GREATER CHRISTCHURCH.
(MEETING AT KNIGHTSTOWN.
A meeting, called by the St. Albans Borough Council, to discuss the proposed amalgamation of toe borough with the oity of Christchurch, was held in the Knightstown Library last night. There was a (good attendance, moluding several ladies. In the absence, through hidispc-ition, of the Mayor (Mr T. H. Davey, M.H.R.), Councillor J. Andorsen was voted to the chair.. The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, said tihafc the councillors hod from the *__rt decided to leave the question to the people, and if toey took part in the matter at all it would be simply as individuals. Personaily, he had always been in favour of Greater Chriitohurch, provided it included the drainag- area, but he was rather d-bious aa to its advantages if the boundaries' of the greater cdty were not the same m those of the drainage district. St. Albans, as w_s shown by the figures of Messrs Gundry and Hulme, was in a better fi__ncial noaition than any of the other boroughs, but oven the loss under amalgamation would not amount to much in the case of tot. Albans. He asked for a motion on the subject. Mr -laynord moved—"That in -he opinion of thxs meeting at is _es__blo that St. Alb__s should join in the Greater C_ri_bcbuTch scheme." He ocuuidered that the financial loss consequent on ____g_ma_on would be ___iite»iri__, and was not sufficient to warrant the scheme being put off. During the' twettty-ttoee years he hod been in the colony he had bad some experience of 'local bodies, and! he hod, arrived" at the .conclusion that there were too many local bodies in «x_rt__oe. The advancement of C___rtch_rch meant the advancement of St. Albans, fc. their interests were pr_c_c_Ey identical. Mr Harris seconded the motion, and said t_._fc for twenty years he had resided in- St. Albans, and had seen it grow from a, quagmire to a decent and wepectoble borough— a borough of which they might be proud. He had been struck with the progress xd Wellington and Auckland aa contrasted with the progress of Christehurch, and contended that by amalgamation many municipal services coutd be entered' Mo and carried to a -ucoessful issue. -
were praot-C&lly identical. Mr Harris seconded the motion, and said t_._fc for twenty years he had resided in- St. Albans, and had seen it grow from a, quagmire to a decent and reepectable borough— a borough of which they might be proud. He had been -brack with the progress xd Wellington and Auckland aa contrasted with the progress of Chriartehurch, end contended that by amalgamation many municipal services coutd be entered' Mo and carried to a -ucoessful issue. - Mr Lafferty pointed o_6 lihat the advocates of Greater (7_r____nrch did not mention thai, ratepayer- outside t_e city had already paid £40,000 for the drainage of the city, and had not got any benefit from it. He referred to the negotiations between the City of W__&Lgton and the Borough of Melrose, which resulted in the city' undertaking to spend £30,000 in Melrose in order that that district could be brought to a state approaching uhat of the city. The Greater C-ristehurch schema offered nothing of that kind to St. Albans. As a samp 1 ., of the expert knowledge they might expect f rom Greater Cbristehurch, he referred to the Nor_h Avon road drain, laid down by the City Council about a year ago, and recently taken up and put in _t ;-. lower level. He pointed out that th* Sydenham Council had paid their workmen 7« per day, whilst the Giby Co____ paid 6s per day, __d 5a per day when they could. He was not opposed to Greater (Jhri-tcburoh on a fair, basis, but before amalgamation they should insist on their terms, because o__arwise it was an -_co__t_io__. surrender. The surrounding boroughs would do more for the city than tho city would do for the boroughs; the brains of Greater Chri-tohurch were in tha suburbs. Mr H. H. Fhilpott said ho considered it his duty to oppose the Greater C_r_ste_.r__ scheme. He wa. surprised that men of b-si-new did not pay __m_ attention to t_* finanoial aspect of the proposal. The rstepayen of 6_ Aib-os wanted to know wiat the ohange, w_s going to coat them. Ho referred to the poß«__ity of the ____g_m*ti_g boroughs being rated to provide new kerbing for the city street-. Cr. A. H. Hobbs comb_tted the statement that Sydenham was receiving no benefit from the drainage *_-___, and pointed out that tboogh there was .only a partial drainage scheme in Sydenham and St. Albans, those boroughs would be m a worse position than, they were at present if it did not exist. Hoontenrled that there was no poasibi-tty of one district paying for works done in anobher _istrtct,a_ loans |j* ir«i_-in a dis"Mlj__ ■!_ !__-_-_---.]
a charge on the people in that ___ri-fc> ■_• was in favour ot _i_alg_m___a. Cr. W. C. -.organ -as opposed to the 'Greater Christchuroh proposals, aad could not see, from the _g_r_ss_himaed in, connection wiui the sc_«ne, how Sv. Albans • would benefit by it. There was no doubt that in respect to t_e larger municipal questions & board of works for the whole distriot was desirable without _.t_rf____ with the existing boroughs. By this ma-B-one district would not be caii-d on to pay for work done in another. Referring to the financial aspect of the matter, he said it was ail very well to talk -bout an increaoe of one sixty-fourth of a penny in rates, but they had no guarantee that the increase would remain at that figure. Be considered the fact that an overdraft existed in connection with the City Coaacii's funds showed that the city r_tes were insufficient to meet ordinary expeuiditure. St Albans would have only two representatives on the Greater Christchurch Council, and in view of that what guarantee was there that tho city would not convert a portion of the borough's funds to relieve the city fund? Cr. G. Hyde said that in connectioci with amalgamation they did .not start before they were ready, and cited the case of the federation of the Australian colonies, which after many years' consideration, had been enthusiastically entered into, but now they were sorry for their action. He pointed • out that the Government subsidy would not be increased if a borough's rx>__d_rie_ were extcrifled. The amount erf subsidy obtained by the St. Albans Borough Ckuinou, £267 per annum, paid the n__i_jjet_ent expenses of the borough. He advised the ratepayers to vote against tho proposal, as no conditions were provided. He did not wish to be understood as being aga_Mrt -tnalgamation, but he wanted amalgamation on equitable terms. ' Mr Chaplin contended thab tho Tramways Board had been estabLehed in order to defeat the Greater Chr_steh_r__ proposals. He dealt at some length with _se Borough Council's estimates for the coming year, and asserted that the greater portion of the proposed expenditure was to be sprat in one part of the district The motion was put- and crecUtred lost, only seventeen voting for ft, and about three times that number against it, A vote of thanks to' the chairman con-. eluded the meeting, TO THE EDITOR OT THE MUSS. Sir, —I have no intention of dealing with the now table of figures set out by Mr Gundry. The rate for 1902 and 1903, which ha brings to account, may contain many items "of expenditure of a non-recurring <___*ct_r in the several borough-. Ho instances one in the case of Lin-wood, who are rating themselves to reduce a bank overdraft- He knows perfectly w__ that this is a departure from the basis that he adopted. He does very lit/tie to justify Ms original figure* in Table C, and very wisely. The errors thjerein di-closed will require a good deal of explaining away. As to his remarks about Table B, I admit rro error. The public had a right to «xpect that a person holding his high position woird not have ta&en assets in one instaroe at improved values, in another at unimproved values whilst in a third they were partially unimproved and partially improved value-. He contends _hat I traversed hi* figures with a y j £vr to duwredit their value as a basis of adjustment. I did no-, ' thing of the kind. T_e bases of ins ad-j-sfcmenb were admirable, and if he had only taken sufficient pains with his figures) after having adopied his "bases, no fault could have been found, but when such flagrant er- ' rors were perpetrated, that the figures for St Albans .and Sydenham required reducing by some 30 per cent., for reasons which I set out in full, and which he has been car eful not to co__>_t, he caanot complain if / those most concerned took strong exception. My task at the best was a very _rmSeaa_D_ one. I have disc_arg.d it honasfly. I gave my reasons for tho differences, and they / V have not been cont_overted. To raise « v ,s number of side issues is quite beside the ■- ' _ q_e_t_on, and only wearies the public,—. Yours, etc, ■ . • GEOBGiE W. HUTa_EChristohurch, January 21_t, 1903. • TO TBB EBITOB OF THE F-SSs! Sir__l jjope {___ _]t c_t_«_ i-__ possibly do so will give their votes tomorrow. The issue is one which _boufd be decided by the peopl. as a Whole, toft by a poll of a few hundred.-—Yours, etcL. _ HENRY WIGRAM, . \ -£ay-r> i C_ri_l__urc_, N.Z., "/< 21st J__ua_y, 1905. ~ $ to not editob o_ TBas fuss. J3 Sir,—Mr Gundry _ letter stating (mi*. _?i alia) uhat certain figures ju the Sy_«a_a__ " 4 bcoka were withheld from neoeawtates * V <5 my pointing out that in his original -«pors «_*i he says: "I wish,to express my _ppr*ci_* :" J + taon ot the special faci_a_a /or .btej-jag ** ■$§ information which _**_ been placed _. my $$ disposal by (among other-) the «_____ of < the corpo__t_'Jbodie* -O-Oerned ia the om_~ ," k ~~. parißon of accounts." I hay. only to add that Mr Gundry, prp___ed that w2ms_ got his figures into -hope he wot_| 4x___r'' with me upon them before p_b_9-UM_ **% Had he kept his promise, he would £_£ ably sot i_ave fallen into the error _• -pa* lameats. The sfotetaent t__t'__y hifii/mV \ S tion required from the Sy-t_b_£_ book- ' was withheld is a_*al___rjr inooxteot.—4F '"&-*- ---am, etc., .Jfejg Town <_k_k - M Borough Council Offices, . ' v tl Sydenham, January 2J_t, lflOS. -^k a i > _as
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19030122.2.30
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Press, Volume LX, Issue 11488, 22 January 1903, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,713GREATER CHRISTCHURCH. Press, Volume LX, Issue 11488, 22 January 1903, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
No known copyright (New Zealand)
To the best of the National Library of New Zealand’s knowledge, under New Zealand law, there is no copyright in this item in New Zealand.
You can copy this item, share it, and post it on a blog or website. It can be modified, remixed and built upon. It can be used commercially. If reproducing this item, it is helpful to include the source.
For further information please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
Ngā mihi
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.