PALMERSTON BOROUGH AFFAIRS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21981, 16 June 1933, Page 7

PALMERSTON BOROUGH AFFAIRS

to THE EDITOR. 1 Sir, —According to your reports .of the meetings of the Palmerston Borough Council, that body is not a very happy family. The Mayor commenced by vetoing the 'wishes of the majority of the council by using his deliberative and casting votes to defeat the first proposal of his newly-appointed chairman of the Water Committee—a provocative action, to say the least. Now. after visiting the pictures twice, he roundly condemns them in toto. Is it his Worship, or the powers behind the throne, that speaketh? The Mayor, instead of pin pricking, should take a firm hold of his meetings. To drag the last one out till after 11.30 p.m. and conduct so little business showed a slackness in control. May I suggest to Cr Morrispn that, instead of talking for half an hour on gorse bushes, he should take up the matter of unpaid rents. The fact that about £SOO is overdue—or enough to pay the borough’s share of tarsealing the main streets—causes one to pause and wonder what manner of men' control our finances. A letter from one of the smallest ratepayers residing,pn the extreme edge of the town was, treated with the utmost gravity and consideration, although the man was demanding a complete revision of the council’s general policy to allow of a tin or two of ashes to be lifted from his property monthly. A matter of far greater importance, which was passed over lightly, was the decision to remove from ratepayers’, properties certain water meters. As two of the councillors are affected by this decision, it might be pertinent to ask if it was arrived at owing to recent readings of the metres, and also whether these councillors voted on a matter so closely relating to them? A more businesslike attitude hs required if the ratepayers are to get justice and a fair expenditure of theft rates. —I am, etc., Novi.