MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE BUSINESS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14577, 16 July 1909, Page 6

MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE BUSINESS.

It is not for us to suggest means whereby the leakage of information concerning the proceedings of the committees c'f the City Council may bo, prevented. That is a matter entirely for the municipal authorities. We can perfectly well understand tho annoyance that must ho caused to members of these committees if their decisions are prematurely disclosed or if an erroneous version of tho conclusions of the committer obtains circulation. In either raso the fault lies either with members of tho committees or with the- officials of the Corporation. And, since there is apparently uo likelihood' that tho Council will bo able to stop tho leakage of information, the best course for it to adopt is to ensure that the intelligence which is furnished- to the piiblic°concerning its proceedings shall be reliable. Wo can couceivo no good reason why tho decisions and recommendations of a committee of the Corporation should bo officially withheld from the ratepayers for several days pending the circulation of the complete reports of all the various committees for presentation at the next ensuing meeting of the Council. In effect, however, that is what is contemplated by the system which is in vogue. There were, for instance, meetings yesterday of two committees. Tho Council has not recognised tho desirability of permitting any of tho decisions- of tlic.sa committees to become public property ns soon as tlioy aro arrived at: tho first authoritative presentation of the results of the committee's proceedings will bo contained iu the printed reports which' will bo circulated among councillors eight days lienco. It is, however, not reasonable to suppose that the members of these committees, being under no pledge of secrecy, will all obsorvo for so "long a, complete reticence respecting the business they have.transacted. It may, indeed, be arguable whether the system that is followed does not induco leakage. And where the business that is transacted by the committees becomes a subject of discussion outside the committee room it would be absurd to suggest that tlic newspapers should enter into a self-denying ordinance and refrain from publishing tho particulars that reach them. If this information, necessarily obtained in sonio cases at second-hand, should provo to be not wholly correct, that circumstance is to bo regretted as much by the City Council as by the newspaper which has been misled; and there is sound force, therefore, in the suggestion that, to prevent leakage through unauthorised channels, the Council should adopt the plan of affording full information concerning the proceedings at the meetiugs of its committees. The method of giving effect to this suggestion that would bo most satisfactory to all concerned would probably consist in tho bestowal upon the chairman of each committee or upon some Corporation official —tho Town Clerk or his. authority to'convey, to the press the results of the deliberations of the committees on the days on which their meetings are held.