COUNCILLOR RESIGNS

Kaikoura Star, Volume LVI, Issue 91, 19 November 1936, Page 2

COUNCILLOR RESIGNS

I - QUESTION OE RATE REBATE DIS PPTE AT DAKGAVILLE [ D ARG A VILLE, November 17. The action of a member of the Dai- t gaville Borough Council in seeking on ; behalf of a client a rebate of overdue rates, and then as a member of th< ; rating committee, urging that the re- ; bate should he approved, was the sub- r je«t ot a long discussion at the moot id; ] ■meeting of the Council Inst evening. ’ culminating in Cr. It. Gibson resigning <_ his seat. The matter came before the : Council when a. letter was received t signed by Dargaville legal firms, sup- f potted by a. deputation consisting of Messis ,I‘. iH. Goulding and M. C. Ast- ; Mr Goulding said that the letter t which had been sent to the Council ; was mu directed personally against any membei of the Council or against the Council as a whole. The only idea was t to obtain just and fair treatment. It ] had been the duty of all solicitors to apply for remission of rates at times: but the applications were not alway.e granted. ( Cr. B. Berry, chairman of the rating | committee, said liiat if no remission , had been made in some cases the Conn cil would have continued to have these properties on the rate list, with no prospect of gelling the rates paid. ‘‘l can bear out what Cr. Berry has said,’’ said Cr. Gibson. “The position of the rates is much better than it was. I have been referred to. It can .be read that I imide a charge of one and a half guineas for obtaining a rebate: but that is no! true. The charge was made for a legal service which 1 am not al liberty to make public.’’ ‘‘l am not going to remain a memiter of the rating committee until this matter is cleared up,’’ said the Mayor, ‘•liither Cr. Gibson pulls out or I do. As a solicitor, he should have been in full possession of the facts, and if so he should have given us those facts. He wa-> not the solicitor in the first case, But he interested himself in the ease, and as a member of the committee he came 10 ns ami urged us to make the reduction. 11. should have hive ligated the position before lu» wrote to us. As a solicitor, he did not use all the care . he might have done before appealin' l ; for a reduction.” <’r. Gibson: The man laid certain facts before me, ami that was all I knew. ‘‘Cr. Gibson acted wrongly in acting for a client and in being on the body • which adjudicated on the position,” said lhe Mayor. i (T. Gibson: I will lendei my resig- | mil ion right now. J 'Ph - Mayor: That clears the position. I “This is ,i conspiracy as far as lam [. concerned; but I am not going to say that those here are amongst those behind it.’’ said Cr. Gibson. ’ The .Mayor moved that Cr. Gibson’s resignation as a member of the rating committee be accepted. Seconded by f Cr. A. C. Paul, the motion was carried . without dissent. > Cr. Gibson, intimating that In* was I resigning from the Council, said he hoped they would find a worthy successor. lie then withdrew. Cr. McLean moved that in future no . reduction of rates should be made until the question had been dealt with by ilie Council. The motion was carried. ! ADJUSTING MORTGAGES WELLINGTON. November 17. Good progress has been made by the Government ami State officials in the preliminary work necessary for the ad- , ministration of tin l Mortgagors ami Lessees Rehabilitation Act passed during the last session of Parliament, ami 1 it is expected that very soon tin* legislation will start to operate. 1 The Hon. IT. G. R. Mason said that 1 applications were being received now, and he anticipated that the appointment of some adjustment commissions would be modi' almost immediately. At I the iiiomcnl it was not expected that there would be an increase in the number of commissions that operated under lhe previous Government’s mortgage legislation. A feature of the administ lotion of ihe A<t. he said, would be to encourage voluntary settlements.