THE AVONDALE RESIGNATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19719, 19 August 1927, Page 14

THE AVONDALE RESIGNATIONS

gj r> —Having read your snb-leadei headed v "Aftermath in Avondale," I write to voice the opinion of many Avondale ratepayers. We desire to pay grateful tribute to Mr. Tiark's ability and self sacrificing labours on our behalf siner he became cur Mayor. It is an open secret that Avondale owes to him a long overdue overhaul of the financial affair: of the borough of Avondale. Has not Mr. Tiarks every reason to feel that th< shabbiest of treatment has been meted out to him by the very people who secured his election by such an overwhelming majority? I voice the feelings of many when I sav that, however convinced oi the advisability of amalgamation with the city it was hardly decent that those who had'voted Mr. Tiarks into office so very, very recently, should, within a few weeks wreck the vvhole policy on which he had consented to assume office as Avondale's leading citizen. He had stated very clearly that two years would be the mini mum "term in which our affairs could be straightened out. Surely those who then voted him into office should have given him that time in which to demonstrate his undoubted financial ability. My quarrel is not with amalgamation, as such. As 3 matter of fact, I signed the Greater Auckland petition, which was presented to the City Council some six years ago, and which was turned down. My contention is that the time was as inopportune as could well be devised and that its incidence did justify the Mayor, the deputymayor, and Councillors Edmiston and Reisterer in regarding the result of Saturday's poll as essentially an undeserved "vote of no confidence." Why did not all the blessings of immediate amalgamation present themselves, at least as forcibly, during the term of office of the preceding council, when obvious reasons for discontent were not lacking ? Mr. Tiarks would have to be a much denser man than even his worst critics would admit, if he failed to recognise that only a personal equation and personal animus could supply any adequate reply. If this be granted, could any self-respecting official be expected to tamely retain office ? Quod ebat demonstrandum. Avondale, August 18, 1927.