WESTPORT HARBOUR BOARD.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144146, 16 July 1913, Page 5

WESTPORT HARBOUR BOARD.

ASPERSIONS DENIED. ■ PKB TRESS ASSOCIATION. WESTPORT, July 15. At a meeting of the Duller County Council to-day, Councillor Powell made a speech condemnatory of the action of a member of Parliament m regain to the aspersions cast on tho character of Mr. W. K. Simpson, a member of tho council, and an appointee of the Government on the Westport Harbour Board. Ho said that they all know Mr. Simpson as an honourable man, ami it was the duty of the council to correct the impression to tho contrary that had been spread broadcast. He reviewed the whole circumstances, and in concluding, said that the Minister-oi Marino must bo assured that in appointing Mr. Simpson to the board he had mado no mistake, either as regards their colleague’s morals or capacity. The convictions of younger days were possible tho outcome of local prejudices and biases, with which Mr. Simpson was surrounded, and these must not supersede others ol a liiotimc. Councillor Locdtor, who is leaving the district to act as Ko-Lioeuso advocate at Napier, endorsed the remarks o' Mr. Powell. He said that many a man had a bad mark against his character, but those should not be thrust up against him on every possible occasion. It did not matter what a man s position might bo if he made strenuous efforts to live honourably, and do what was right and live a clean life. The past should not bo raked up against him. Ha believed that Mr. Simpson was a straightforward man, upright in all his doings with all his fellow-men, and he sympathised with him and his wile and" family in what may be to them a painful event in their lives. llio remarks were also endorsed by tho chairman (Mr. M’Carthy), Councillor Wilson (Crown Prosecutor), Councillor Williams (ex-chairman and exmember of tho Westport Harbour Board). A resolution was carried unanimously; “That this council deeply sympathises with Mr. Simpson and his wife and family in hiving a conviction for breaches of the Licensing Act used against them in a manner it has been; and further that this council lias no doubt of his honour, and that the general good conduct of Mr. Simpson entitles him to the esteem in which he is generally held. In thanking the council for their remarks and the resolution, Air. Simpson said that ho was not so greatly concerned over affairs as they_ might suppose, as he was fully conscious of his own innocence in tho whole matter. He had tho esteem of the community in which ho lived, and had no intention of resigning his position on the Harbour Board.