MORAL ALLOWANCE

Evening Star, Issue 22032, 18 May 1935, Page 14

MORAL ALLOWANCE

INCREASE QUITE COMPETENT REPLY 18 CHRISTCHURCH CRITICS When the Dunedin City Council increased the honorarium of the mayor (the Rev. E. T. Cox) at its meeting on Wednesday everting the council, it appears, was not acting in strict compliance with the regulations governing the matter. That is the opinion of some local body officials in Christchurch (says the ‘ Press ’). At its first meeting on Wednesday evening the new Labour Council in Dunedin voted the mayor an' increase in his honorarium from £450 to £SOO, to be subject to no deductions. Newspaper reports of the proceedings stated that, the , mayor was installed at noon on Wednesday, and that the new councillors made their formal declarations at the same time. So that when the meeting made its decision on Wednesday evening about the honorarium the mayor had already entered on his new term of office. But the statutory provisions governing the fixing of the allowance of any mayor state that any alteration in the allowance of any mayor cannot take effect during his term of office as mayor. A confident and convincing reply to the statements made in Christchurch was given this morning at the Dunedin Town Hall. Interviewed in the presence of the mayor (the Rev.. E. T. Cox), the town clerk (Mr G. A. Lewin) said he was at a loss to know how the council could alter something that did not exist. The mayor’s allowance was not on the same footing as the salaries paid to permanent employees of the City, Corporation, such as those of the engineer and the treasurer. It was fixed term by term. The mayor’s term of office ended at midnight on Tuesday, May 14, and any resolution. dealing with his allowance become inoperative at that time. Therefore, when the council met on Wednesday, May 15, there was no mayoral allowance in existence. It was fixed that day—not altered.