TOMAHAWK DOMAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22053, 8 September 1933, Page 10

TOMAHAWK DOMAIN

NEW BOARD NOMINATED AN ENTERTAINING MEETING. With no rates to collect, no money to spend, no financial obligations to meet, and only approximately 50 acres of sand and lupins to worry about, it might have been thought that the periodical meetings of the Tomahawk Domain Board would be models of agreeable serenity. That such has not been the case, however, is evidenced by the recent resignation of the board as a whole, and the spectacle, hugely enjoyed, actually or vicariously, by the whole community, of two welhknown figures, far from young, engaging in fisticuffs which were merely the climax to innumerable disagreements about trees and sand, tennis courts, and bowling greens, and in fact anything that happened to occur to the apparently belligerent minds of the principal participants. Greek had met Greek across the deal table of the board room at the" end of the district hall, and strong mind opposed strong mind so monotonously and with so little result that it was decided to ask the GovernorGeneral to appoint another board. This necessitated a public meeting for the purpose of selecting nominees, and the whole of Tomahawk turned out last evening to take part in the proceedings. It was an expectant three-score who filled the hall at 8 o'clock, and their anticipations must have been more than fulfilled by the sight of one figure on the left of the hall, beating time to his booming voice with a hat which he frequently screwed into the mo3t fantastic shapes, and another on the right of the hall giving always a Roland for an Oliver in no less vigorous anil thunderous accents. If the -audience could not always follow the drift of the. debate, or at times even hear the actual remarks made, that did not detract in any way from the amusement derived from an exchange of personalities of that most intimate kind embracing both the -private and public lives of the parties concerned. Perhaps it was the irrepressible high spirits of the gathering which contributed more than anything else to the almost complete absence of acrimony in circumstances which seemed certain to lead to it. The main. object of the meeting was to select seven nominees whose names should finally go to the GovernorGeneral for appointment as a Domain Board. There were G 5 people in the hall, including children, and nominanations numbered 20. A ballot was taken, and while the scrutineers struggled valiantly with names, numbers, and initials the meeting entertained itself in the most informal way. Mr J. Brunton was voted to the chair and explained the object of the meeting. He said it was competent for them 1o nominate up to nine members for the board and he would ask the meeting first to decide how many nominees there should be. Mr J. S. Newton moved that nine nominations be called for, and had scarcely finished speaking when Mr .T. Pereira jumped to his feet and moved an amendment that the number should be seven. Immediately the argument began in earnest, and the chairman had | to call both speakers to order very peremptorily. Each tried to explain way the old board had resigned, but they were not allowed to continue. Finally the chairman managed to take a vote on the question of nominations and the amendment was carried. The chairman then called for nominations and the name of Mr J. S. Newton was called. At this stage insistent voicos demanded that the meeting be told why the board had resigned in a body. It was held that the meeting was entitled to know before it voted. Two voices speaking almost as one hastened to supply tbs information from totally opposite viewpoints and the chairman had again to be very firm. Then Mr R. Brunton <xplained that the board had resigned ina body because there was one member of it with whom nobody could agree. Loud laughter and excited chatter, above which could be heard two arguing voices, caused another call for order. There was a lull for a few moments and then more heated debate. No one seemed to wish to keep to any one subject and it was becoming a case of everyone talking and nobody listening when the chairman took a firm stand.

Mr Brunton' read sections of the Public Reserves and National Parks Act sotting out the duties of the board, the method of appointment of members and the uses to which domains could be put, and then went on with the business of nomination. In all 20 nominations were received and a ballot resulted as follows: — R. Brunton 41, J. Tuber 30, J. A. Winefield 37, J. Brunton 36, H. F. Pa.vton 36, W. T. Smaill 29, and A. Taylor 29. Among the nominees were throe women, and in addition to those whose names were sent forward there were a further dozen persons nominated who declined the honour. Mr J. Robertson, who was one of the early nominees, objected to the wholesale nomination on the ground that it was making a farce of the meeting and as a protest withdrew his nomination.

The names of the seven nominees wijl now be forwarded to the Lands Department to be submitted to the GovernorGeneral, who will make the final appointment.