COMIC ECONOMY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 139, 15 June 1932, Page 6

COMIC ECONOMY.

last night’s City Council meeting Councillor Luxford moved the following;— 1. That the Town Clerk he retired in October, and that Mr. White be appointed Town Clerk, and that Mr. White’s appointment be confirmed in twelve months’ time from date of appointment. 2. That the gas manager, Mr. Stone’s, and the second engineer, Mr. R-apson’s, services be terminated in October, and that Mr. Deem be appointed city manager. Mr. Deem’s appointment to be confirmed in twelve months’ time from date of appointment. 3. That the sum of £75 which has been paid in past years to Mr. Mureh as ‘‘Sinking Fund Commissioner” bo not paid this year. It needs little acumen to perceive the lack of wisdom in such proposals. The City Council’s affairs are now in the hands of very capable officers, each of whom is carrying a very full load. It savours more of the comic than serious business to suggest that in this period of difficulty the City Council should deprive itself of its most experienced public servant, who has so recently given the City an exhibition of the value of his experience in his handling, with the Mayor, of financial problems of magnitude. Further, to suggest that Mr. Deem, who is already loaded to the full with the City’s engineering problems, the tramway system and the planning of work to be undertaken by the unemployed, could also undertake the management of the Gas Department without the assistance of Mr. Rapson is so ludicrous that even Mr. Luxford himself cannot be expected to believe it to be possible. The proposal, not to pay Mr. Mureh for his services as Sinking Fund Commissioner was the climax to last night’s comedy, considering that Mr. Mureh is not so paid, but that the City Council receives £75 annually for the services rendered by its Town Clerk to the Sinking Fmid Commissioners. Mr. Luxford’s proposals do not merit serious consideration and it is no matter for surprise that they were not seconded. There is. however, a negative side to such “stunts’ as these. The City is paraded as a place where municipal servants are not honoured. Each year they have to suffer the humiliation of seeing their salaries and positions discussed in public. Do not the promoters of those, motions realise that when the time comes for Wanganui to seek new servants as City Clerks, as engineers, and in other capacities, the good men will give Wanganui a wide berth? Is it not realised that these suggestions that capable heads of department should be dismissed from the service and their positions filled- by other officers named is likely to create discord and suspicion among the City’s municipal officers. These considerations, unhappily, do not. seem to weigh with a certain section of public men, a section which certainly does not include the best men in public life.