Compiled by Cameron McCullough
CR. OATES has given written notice of his intention to move at next Friday’s meeting of the Shire Council that the services of the engineer be dispensed with.
Coming from the source it does, ratepayers will look askance at the motives prompting such a proposal.
It can be taken for granted that the mover will attempt to put forward many plausible arguments in an endeavour to gain his ends. Plausibility is his strong point, but it should not be difficult for reasonably astute men to penetrate the veneer and expose the apparent rancour and bitterness underlying the whole business.
Cr. Oates cherishes no love for the Shire Engineer and never did. The present officer is a daily reminder to Cr. Oates of a lost cause.
It was Cr. Oates who fought so stubbornly in attempting to defeat the will of the council in employing a permanent engineer.
Whether he fought fairly on that occasion is best known to his colleagues of that day. Opinions differ as to where the line of demarcation should be drawn between fair and unfair tactics in a public man.
That there should be any variance in the code of honor observed between man and man and men acting in a public capacity does not appeal as being tenable.
Cr. Oates is always out to win, but did not win on the occasion under notice, and the present Shire Engineer is tangible evidence of his defeat.
Now, after many days, Cr. Oates moves for his dismissal. The proposal would have come better from any one of his fourteen colleagues.
Only within the last few weeks Cr. Oates has been in bitter conflict with the Shire Engineer over matters quite outside the council.
They fought as Citizen Oates and Citizen Lazarus, and Citizen Oates emerged from the conflict with a whole skin but a bent reputation as an infallible oracle.
If he expects to effect repairs to his wounded vanity by applying the balm of Retaliation, he is certainly using the wrong ointment.
Cr. Oates is treading on very dangerous ground when he takes action calculated to damage the reputation of a professional man and a public officer.
With his well-known animus against the Shire Engineer, he should have been the last to move. If the Engineer no longer retains the confidence of the Council there are fourteen other councillors who are aware of the facts that the quarry does not pay; that the Council’s coffers are empty, and that the Frankston Riding in particular, is hopelessly “up against it” financially.
But the, other councillors don’t blame the Engineer for all the sins of commission and omission that apparently have come home to roost.
They remember that Cr. Oates fathered the quarry from its inception; that he gave the then consulting engineer carte blanche regarding its establishment and equipment.
They are also aware that the quarry plant is obsolete and requires an expenditure of several thousand pounds before satisfactory results can be expected.
Cr. Oates knows that the quarry was in difficulties long before the present Shire Engineer ever heard of Frankston. As for the general finances of the shire, Cr. Oates, who has a long memory, will recall the incident in the Mechanics’ Hall three years ago when he ridiculed the warning given by Cr. Wells that a halt should be called in expenditure.
He will remember laughing to scorn Cr. Wells’ suggestion that the bank passbook of the shire gave a reasonable index to the real financial position of the finances.
“No real business man,” he contended, “would ever go to his passbook to ascertain his financial resources.”
Perhaps not, but the bank book has a rather annoying trick of revealing unpleasant truths.
Had Cr. Oates paid more heed to the figures in the council’s bank book the present position might have been rendered less acute.
The real fact is that Cr. Oates has encouraged large expenditure on all and every conceivable occasion, quite regardless of where the money was to come from.
He failed to insist on an equitable revaluation of the Frankston Riding, and now the inevitable has happened. Frankston is crying out for a comprehensive scheme of private street construction, which could be financed on an independent basis, and without further embarrassing the present position.
Cr. Oates has not vision enough to see the direct benefits that would accrue therefrom in added population and increased revenue from rates by this progressive move.
He is too busy with his private vendetta to do justice to the town and district.
What direful charge Cr. Oates intends levelling against the Shire Engineer has not been divulged. His statements, whatever they may be, would require to be more’ accurate than his recent declaration in connection with a resolution passed by the Memorial Committee.
If he can rid himself and the council of the permanent engineer he intends to move for the appointment of a consulting engineer, despite the fact that the present permanent officer has been a cheaper proposition than the part-time officer.
The Carrum Borough Council had the same experience. They recently appointed a permanent engineer, finding that it was cheaper to do so than continue their old method of securing the casual services of an outside officer.
Cr. Oates wants to get rid of the present Shire Engineer. Why? Certainly not on the score of economy.
MR. F. Taylor, proprietor of the well-patronised “Grange Dairy,” Bay Street, Frankston, was judge at the Brighton Poultry Show, held on Friday last.
In the past Mr. Taylor has proved himself to be a capable and impartial adjudicator, while his qualities of discernment have won for him no little degree of popularity.
Again, on the occasion under review, his keen judgment gave all-round satisfaction to the various exhibitors. It is also of interest to record that on the previous day at the Victorian Poultry and Kennel Club’s Show, which eventuated in Wirth’s Park Melbourne,
Mr. Taylor’s famous poultry exhibits secured seven first prizes, two seconds, and two Champion Blue Ribbons. We congratulate Mr. Taylor on so conspicuous a success.
THE Boys’ Home, Frankston, narrowly escaped destruction by fire early on Sunday morning, June 8.
It appears that a fire broke out in the kitchen attached to the home, and only for one of the boys, who happened to be awake and smelt smoke, something more serious might have happened.
However, the lad quickly aroused the Inmates, and the boys, under the direction of the superintendent. (Mr. W. Minton) and. Mrs. Minton, having been trained at fire drill, were able to extinguish the fire, but not before a portion of the building and some of the personal property of Mr. and. Mrs. Minton. had been destroyed.
WE are reliably informed that Charles Lawrey, of Cranbourne Road, Frankston, who some time back met with a serious accident to his eye, now sufficiently recovered to warrant the specialists believing that he still have about a quarter sight in the injured eye, and it is further hoped that as time goes on this will materially increase. This is certainly pleasing news, as at first it was thought that the eye would have to be removed.
From the pages of the Frankston and Somerville Standard, 11 & 13 Jun 1924
