The Gisborne Times published daily SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1927. MR, PEARSON TRAPS HIMSELF.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10369, 9 April 1927, Page 6

The Gisborne Times published daily SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1927. MR, PEARSON TRAPS HIMSELF.

The controversy that is proceeding in the columns of this journal with reference to the respective qualifications of Messrs Ann strong and Coleman for the Mayoralty would he much more interesting if supporters of the latter would try and display consistency. It will have been noted, for instance, that Mr Pearson has allowed himself to get into a dreadful tangle. By this time, our readers will be wondering what his views really are on the subject of whether it is or is not an advantage for a member of a local body to have special expert knowledge in respect of constructive works. Seemingly lie stands for the proposition so far as it affects the Harbor Board, but takes up a negative attitude- when it come to the Borough Council! His attitude, in short, is an amusingly awkward one. On the one hand, it is found that this correspondent does not reckon that Mr Armtsrong has shaken up harbor matters sufficiently from an engineering standpoint and, on the other, he professes that the Borough Council should swallow, holus bolus, every recommendation placed before it l.!y its engineer. The plain facts of the matter are, of course, that Mr Pearson shows by his criticism of Mr Armstrong’s work on the Harbor Board that it is highly advantageous to a local body to have for its leader a chairman who 7 has the ability to give his colleagues a sound lead on an engineering problem. Let us take his own claim viz., that he has repeatedly pointed out in the press the weakness of the situation (in reference to the Wliareongaonga quarry). Does he seriously wish the electors to believe that whilst a Harbor engineer is capable of grave error a Borough engineer must lie regarded as infallible? This is, at any rate, what he means when he says in respect of the Borough "... we have a salaried- Borough Engineer, who supplies plans, specifications, supervision, and expert opinion to the Council and, in usual practice, the Borough Engineer’s opinions are accepted as paramount to the Mayor and councillors; otherwise the stability of the engineering department is affected and a virtual no-confid-ence motion ensues upon the Borough Engineer.” Why does he not reverse the local bodies, claim that the Harllor Engineer should he implicitly trusted in respect of his judgment and confess that, if that be so, it has been sheer impudence on his part to criticise even the shaky Wliareongaonga project? Mr Pearson should now get right down to tin-tacks and 1 tell the electors what the bulk of them must realise viz:, that be did bis best to bring about a clash between Mr Armstrong and the Harbor Engineer and that, as far as the Mayoralty is concerned, lie has taken up the weak attitude that Mr Armstrong has not the strongest possible qualifications for the position—in that lie is in a position to speak authoritatively on various engineering questions for the simple reason that Mr Coleman is a Labor aspirant and lie, being a union official, feels under the necessity to support him, irrespective of the true merits of the rival candidates.