5 p.m.

Colonel McDonald remained in the board room until 8 p.m., and after some rather characteristic comment he intimated to members that if it would assist them he would clear the way and leave the room. He thereupon left, and the board resumed at 8.5 p.m. without him, the police still being in the building, where they remained until somewhere about 9 p.m. *

BOARD VINDICATED. Subsequently Mr. L. J. McDonald addressed the meeting. He said he would not at that stage recapitulate all the issues raised by Colonel McDonald. Each and all of them had been investigated by the board, and in some ■cases by special committees, the appointment and employment of which had cost sums probably in the vicinity of or exceeding £100. Further than that, the matters had been submitted to audit, to the Education Department, and to other available authority, and had been proved not to have the least foundation, and vindicated, the board's position. Only the terms of the resolution he had submitted to the board fitted the needs of the occasion.

Mr. McDonald's resolution was carried.