251
bring to fruition. Inquiries by a committee and reports to future meetings would take months. This leisurely pace would be acceptable if Her Majesty were to live for a hundred years. They all hoped she would, he piously added, but the implication of his remark was that this was too much to expect even from so good and gracious a personage and therefore they had better get the matter done with while she was still on the throne.
He pleaded for immediate action: “Why should we go on adjourning the meeting and waiting for special reports? Why cannot we settle it at once?” His method to achieve this end was “to scrape together what money we can get and have a general illumination.” By this he meant the decoration of buildings with gas lights and Chinese lanterns.
After a great deal of discussion it was decided to vote on whether the meeting should decide at that time on the form of the celebration. The vote was 19 for an immediate decision and 11 against.
To decide that a decision should be made at once was much simpler than doing it. Each scheme was to be voted on. The illumination idea received only four votes. The party in favour of a library mustered nine. The meeting seemed headed towards acceptance of the sanitarium. But in the Jubilee affair it was destined that nothing should proceed as expected. The vote for it was 19 for and 18 against.
Remembering the criticism levied against the chairman for ignoring a disputed vote on the same proposal at the last meeting, the secretary deemed it wise to have a second count. This time the vote had shifted with 20 for and 21 against. In the face of such uncertainty, it was necessary to have a third vote. This was a tie.
The chairman felt he need not now worry about false counts, and with some satisfaction declared: “I have the casting vote.” Mr. Ackroyd challenged this. He was supported by Mr. McClymont who said the chairman had no casting vote unless it was especially conferred on him. The chairman replied: “Then we are at a deadlock.”
251
bring to fruition. Inquiries by a committee and reports to future meetings would take months. This leisurely pace would be accept- able if Her Majesty were to live for a hundred years. They all hoped she would, he piously added, but the implication of his remark was that this was too much to expect even from so good and gracious a personage and therefore they had better get the matter done with while she was still on the throne.
He pleaded for immediate action: “Why should we go on ad- journing the meeting and waiting for special reports? Why cannot we settle it at once?" His method to achieve this end was "to scrape together what money we can get and have a general illumination." By this he meant the decoration of buildings with gas lights and Chinese lanterns.
After a great deal of discussion it was decided to vote on wheth- er the meeting should decide at that time on the form of the cele- bration. The vote was 19 for an immediate decision and 11 against.
To decide that a decision should be made at once was much simpler than doing it. Each scheme was to be voted on. The illumi- nation idea received only four votes. The party in favour of a library mustered nine. The meeting seemed headed towards ac- ceptance of the sanitarium. But in the Jubilee affair it was destined that nothing should proceed as expected. The vote for it was 19 for and 18 against.
Remembering the criticism levied against the chairman for ig- noring a disputed vote on the same proposal at the last meeting, the secretary deemed it wise to have a second count. This time the vote had shifted with 20 for and 21 against. In the face of such uncertainly, it was necessary to have a third vote. This was a tie.
The chairman felt he need not now worry about false counts, and with some satisfaction declared: “I have the casting vote.” Mr. Ackroyd challenged this. He was supported by Mr. McCly- mont who said the chairman had no casting vote unless it was especially conferred on him. The chairman replied: "Then we are at a deadlock."
!
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.