“BRANDED AS ROGUES”

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11302, 30 August 1922, Page 5

“BRANDED AS ROGUES”

HOT INTENTION OF ACT AUDIT DEPARTMENT AND LOCAL BODY MEMBERS. “THE LAW TOO DRASTIC.” That tlio Audit Department should have some discretion in regard to prosecuting members of local bodies who made trivial purchases and so forth on their behalf, was strongly urged in tho House of Representatives yesterday afternoon by Mr J. A. Young (Waikato). The lion, member cited the case of Mr Armstrong, ex-Mayor of Hamilton, who had been removed from the local Electric Power Board for purchasing on aocount of the board an article valued at some £5, which the board had had no little difficulty in securing. Mr Armstrong had resigned in consequence hie position ns Mayor of Hamilton, as a protest, he said, against men being practically .branded as rogues as soon as they became members of a publio body. Mr Young gave also the case of a, Waikato solicitor who became Mayor of a borough or a member of a local body, but was disqualified because after he became a member he bad been paid by the council for work that he had done for it prior to his being a member. “A GOOD DEAL QF SYMPATHY.” The Prime Minister stated that ho had seen reports of the cases referred to, and he had a good deal of sympathy with gentlemen such as they were who broke the law inadvertently. He did not agree that the Mayor of a borough or a member of a local body was branded as a rogue by the present law. ' That was certainly not the intention of the Act. All the same, he thought the law too drastic, and that it needed amendment. Something should be done in the way of giving the Auditor and Controller-General more discretion. He could not ask the House to amend the law this session, but lie would consult tlie law draftsman as to what could be done in the matter.

Mr T. W. Rhodes .(Thames): If the limit of value were raised to £2O, it would about meet the case;