The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1915.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 4011, 18 August 1915, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1915.

The “City Fathers,” it must be acknowledged, have made a laughing stock of themselves on account, of their protracted, labored, and still incomplete efforts to perform what should have been a simple duty, viz., the appointment of a successor to Dr. Porter as a Borough representative on the Hospital Board. It is the case as must be very well known that on the occasion of their meeting a fortnight/ ago the members of the Council by five votes to four appointed Mrs Walker, who was at the top of the unsuccessful candidates when the latest Hospital Election for the appointment of Borough representatives on tho Board was held. Those members who supported Mi's Walker’s selection, we may remind the public, were Crs. Hill, .Minins, Miller, Wildish and Lawless, whilst the opponents to the proposal were the Mayor and Crs. Bright, Collins and Wade. In view of the fact that Cr. Collins on the same evening gave notice of motion that the Council rescind the resolution at its next meeting no intimation of the decision of the Council could, however, bo made to the Hospital Board.- Now it would appear inat Cr. Brown, who was tlio only absentee from tlio meeting would, if ho had been in attendance, have joined with those who opposed Mrs Walker’s selection in voting for the appointment of a member of the Council to the vacant position so that it is quito

An Extraordinary Tanglo.

evident tlmt. if there liad been a full mooting on that occasion a direct representative of the Council, either the Mayor or Cr. Brown could and probably would have secured the honor of appointment with aid of the Mayor’s easting vote. It .remained then to he seen what would transpire at the meeting of the “City Fathers” last night and the report in this issue of the further deliberations of the Council on t)ie subject make very interesting as well as very amusing reading. With both the Mayor and Cr. absent, although Cr. Brown is present and in the ' position of Acting-Mayor, it was certain that Cr. Co)lins’ motion to rescind Mrs Walker’s appointment must, if put to the. meeting^ be rejected and in the circumstffncos Cr. Collins preferred to withdraw his motion rather tnan the threatened rebuff. '1 he unexpected, however, eventuated in Jffiat when a motion was tabled to tlio C fleet that the Town Clerk be instructed to notify the Hospital Board of Mrs Walker’s appointment Cr. Hill one of the original supporters of { her selection and C'r. Bright, who was prepared to abide by tiro original decision played right into the bands ol the “opposition” by voting against the motion on the ground that such a resolution was quite unnecessary in that the Town Clerk would in the ordinary course of events duly acquaint the Hospital Board of the Council’s decision in the matter. As a result of the voting the “ayes” and the “uocs” were equally divided—Crs. Miller, Mumis, Lawless and Wildish voting “for” and "Crs. Bright. Hill, Collins and Brown “against”—and the motion was defeated in view of the fact that Cr. Brown gave his casting vote against the motion. 'Thus it conies about that, whereas if Cr. Brown had not been absent from the first meeting Mrs Walker would, of a certainty, not have been elected at all, Cr. Bright, as well as Cr. Hill, although supporting the lady’s appointment to the position, inadvertently no doubt voted in a manner which delayed her appointment in proper form or, maybe; have made her appointment impossible of accomplishment for ibe reason that in view of Cr. Brown’s notice of a further motion the whole matter will once again require to be considered by the Council. Wliat the two councillor;.; will now think of themselves and what. V public will think of their amazing attitude is not difficult to .imagine. Cr. Hill can, it is clear, put him self right with much less difficulty than Cr. Bright. In Cr. Hill’s case lie is. as it is well-known, strongly in favor of Mrs Walker’s appointment and, when the matter again i comes up for consideration he will not bo guilty of “ratting” if lie merely votes on the question in the same way as he did when it originally came before the Council. But nobody will envy Cr. Bright Ids position. At the outset a strong advocate of the appointment of a man rather than a woman to such an office he wavered front the principle of which he claimed to be an upholder when it seemed almost a certainly that his “party”—

if \vo may so use the word—were doomed to inglorious defeat and last night was seemingly quite willing to fall in'with the views of what should in the circumstances have been a majority of those present! The upshot of tlie whole business is not easy to forecast. If there should be a revival of the opposition to Mrs Walker’s selection Cr. Bright has now the option either of again voting in support of wliat lie clearly believes in bis heart is the right and proper course to adopt, viz., to appoint a member of the Council in preference to a lady to the position or of placing himself in a further very awkward situation by voting straight out in favor of Mrs Walker in which event he would lay himself open to the charge that he docs not always practise wliat he preaches. For our own part we may say that we do not agree with the suggestion that liecause Mrs Walker had the highest number of votes among the unsuccessful candidates at tire election to fill Borough vacancies on the Hospital Board she is entitled to the seat as of right. Nor on the other hand do we hold with Cr. Bright or anybody else for that matter that ladies should be debarred from holding seats on the Hospital Board. What we do say is that it is in the highest interests of the people that a local body should be composed of members who claim to represent the whole of the citizens rather than of members who hold a brief for a single section of the community. The Hospital Board at the present juncture has a very serious problem before it in the matter of keeping its expenditure within reasonable limits and, in the circumstances, the Council could not have done better than to have, appointed a direct representative in the person of its most capable available member to the vacancy. As tilings stand much sympathy, we know, will go out to Mrs Walker on account of the tantalising position of affairs which has arisen. Any disadvantage that is felt in view of the fact that mere arc no ladies on the present Hospital Board could it seems to us be overcome by the appointment by the Board of a small honorary committee ot ladies who would have the right to make recommendations to the Board and speak in support of them at the Board meetings but who would, of course, not by the constitution of the Board have any right to vote on any question before that body.