STRATFORD TOWN CLERKSHIP.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 248, 25 February 1911, Page 6

STRATFORD TOWN CLERKSHIP.

To the Editor. Sir,—l see that the Borough Council of Stratford is calling applications for the position of town clerk, which has just been rendered vacant by the resignation of Mr, Hemingway (who is joining the journalistic world). Now, Sir, as vague rumors are rife that this position of Stratford's town clerk is already practically filled by a son of one of the councillors (who, I am informed, has already secured by good canvassing a substantially pledged majority of the support of the councillors in favor of his candidature for the position), I would j ask by what right the Borough Council presumes to waste the time and labor of outsiders, when the position is already, to all intents and purposes, conferred on one of their own flesh and blood, and only requires a few technicalities to be confirmed? Ido not know what conditions obtain in other local bodies re appointments to their offices, but I do know that the Stratford local bodies have peculiar methods in the appointment of their clerks, ets. One of their rules, when they want a p vdtion filled which is worth having is li rlvcrtise for applications, when, at the sa::;e time, they have already, in every ease to my knowledge during the last fifteen years, selected a person to fill the bill, and later on raised the ",-icrews" of their pets. We have lately had a thing of this sort in connection with our Hospital Board,'etc., where the clerk's salary was raised to £ H)0 per annum, and this in view of the fact that there is only about half a day's work per week in connection with the billet.—l am, etc., STRATFORD RATEPAYER.