COUNCILLORS RESIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17614, 29 October 1920, Page 4

COUNCILLORS RESIGN.

The announcement that two members of the City Council have resigned their seats will come to the public as a surprise and many people will find the cause of the resignations no less surprising. -It has not been generally understood that the Municipal Corporations Act prevented, or was intended to prevent, a member of a council from buying land from the council. The Herald commented some time ago upon one transaction in Anzac Avenue sec l tions. These comments hold good. But it has to be noted that the ruling given by the Audit Office has no reference to the manner in which i the sections were bought but to the actual existence of contracts between the council and councillors. The Act has been so interpreted and it is doubtless better that the Audit Department should be accused of straining the law than that it should be under the suspicion of negligently permitting anything undesirable to j creep into our municipal administration ' At the same time it is worth noting that Parliament has now before it in the Municipal Corporations Compilation Bill an important amendment to the clause relied upon in this case. The present law disqualifies " any person concerned or participating in * any contract with

. . . the council if the payment exceeds five pounds." In the Bill before the House there have been inserted after " payment" the words " made by or on behalf of the council Whatever may be the reading of the present law, it is clear that the intention for the future is to disqualify for selling to the council but not for buying from it. This year councillors bought sections in Anzac Avenue and have been asked to resign; next year the councillors of the day may purchase what remains of the land and keep their seats. It is a peculiar position. Meantime many citizens who regret the resignations will note with satisfaction the evidence which the facts of the close supervision being exercised by the Audit Office over municipal finance.