THE HARBOUR BRIDGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20263, 24 May 1929, Page 12

THE HARBOUR BRIDGE.

ECHO OF DEPUTATION.

NON-INCLUSION OF AN M.P. POLITICAL BIAS DENIED. POWERS OF THE EXECUTIVE. The dispute over the recent harbour bridge deputation to Wellington, from which Mr. A. Harris, M.P. for Waitemata, was omitted, led to a rather heated discussion at a meeting of the committee of tho Auckland Harbour Bridge Association last evening. Tho committee rejected by one vote a motion that all members of Parliament in tho Auckland Province should bo given an opportunity of attending future deputations to Ministers. A vote of thanks to Mr. J. S. Fletcher, M.P. for Grey Lynn, who introduced the deputation, was carried by acclamation. Reporting upon the deputation the president, Mr. B. H. Grevillo, said ho believed it had done more than two years of talk in Auckland to advance the cause of the bridge. All the local bodies vitally interested in the proposal, with the exception of the Auckland City Council, were represented. Tho personnel of tho deputation had been submitted to the executive and approved. No one could say that it was not representative. In forming it no regard had been had for political colour. Mr. F. K Powell asked why tho member for Waitemata had been ignored. Mr. Groville: Tho answer is that tho idea was a deputation of local body, not Parliamentary, representatives. As far as membors of Parliament were concerned there wero ten whom we might have taken. Mr. Powell: My question amounts to this: Why was an established precedent departed from in this instance? Mr. Greville: According to the British constitution any body of citizens may go before a Minister without an introducll°n' A Political "Vendetta." Mr. W. Parkinson said he felt that a great opportunity had boen missed by the deputation not taking local members of Parliament to Wellington with it. Their railway tickets would have cost the asso ciation nothing. Mr. Powell: I wish to raise, a much more serious matter. The executive decided to send a deputation to Wellington. It had no power to decide on such an important matter —■ Mr. Greville: The committee has power to delegate any or all of its powers to the executive. Mr. Powell: Tho executive can deal only with urgent matters. Mr. Greville: If it cannot deal with urgent matters, what is the use of it? Mr. J. Macdonald: There seems to bo a sort of vendetta between yourself and Mr. Harris, but Mr. Harris has been before, and he should have been invited. So should Mr. Mason, who represents Birkenhead. Wo should certainly bring M.P.'s in; they have nothing else to do. (Laughter.) , Mr! C. H. M. Wills said it was regrettable that there should have been any appearance of political feeling about the deputation, because ho believed no such feeling had existed. However, the idea had got abroad that the deputation was more a political matter than one concerning the bridge. Mr. Greville: Of course it was not. Wo had tho Mayors of all the boroughs, i Mr. A. E. Greenslade, Mayor of Northcote, said ho had no political motive in going to Wellington. Mr. Wills went on to say that the political feelings of Mr. Greville and Mr. Harris wero well known. Many Reform Party supporters also supported the bridge and Mr. Harris had worked for it for u long time. Ho felt that Reform membors of the committee should have been consulted before anything was clone. Mr. Fletcher's Views. Mr. E. Blampied said Mr. Fletcher was not an outsider. The city side of the harbour had not been well enough represented in the past. Mr. Harris had rushed into print, but there was no reason why the association should bo concerned over his personal dignity. Six months ago ho had taken an unofficial deputation to the Prime Minister without consulting the association. Mr. G. O'Halloran, who said he was a Reform supporter, remarked that he had gone although ho knew that no Reform members of Parliament wero going. He had been one of Mr. Harris dreadful unofficial deputation. (Laughter.) To test tho feeling of the committee Mr. O'Halloran moved that in future deputations to tho Government all members of Parliament in tho Auckland Province should bo invited, where practicable, to attend. After a good deal of further discussion the motion was put and declared lost by one vote. Mr. Fletcher, who was invited to speak, said that when he accepted an invitation |to accompany tho deputation political | considerations had never entered his head. | Ho would be very sorry if anything that had happened should harm the bridge scjieme. Ho had advocated it at all his eloction meetings, and regarded it, as a national matter, because th bridge would ho an important link in the highways of tho north and would save many miles. The whole thing was not politics but sheer business, and ho would gladly have gone with Mr. Harris to further it. On Mr. O'Hallornn's motion a vote of thanks to Mr. Fletcher was carried by acclamation. Later Mr. Powell initiated n further discussion by declaring that tiro executive had gone beyond its powers in organising tho deputation without waiting for the next monthly meeting of the committee. "There has been no report on what was done," ho said. "I am not going to sit on this committee and be a silly fool." Mr. Greville: You are taking it qivjto wrongly. The executive used its discretion. If tho committee does not liko it it can pass a resolution saying so. It was mentioned in discussion that all the local body representatives on the deputation had paid their own expenses.