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CONFIDENTIAL
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XCC(71)20
whatsoever. The Council's Standing Orders do not require Legislative Council approval, and attempts some years ago to close this loophole were hotly opposed by the unofficial Councillors. In practice the amendment of this Standing Order would not necessarily achieve the desired effect of limiting debate in the Urban Council to its allotted responsibilities, since an unofficial chair- man might not be able or wish to control meetings in this way; nonetheless, such an amendment would strengthen the hands of a determined chairman and seems desirable in principle; and for practical reasons the present review of Urban Council arrangements presents an ideal opportunity to make this change. While the removal of officials would reduce the scope for questions outside the Council's proper sphere, it might tend to increase the
number of motions on extraneous matters under Standing Order 10(1).
(m) Annual Conventional Debate: the repeal of Standing Order 10(1) would not stop the longstanding practice whereby Councillors freely discuss ultra vires matters at their Annual Conventional Debate. This has been going on for 20 odd years and is a custom greatly treasured by the Unofficials; it might be regarded as a safety valve, given the Colony's constitutional arrangements. The Unofficials clearly regard this debate as an opportunity to attack Government and so to obtain publicity for themselves. To stop this practice would help to clarify the Council's true role but might well cause resignations and might result in an adverse press for Government, as indicating a determination to stifle criticism. The balance of advantage seems to lie in leaving the present custom alone.
(n)
(0)
Urban Council members on Committees etc: it would be quite inappropriate to meet the Urban Council's request that it should be free to nominate Urban Council members to serve on various Committees, and indeed it would seem unrealistic, considering the volume of work facing the Council, to contemplate additional Committee membership for them unless there were very special reasons for adding to their commitments in this way. However, where such an appointment seems to be in the public interest then it would be the intention to invite a Councillor to serve on another body, on the under- standing that he would accept appointment on a personal basis, and not as a representative of the Council.
Franchise: the principal argument for not extending the franchise is that there are probably
CONFIDENTIAL