WESTPORT HARBOUR BOARD

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8481, 16 July 1913, Page 7

WESTPORT HARBOUR BOARD

MR SIMPSON’S FITNESS FOR MEMBERSHIP ENDORSED. Press Association.

WESTPORT, July 15.

At a meeting of the Duller County Council to-day Councillor Powell made a speech condemnatory of tho action of a member of Parliament in regard to aspersions cast on the character of Mr W. R. Simpson, a member of the council and an appointee of the Government on the Westport Harbour Board. He said they all knew Mr Simpson as an honourable man, and it was the duty of the council to correct an impression to tho contrary that had been sent broadcast, He reviewed the whole of the circumstances, and in concluding said the Minister of Marine must be assured that in appointing Air Simpson to the board he made no mistake either as regards their colleague’s morals or capacity. The convictions of younger days, possibly the outcome of local prejudices and biases by which Mr Simpson was surrounded, must not supersede others of a lifetime.

Councillor Looker, who is leaving the district to act as no-licence advocate at Napier, endorsed the remarks of Councillor Powell. He said many a man had a bad mark against his character, this should not be thrust up against him on every possible occasion. ' It did not matter what a man’s position might be; if he made strenuous eflorts to live honourably and do what was right and live a clean life the past should not be raked up against hijji. Ho believed Mr Simpson was a straightforward man, upright in all bis dealings w«th all his fellowmen, and sympathised with him, his wife, and family in what must be to them a painful event in their lives.

These remarks were also endorsed by tho chairman (Mr McCarthy!, Councillor Wilson (Crown Prosecutor), Councillor Williams (ex-chairman and ex-member of the Westport Harbour Board).

A resolution was carried unanimously: “That this council deeply sympathises with Mr Simpson and • his wife and family in having convictions for breaches of the Licensing Act used against them in the manner it has been, and, further, that this council has no doubt of his honour and that the general good conduct of Mr Simpson entitles him to the esteem in which he is generally held.”

Deea, and, tnrtner. that this council has no doubt of his honour and that the general good conduct of Mr Simpson entitles him to the esteem in which he is generally held.” In thanking the council for the remarks and the resolution Mr Simpson said he was not so greatly concerned over the affair as they might suppose, as he was fully conscious of his own innocence in the whole matter. He had the esteem of tho community in which he lived, and had no intention of resigning his position on tho Harbour Board,