CHIEF JUSTICE AND MAYOR

Grey River Argus, 28 June 1943, Page 6

CHIEF JUSTICE AND MAYOR

WELLINGTON TEA CUP STORM. WELLINGTON, Jun 26. An explanation why the invitation to the Chief Justice (the Rt. Hon. Sir Michael Myers) to attend the' civic reception to Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg, V.C. was late in arriving is given by the Mayor of Wellington (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop) in a letter to the “Evening Post.” After explaining that at civic receptions the Mayor and councillors take precedence over the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice,' Mr. Hislop stated that some years ago the council was informed that the Chief Justice would not attend civic receptions unless he was given a prominent place on the platform. The Chief Justice had also arranged with the Town Clerk that he did not wish to attend many civic receptions but would ask for an invitation when he wished to attend. The platform at the Majestic Theatre is smaller than that at the Town Hall, with a limit of fifty-live seats, states Mr. Hislop, and fifty-eight seats were required for councillors, Cabinet Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition and their wives. The Chief Justice did not ask for an invitation until after 5 p.m. on Monday and as the typists had left it was impossible to send it then. The next morning the Mayor discussed with a councillor and the Town Clerk the question of erecting a special table over the footlights in order to accommodate everybody and the invitation to the Chief Justice was in his office by 9.15 a.m. The Chief Justice received the invitation in ample time, but because of some imagined personal slight he preferred not to attend. “I am compelled to say. that unless the Chief Justice in your next issue unreservedly withdraws the imputation contained in his letter, I shall be compelled to regard the same as a deliberate affront to myself and my fellow councillors,” said Mr. Hislop, who pointed out that the Chief Justice omitted to say his associate was definitely., informed by the Town Clerk that he was not to assume that no invitation would be sent, but that it was held up in the meantime. “This is the crux of the whole situation and has been overlooked by the Chief Justice,” reads the letter. “The reason for this temporary holding back of the invitation was simply to enable consideration of the arrangement of the platform seating to be completed. As I stated in my previous letter we had to endeavour to find room for- sixty-six persons on a' platform that accommodated normally only fifty-five. Puisne judges were invited to the auditorium only, but it was a condition that the Chief Justice should be seated in a prominent position on the platform.” Councillors M. Luckie, R. L. i.xCAlister, M. Fraser, R. H. Nimmo, B. H. Gilmour and W. Duncan have given notice of motion tp dissociate the council from the action of the Mayor in refusing the request of the Chief Justice for an invitation.”

Sir M. Myers in a' further letter to the press stated that following a conversation between his associate and the Town Clerk, he himself telephoned the latter, who said that the Mayor’s instructions were that seats were not to be reserved. The Town Clerk volunteered to see the Mayor again, and ten or fifteen minutes later telephoned to say. that the Mayor would consider the request. He adds: “I said that the message merely added to the insult and that the matter could not rest there. He said: (‘I am sorry, but I am only obeying orders.’ He ’suggested that I speak to the Mayor myself, and I answered: ‘Certainly not.’ It is correct that the invitation was delivered at my chambers about 9.15 on 'Tuesday morning, but without a word of explanation. I desired, if I could, to avoid possible embarrassment to others, and it occurred to me that that might be overcome if the Mayor even at that late stage, was prepared to withdraw gracefully. I therefore telephoned the Town Clerk and told him I had received the invitation, and that I could not attend the reception, and that I proposed taking a certain course of action which, however could be avoided by the Mayor at once sending me (but not for publication) an expression of regret for his insults of the previous day. Had an expression of regret been made, it would have ended the matter, but nothing was heard from the Mayor. At no stage during the conversations had there been any mention of a' difficulty in regard to seating or otherwise.”