THE TRANSPORT BOARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20255, 15 May 1929, Page 16

THE TRANSPORT BOARD.

Sir,—" Ono of the Miob," in reply to my letter, has only given a second " punch under the belt " to Mr. Allum and his supporters in wrongly and unjustly supposing that the civic poll should decide Mr. Allura's position on the Transport Board, whereas it is the City Council's vote that decides on constitutional lines. I hope "One of the Mob" does not expect Mr. Allum's supporters on the City Council to reverse their votes; judgment, principle and prerogative for a poll that has no more to do with the case than it has to do with a Court of Justice. Minority Tolerance. Sir,—Without commenting in any way upon the 1 question of Mr. Allum's fitness or otherwise for the position ho now occupies, I should like to point cut that many of your correspondents are not only ignorant of the procedure laid down in the Act, but with the issues at stake as well. The Auckland Transport Board Act provides that until 1931 the members shall be elected by the City Council and certain other groups of local authorities within the transport area. The Act also provides the necessary machinery for dealing with the position in which Mr. Allum now finds himself. Before the end of this month the City Council or any other group of interested local authorities may remove its representative or representatives from the board and make a substitutionary appointment. The submission by Mr. Allum of his resignation to the City Council, for which there is no provision in the Act, was a gesture which has obviously served its purpose. If Mr. Allum desired to resign, the correct procedure would have been to submit his resignation in writing to the secretary of the board. This would have created an extraordinary vacancy, which would have been filled in the usual way by an election, if moi - e than one candidate was nominated and at which the franchise would have been on a much wider basis than' that operating in connection with the recent loan poll. It is clear that the voice of the people as expressed at the recent election is definitely against Mr. Allum, and there should be no question as to the course of action to be followed by the City Council. It has been stated that the recent transport poll was a vote of confidence in Mr. Allum In my opinion the successful result of the poll was due to two factors, firstly, the unemployment spectre, and secondly, the propaganda and organisation in support of the * proposal. On the day of the poll I think most people considered Mr. Allum's position to be quite clear, in that he had submitted his resignation to the council. The fact that such resignation was irregular did not affect the position, which is at present so unsatisfactory, both in the city and the outside districts, that the only method of restoring confidence in the personnel of the board is for the Government to make it elective immediately. This viewpoint is commended to the notice of members of the City Council and other constituent bodies interested in the subject of electors' rights. Elector.