COUNCIL COURTESIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20323, 2 August 1929, Page 12

COUNCIL COURTESIES.

MEMBER'S RIGHT OF SPEECH.

AN OBJECTION OVERCOME. CLOSURE LATER APPLIED. An unusual situation developed at the meeting of the Auckland City Council last evening, when what is generally regarded a3 a courtesy resolution was defeated through the persistence of a councillor.

On account of his late arrival at the meeting, Mr. J. R. Lundon was unable to move some notices-of-motion standing in his name, and when he was ruled out of order by the Mayor, Mr. G. Baildon, he appealed to the council risking one of its members to move that his notices should be reconsidered.

Mr. T. Bloodworth stepped into the breach arvd moved the suspension of the standing orders in order to allow Mr. Lundon to proceed. The motion was put to the vote and was declared carried by the Mayor with three dissentients. Mr. Lundon was called upon to speak, but the Mayor's attention was then directed to the fact that such a motion, to be effective, must be carried unanimously. "That being the case, I think that I should take a vote again," the Mayor said. "

A further show of hands was called for, and on this occasion two of the three previous dissentients voted with the ayes. When the noes were called upon, Mr. M. J. Bennett shot his hand high in the air, and made some remark in reply to the looks of surprise of the other councillors. The situation was quickly taken in hand by Mr. A. J. Entrican, who invoked the aid of another standing order to allow Mr. Lundon to proceed. Later, Mr. Entrican announcer' his unwillingness to hear Mr. Lundon further by moving that the vote on the notice under discussion should be taken there and then, a move which brought to a close a phase of the business which had prolonged the council's meeting for about three-quarters of an hour.