THE WAITAKI ELECTRIC POWER BOARD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22099, 1 November 1933, Page 5

THE WAITAKI ELECTRIC POWER BOARD

TO TH EDITOR.

Sib, —The general public is indebted to you for the dispassionate and jumcial sub-leader on the proceedings of the Waitaki Power Board at its recent meeting, and the arbitrary action of the chairman in refusing to hear the feasons that would be.given by Mr Forrester and others in support of the motion of which Mr Forrester had given notice. Mr Forrester ought to be the best qualified member of the board to give an opinion, as he has been very successful in his profession as an architect. Since hig retirement he has given, and still/is giving, the benefit of his technical knowledge long experience to the Power Board, Borough Council, and other public bodies, to the material benefit of those bodies, and of the general public. To refuse a hearing to a man so qualified to give an opinion; ■v on matters affecting risks to the lives of- employees is a thing unheard of, especially on a notice of motion. It has been my privilege for several years to take part in the proceedings of that august body, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, than which no body, not even Parliament, is more punctilious as to points of order and mode of procedure. I have never known that a speaker could be refused a hearing after he had given notice of motion; the notice ensured him a right to be heard. Our Waitaki Power Board seems a law unto itself, the law being enunciated by the present chairman. The Public Works Department will hardly take his ruling, especially where the of the board employees are - said > have been endangered.—l am, ete .: 6. Stringer. Oamaru, October 30.