CHEQUE TO CONDUCTOR

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 63, Issue 4463, 13 August 1941, Page 4

CHEQUE TO CONDUCTOR

explanation by mayor. QUESTION OF PROCEDURE. Speaking just prior to the conclusion of tne Te Awamutu Borough Council meeting on Monday evening, The Mayor said that at a meeting at wnich he had been absent Cr Daiton seemed to be under the impression that he (the Mayor) had, on his own responsibility, granted £5 5s to the retiring conductor of the Municipal Band. True, but the Council on July 16 had confirmed his action. No one, a Councillor or anyone else, would, he said, take the responsibility making a grant like that unless suie' of the support of the Council. Occasions did arise when it was necessary to act at once. This wias one of them. The matter had been reported back to the Council and his action confirmed. What he had criticised in the past was that things w’ere authorised, but not reported back to the Council —. they only knew of them when the accounts came up. He was not one to lightly do it, and contended that the procedure he had followed was quite correct. Cr Dalton had been there, and he presumed he had consented to the confirmatory motion. Cr Parsons interposed to say that Cr Dalton arrived late at the meeting in question, and the matter had been dealt with before he came in. Cr Dalton replied that why he had brought the matter up was because Cr Armstrong had been making a row about the school rubbish, concerning which a committee had authorised a letter to go forward. The Mayor had then said that the committee should have got the permission of the Council beforehand. If that were so, he asked why then should not a similar procedure be followed in regard to the payment of a cheque of £5 5s to the retiring bandmaster ? He had said that the Mayor had not a right to do it. However, he (Cr Dalton) knew that if the action were questioned, the Mayor would pay it out of his own pocket. He accepted the explanation given. The incident was closed bv the Mayor remarking that the letter Cr Dalton had referred to was a recommendation to the Council.