"Scandalous"

The anti-Taylor sentiment exploded in the first session of the Finance Commission, when the treasurers censured Taylor for what one called "scandalous mismanagement" of NZUSA funds. To prove their point, they then froze the association's accounts until an accountant had made sense out of the books.

While the delegates ripped and tore at the dominant figure of Taylor, Ross Mountain, the only other presidential candidate, took copious notes. But he never spoke. In the eyes of one delegate Mountain's short hair, cleancut face and tab-collar shirt lent him the appearance of the "all-American boy." He wore, throughout the entire Council, his Auckland University scarf draped neatly over his right shoulder. It was a regal touch. He looked like a descendant of Caesar, smiling but inexorable.

Taylor and Mountain were never far from the delegates' attention, but they were not the only persons to play a part. Dennis Pezaro, affectionately referred to as "Papa" emerged as the conservative voice of the Council, reminding the delegates time and again of the constitutional rights of the constituents. John Scott from Massey sat with a logger's johnny cap always on his head, as if it were a private talisman, and whenever he opened his mouth, the words were as trenchant as a saw. As for the women representatives, the slender legs of the Bishop's daughter from Waikato spoke more eloquently than all the words she never uttered.