The Wanganui Chronicle WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1933. CHAIRMANSHIPS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 114, 17 May 1933, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1933. CHAIRMANSHIPS

r pHE discussion at the Wanganui Harbour Board’s meeting concerning the appointment of a chairman, raises a point of policy which needs to be stressed. The chairmanship of a local body is an honour, and it is more in the nature of bad taste for a member to monopolise that position year after year. When a chairman has done his work well it is only natural that other members should feel some diffidence about, opposing the chairman when the time for re-election comes round. A chairman in whom confidence has been reposed for some time, however, should not trade upon that diffidence on the part of the .members of the body over which he presides, but should gracefully make way for another occupant. This should be regarded as a recognition that the new chairman has merited the honour of being asked to preside at the meetings of the body concerned. When, however, the occupant of the chair seeks to retain his position he frustrates the compliment being paid to his deserving colleague. He makes the chairmanship an “issue” and not a compliment. There is another aspect of this matter which needs to be considered, and that is that the occupant of a chairmanship in one instance is regarded as a precedent in another body for the retention of the chairmanship. This is not desirable, because when an unscrupulous chairman is in office the permanent officials are placed in a very awkward position. If the unscrupulous person finds the officials standing in his way he soon picks an issue with them, and they either have to shut their eyes to untoward practices and let the chairman “get away with it,” or else give up their appointments. Men who have spent long years in a specialised service are not in a position to make a fresh start in life and they are not to be condemned because they fail to make a stand in the public interest. The best prevention for malpractices is for the chairmanship to go round, not, only in boards and bodies where there is a possibility of malpractices occurring but, for the sake of precedent, in those boards and bodies where malpractice is practically impossible to occur, and this applies from the Mayoralty of the City down to the last, least, school committee. A further aspect of this matter is almost as important as those already mentioned, and that is the recruitment of public interest in public affairs. To illustrate the point, the Mayoralty of the city can be taken as an example. The section of the public which is in personal association with Mr. Hope Gibbons was stimulated to take an unusual interest in civic affairs while he was Mayor of the City. 'When Mr. Rogers became Mayor he 100, enlisted another and different section of the public in taking an, interest in civic business. When Mr. Armstrong came into office he again brought a further section of the public to take a lively interest in matters municipal. This change in the Mayoralty has been all to the good and for the benefit of Wanganui City; and civic interest is keener to-day than it would have been had but one man occupied the Mayoral chair for a lengthy period. When the chairmanship of any body comes to be regarded as the personal property of any individual, no matter how good he may be, then it is only natural that interest in the doings of that body, or of the institution which that body governs, is not, so broad nor so keen as it would have been had there been various occupants. There is much to be said, as Mr. Rogers pointed out at the Harbour Board meeting, for the practice of rotating the chairmanship annually and then the farce of the “chairman’s policy” need not be resurrected as an excuse for the purpose of feeding a vanity, excusing bad taste, or retaining an honorarium, whichever the motive may be. Mr. Hogan was a good chairman of the Harbour Board, and it is to be regretted that the election of a successor, in consequence of the chairmanship being an issue, should bear the colour of being a defeat for Mr. Hogan rather than a compliment to Mr. W. Morrison. It is to be hoped that the other local bodies in Wanganui will avoid such situations in the future by seeking out their members who shall enjoy the honour of the chairmanship for the coming year rather than be compelled to defeat the presiding member in order to bring about a position which is more to be desired than the present “sitting tight,” policy.