TRANSPORT DISPUTE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 664, 16 May 1929, Page 16

TRANSPORT DISPUTE

MR- ALLUM’S POSITION CR. MURRAY’S VIEWS Expressing his view of the situation caused through Mr. J. A. C. Allum’s resignation from the Transport Board, Cr. W. H. Murray interprets the legal position as he sees it in the following letter to The Sun: Sir, —■ In response to the repeated requests from my fellow citizens for my publicly stated opinion regarding the position that has arisen in connection with Mr. Allum’s ingenious gesture in tendering to the City Council his resignation as a member of the Transport Board, I pen this letter. I .state that, in my judgment, Mr. Allum’s office as a member of the board became vacant immediately he signed his name to the form of resignation on the 3rd inst. and that from that moment he was no longer qualified to sit on the board, or to act as a member of it. Sub-section 1 of Section II of the Auckland Transport Board Act, 1928, declares under the title of extraordinary vacancies: “The office of a member shall become vacant if he (b) resigns his office by writing under his hand delivered to the (secretary or) chairman of the board.” Mr. Allum was chairman of the board when he signed his own resignation as a member, and the delivery of his signed resignation to himself was complete and became operative at least when he placed it in the envelope in which it reached the Town Hall. The position therefore to my mind admits of neither argument nor misconception. Section 12 enacts that in the event of an extraordinary vacancy occurring within 12 months of the time when the member whose seat has been vacated would have retired, the same shall be tilled by the board, and in other cases the provisions of the Local Elections and Polls Act, 1925, relating to extraordinary vacancies, shall apply. This means that the present vacancy resulting from Mr. Allum’s resignation on the 3rd inst. must be filled by an election under the adult franchise. Should the majority of the City Council endeavour to impose Mr. Allum further upon the community by adopting any resolution purporting to decline to accept his resignation of the 3rd inst., a Supreme Court ruling will, I believe, be sought without further ado; and whatever may be the result Parliament is to be approached for an amendment to the Act to give the electors the right without delay to elect their own representatives to th board. In October last I opposed the selective scheme propounded in the council’s Bill, and did my best to secure to the people the elective principle, but my endeavours were disregarded by the rest of the then council. Regarding Crs. Ashley. Bagnall, Brownlee, Dempsey and Entrican, who so obviously somersaulted last Thursday from their public pledge given to the Progressive Citizens’ Committee 1 before the poll, let me recall that , pledge. ] "In the service of the people.” “Transport Board, review of the per- i sonnel of the Transport Board after < the poll and replacing by elected ] members of the council any who may i not be re-elected.” ~ - W. 11. MURRAY, ; Councillor. j