A DEPUTATION DENIED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21986, 22 June 1933, Page 8

A DEPUTATION DENIED

THE ANTI-CAMP AGITATION

FREE USE OF CONCERT CHAMBER MAYOR’S ACTION UPHELD “ The first business,” said the Mayor (the Eev. E. T. Cox) at the meeting of the City Council last night, “ deals ■with the reception of deputations. In this connection I will ask the town clerk to read a letter received and my reply.” F. O’Rorke, hon. secretary of the AntiCamp Council, Dunedin, wrote under date June 20, as follows:—“I have been requested by my council to ask that a deputation of two speakers be received on Wednesday evening at the Town Council meeting. Speakers, Mrs Reeves and Mr G. Herring. To request the use of Town Hall for a public meeting of protest. An early reply will oblige.” To that letter the town clerk replied as follows, under date June 20:—“I have yours of even date in which you ask that a deputation be heard by the council at its meeting on Wednesday next, when it desires to make a request for the use of the Town Hall for a public meeting of protest. In reply, I am instructed by the Mayor to say that such a matter is not one for a deputation to council, and it has been referred to the Finance Committee, as the standing ' committee of the council having the control of the Town Hall.” Cr MTndoe moved that the action of the Mayor be confirmed. Cr Scott seconded the motion. ' v The Mayor eaid that he would first like, before councillors spoke, to give his reasons for taking up his attitude. A deputation had waited on him in connection with the matter —the deputation representing the body named—and asked him to 'give them the free use of the concert chamber. He had immediately taken steps to ascertain the legal position, and he had then given his decision. Ho had _ given several reasons for his attitude. In the first place he had said he was at present negotiating with the Unemployment Board, with regard to compulsory camps, and he did not think the holding of a meeting of protest would assist these negotiations; secondly, that the deputation could secure the concert chamber on payment of a slim of £5, like any other body; thirdly, that he might himself call a meeting at any time, when free and fair consideration could be

given to the subject. As regarded his fourth reason (which, it might be stated, related to sustenance) he would ask the press not to report it. For the reasons he had named he had declined to grant the deputation the permission asked for. He hoped the councilwould support him in this matter. Cr Jones said that the reasons advanced by'the Mayor might be perfectly sound, but the fact remained that the council as a body had not been given the opportunity of considering the application. He personally felt that any deputation should have the right to come before the council, which could then say what should be done. The speaker said that meetings were held in the Town .Hall in Wellington, and he understood that the hall was granted free to the unemployed. It was far bettor for the unemployed to demonstrate at night time than in the day time, as under the latter circumstances they would lose their pay. The speaker said that the previous meeting held in the Concert Chamber in connection with the camps had had no result. A resolution had been forwarded to the Unemployment Board and no reply had been received; That was scant courtesy. The least the board could do was to send a reply. Dunedin had again been made a scapegoat. The speaker said he,did not believe that the people of New Zealand would stand for the half starving of their people. He saw no reason why,the depu- ( tatibn should not be heard. The council should have the opportunity of saying whether the request should bo granted or not. He would move that the deputation be heard. Applause broke out from the crowded gallery, the Mayor holding up his hand for silence. Cr Munro seconded the amendment. He said he was rather inclined to support Cr, Jones. ' All the councillors were not on the Finance Committee. The hall belonged to the people of Dunedin —they were only the guardians or trustees, so to speak. In other centres he believed that bodies of unemployed got the free use of the town halls. The council had stopped the holding of public meetings, except on the Oval and the Cardens, and here was quite a reasonable request from a very large body of people in their town who were in the unfortunate position through no fault of their own of being unemployed. He thought that they, as the representatives of the citizens, should at least hear the deputation, > and then the whole council would be acquainted with the reasons for it being there that night. Cr Silverstone supported the amendment. He had been a little surprised when he had been told that the deputation would not be heard. He had noticed that very, very seldom had deputations from other bodies been turned down. All that was asked was that the deputation should be heard. He knew that there was no chance of getting the present restrictive rule altered —not for a little while. Some- day they would get it altered—and very forcibly, too. They would see that where deputations were refused a hearing it would not always be those below who were concerned. Cr MTndoe said he must protest against such a policy of intimidation. Laughter from the audience. Cr MTndoe said that he was not going to be intimidated by remarks—(interruption)—from the onlookers or anyone else. — (Interruption.) The Mayor said he did not intend to have any interference from the audience in the gallery, no applause, no hostility, and no favouritism. He would clear the gallery if there was any disturbance. The council had been conducted with decorum for the past 60 or 70 years. The people were there to hear the discussions, and lie would ask that they listen to them with proper decorum. Cr Shacklock said that never in his experience had there been any difficulty in deputations appearing before the council. Certain procedure had to bo adopted, however, before a deputation could be heard. Cr Munro: I presume that the application was in order. The town' clerk said it was so far as time was concerned. Cr Shacklock said he thought that several of the speakers were quite out of order. They were, in effect, not dealing at all with the subject of the request. For the good governance of the meetings of the council he thought that the usual methods of procedure should he adhered to. There was no great urgency in connection with the matter. })r Borne; Could you tell us if the deputation is in order? The Mayor: It is not in order In regard to its request, because it is only a small section of the community, and it ean have the hall for the sum of £5. He thought some of the councillors were under a misapprehension. They spoke as if the deputation represented the unemployed. It did not. The deputation was from the anti-camp group, which was a very small body. It had sufficient room of its own to carry out its operations without asking for the Concert Chamber. The amendment was lost, only Crs Munro, Jones and Silverstone voting for it

The motion confirming the action of the Mayor was then put and carried. Asked at the conclusion of the meeting by a Daily Times reporter what he meant by the word “ forcibly,” Cr Silverstone said that ho was surprised to learn that he had used it. He stated that what he intended to convey was that the alteration would be brought about by “ force of voting power on the council.”