A COUNTY COUNCIL TIFF.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13638, 4 July 1908, Page 3

A COUNTY COUNCIL TIFF.

A MEMBER RESIGNS. A somewhat disagreeable incident marred the usual smoothness of the proceedings :ib the monthly meeting of the Mackenzie County Council yesterday. Two or three requests for small matters made by members, and met with opposition or criticism jy others ; seemed to have aroused a little feeling of irritation in the minds of a few. Mr Guthrie asked for, and argued for, a race ford for a l'unaroa settler, and it was declined, or rather, deferred. Mr Black asked for removal of a dam on the lower side of the main road which caused some holts in the roadside to be flooded, and after a good deal of talk the .chairman, on whose land the dam exists, said ha would remove it. Mr Black next asked for the lowering of a pipe drain across a road to improve the drainage of on© of his paddocks; it was only a small job, he said, and he wanted jt done at once. Mr Guthrie who had been contending for the riding gang to be got to work in the township objected to breaking up the gangin order to send one man to do the job; and he argued that the engineer should report whether the alteration was necessary, or would do any good, and the more so as a member of the Council was asking for something for his own benefit. . Mr Black asked to have the work done at once and lie would pay for it if tha engineer said it was not necessary in the Council's interests, which he thought it was. Mr Guthrie suggested that Mr l»lack should put on a man to do it, and the latter said he would not interfere with a, public road". He would stand out and not vote on the question. After a good deal of talking about the work, Mr Rutherford moved that the, engineer get the work done, if on examination he considered it proper for the county to do it, and this proposal gave a new turn to the discussion. Mr Guthrie promptly said Mr Rutherford had nothing to do with it. It had been agreed that when the riding members were agreed upon any small matter, the members for other ridings should not interfere. Mr Rutherford : But we are here to look after the whole county. The chairman said it had been long understood that riding members were to be left to deal with small matters. He was rather disgusted at the way the To kapo and Cave members had tried at a previous meeting to force the making of a new road on the Fairlie riding, when all the Fairlie members were against it. Afi a matter of courtesy and of expediency it would be better to leave small riding matters to the riding members. . Mr Guthrie said, quite so. This was a one-man job, and Mr Black could get a man as easily as the Council. Mr Rutherford: No private mail has any right to interfere with a public road at all. The chairman said they had spent lots of money in Tekapo by paying men who got work done for themselves. Mr Black: Not on roads so much used as this. He would not agree to do the 1 work himself, but would pay for it if the engineer thought he ought to do Stl.

The chairman said he was prepared to have ifc done at once, it was 60 email a matter. There had been a lot of splitting straws about it, but as it -was objected to, the engineer had better report upon it. Mr Black said : If tJiat'e your decision I'm going to leave the table, and yon may take that as my resignation from the" Council. Sir Black thereupon rose and left the room. The chairman remarked that it wan absurd for a member to resign, and put the county to a lot of expense simp:y because he could not get his own way. At a later stage a letter w;is received from Mr Black resigning his seat. He added: " You as chairman did not do your duty when you refused to take Mr Rutherford's motion, and did not try to find a seconder. I intend to do the work mentioned, and will put the water on the road."

The chairman s?iid he was wry sony that Mr Black had thought proper to take this action in a hasty moment, especially when they were so near the end (if their term—only four meetings to go. As a. mat'er of fact he did not refuse to take Mr Rutherford's motion; a discussion arose about riding members, and t lie moLion was not seconded.

Sir Rutherford : You never m?ked for aseconder, and you said ifc was out of order.

The chairman : 1 never used the words " out of order." I only said that it was against our usual practice. It is not my duty to find a (seconder. If it had been seconded I would have put it to the meeting.. Messrs Smi h and Irving moved that Mr Black be. asked to withdraw his resignation, as the term was so near its close, and. this was carried.