MUNICIPAL COUNCIL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VI, Issue 278, 9 March 1875, Page 5

MUNICIPAL COUNCIL.

The ordinary fortnightly meeting of above body sook place oh Friday evening, there being present a.U the members, his Worship the Mayor presiding. Minutes of last ordinary and a special meeting were read and confirmed. qpERESPONDEBfOE. . Outward correspondence read comprised letters to Government re quarters for Fire Brigade ;to his Honor'the Superintendent regarding the. invalidity of the bye-laws as pronounced by Mr Simpson, R.M., and.askr ing that they be revised for correction ;to Executive, offering to take over management of the Cromwell Commonage; and to various firms asking information with respect to water pipes. Inward correspondence—From the Volunteer Office, requiring certain statistical information connected with the local Fire Brigade; from Ban* and Olliver, promising to proceed without delay with the drawing up of water works contract; from Mr W, U. Whetter, asking for an extension of term of his lease of certain lands from the Corporation ; from Thomas Gilmour, offering 1 to carry mail from Clyde every Saturday evening for a stated sum; and from the Land and Works Office enclosing following report from the District Engineer in the matter of Cromwell bridge : Cromwell, 10th Feb., 1875. Sir,—ln reply to your telegram of 3rd inst., I have the honor to inform you that I do not consider the Cromwell bridge to be immediately dangerous for traffic, although I must say the deflection has increased a little of late. I took the levels of all the cross-beams yesterday, and I found the actual subsidence of the largest span to, be 16 inches. The bolts through the lattices are also working very much, and the vibration of the bridge is considerable when any heavy weight passes over it. The tops of the cross-beams are much decayed, and the entire roadway wants renewal.

I consider it to be absolutely necessary that the whole structure should be overhauled at an early date, but I am also of opinion the present appropriation will be much too small to cover the necessary works. I believe that the late Provincial Engineer gave some of the squatters a promise that, if possible, the repairs would not be commenced till the wool season was over; as soon as possible thereafter, however, I would strongly recommend that the works be proceeded with.—l have the honor to be, &c, Thomas Fergus, . * District Engineer. R. Hay, Esq., Provincial Engineer's Department, Dunedin. ° 1 The correspondence as read was received. Saturday's maii service. Cr Grant explained, in connection with Mr Gilmour's offer as above, that while recently in Dunedin he (Cr Grant) together with Mr T. L. Shepherd, M.H.R., waited on the Chief Postmaster, and pointed out to him the great inconvenience suffered by this community owing to the mail which came to Clyde on Saturday afternoon not reaohing Cromwall till Tuesday morning following. They urged that this should be remedied. The Postmaster informed them there was a sum of £SO available for bringing the mails through on a Saturday, if that sum would suffice. Mr Shepherd advised that this offer be accepted by the Council, who, if the amount was not sufficient, might subsidize it, and he would try, when in Wellington, to get such subsidy refunded to the Council. It was decided to ascertain if the authorities had yet arranged with a contractor to carry the mail, before dealing with Mr Gilmour's letter. • EXTENSION OP LEASE. In connection with Mr Whetter's request some discussion took place. It appeared the applicant had, four years ago, leased for 14 years a section from the Corporation ; he was now about to build upon it, but before doing so wished to have four years more added to the term—thus giving fourteen years yet to run, which would cause his lease to terminate at the same period as those recently disposed of. The rent he was now paying exceeded that obtained for similar sections last week. A motion by Cr Arndt, seconded by Cr Talboys, that Mr Whetter's request be granted, was carried ; an amendment by Cr Taylor, that the application be held over till next meeting, pending the opinion of a solicitor, not being seconded. Cr Taylor explained that he moved the amendment because he thought it a bad precedent to extend the term of leases in this way—if the Council did it in one instance, they would be besieged by similar applicants. . fire brigade statistics. It was decided to refer the letter from the Volunteer Office to the Captain of the Brigade. REPAIRS TO CROMWELi BRIDGE. The Under-Secretary's letter and Engineer's report on this matter received consideration ; the unanimous opinion being the necessity of the work being done without delay should be pressed on the Government, as delay was dangerous to the wellbeing of the district, ft was decided that a deputation of the Council should wait on Mr MacKellar, Goldfields Secretary, urging him to use his influence to push forward the w.ork, and pointing out the necessity of proceeding with the erection of a temporary structure. auditors' report. The Auditors' yearly report had been submitted at a special meeting .on Friday week and was remitted to the Finance Committee for consideration, to report upon this evening. The following is copy of report : We have to call your serious attention to the irregular system which the Council apparently has determined to perpetuate of dealing with their accounts. At the last audit, for example, there was in the hands of the Town Clerk the large sum of £9l 8s 6d,—for which fact there

were satisfactory reasons j but it appears to us altogether inexcusable that the sum mentioned should not at onoe, or at least within a day or two, have been paid into the Corporation account. On looking over the bank book, we find it Was paid into' the account in instalments, and that the whole sum was not paid in till August 14th, the last instalment forming portion of quite a distinct sum of money collected. At the date of our present audit, we have a similar complaint to make. On December 31, there was in the hands of Town Clerk £lB 5s Id, which also was not paid into Bank for at least a month after it ought to have been, and which also was paid in instalments.. That it may be seen that it is the grossly irregular system we are condemning, we may at the same time draw your attention to the fact that at the date of last audit, while the sum of £9l 8s 6d was in hands of Town Clerk, the Corporation owed him £79 14s 2d ; and at the date of present audit, whilst he held in hand £lB 5s 2d, the Corporation owed him £64 15s lOd. We might also find fault with the manner in which the Corporation servant (Baker) is paid, but it will be needless to enter further into detail. • \ ,

If we are to accept as correct the statement of the' Town Clerk that the balance of rates for previous years' are not recoverable, we 6houlJ recommend that the rate-book be ruled off, and list of unpaid and irrecoverable rates brought forward in detail for reference.

We cannot speak in favourable terms of the manner in which the blocks of rate-book have been kept. We have examined the commission account, and should recommend the same to the notice of the Finance Committee. It would save much time, and prevent much possible understanding, if that • Committee would clearly define in one table the manner in which the Clerk is authorised to charge commissiou. i •"' Besides the license-book at present in use, we recommend the use of a miscellaneous licensebook (hawkers', carriage, etc.), . We enclose a circular from the Secretary for Stamps, to which we draw your attention, and recommend compliance with its conditions.

We cannot close our report without calling your attention to the stateuientts regarding the delay in completing the audit which appeared in the Cromwell Argus of 23rd instant, in the report of the Town Council proceedings. We beg to assure you that the delay was not occasioned by us. We regret that it should be necessary for us to make any remarks on this subject, but we cannot in silence pass over remarks which must have been sufficiently severe to justify the reporter in summarising them under the title of "Auditors' Shortcomings."—We have, etc., John Preswaw ) . ... C. F. Johnson | Audlfcors - Cromwell, Feb. 25, 1875. FINANCE COMMITTEE'S REPORT.

Cr Arndt, on behalf of the Finance Committee, reported they had examined the Corporation Books, and found them correct. The Committee agreed with the recommendations of the auditors, and the Clerk had signified his willingness to act upon them in future. The Committee also trusted that in future the audits would be made more punctually and published correctly. The Corporation books appeared to be very well kept. A discussion arose as to commissions charged by the Clerk, the majority of Crs appearing to think the difficulty in finding out the correct amounts which should be charged scarcely justified the remarks in Auditor's report. , The Clerk said that recent changes in the rate of commission might have given rise to some confusion in the Auditors' minds.

It was ordered that a proper scale of commissions chargeable be drawn up, and submitted at next meeting. Cr Talboys remarked that he thought it wrong for the Town Clerk to have large sums of money in hand at each balance. It might be clear and satisfactory enough to the Council how this came to be, but the outside public remarked upon it. The Clerk explained that under the circumstances it was impossible for the money to. appear in the balance-sheet otherwise than in Clerk's hands, for the reason that publicans' licenses wore, as a rule, not paid till the last hour on 30th June of each year, and therefore could not be banked to appear in that half-year's bank account. Last year the bank manager refused to take the money on 30th June, as his books were made up. As to the matter of delay, he had more than once asked both auditors to carry out their duties, but they had put off. He again repeated, the fault did not lie with him.

After further conversation, Cr Talboys proposed—That the report of Finance Committee be received and be deemed satisfactory by this Council, and that the suggestions therein made be carried out.—Seconded by Cr Taylor, and carried. Cr Grant proposed—That the Auditors' report be received and adopted. He confessed he felt somewhat alarmed when the report was first read, but was reassured now that the Finance Committee had stated everything was correct; and he trusted that in future there would be no room for unpleasant remarks. He (Cr Grant) considered the Auditors had done their duty well, and deserved the thanks of the Council.—The motion was seconded by CrArndt, and carried. WATER SUPPLY. Cr Taylor reported that he had caused the town water pipes to be lifted and cleaned out, as they had got choked up. The water was cut off from the main race just now, so that it was a favourable opportunity to get the pipes cleaned.—lt was decided to put extra labour on, so as to delay the supply as little as possible. OOK.PORA.TIOK DEBENTURES. The Mayor reported that he and Cr Arndt had been negotiating with parties in this matter, and although they could not report definitely, they might say the prospects of the debentures being taken up were encouraging.

BANNOCKBURN BRIDGE. . The Mayor brought forward the necessity of again urging upon the Government to buy this structure, and declare it free. The matter was again occupying public attention, and as the Provincial Council would shortly be in session, now was the time for them to move. Or Taylor agreed with his Worship, and entered at some length into the mutual advantages which would accrue to this and the Bannockburn communities by the bridge tax being removed. Ultimately, it was resolved, on the motion of Or Taylor, seconded by Or Talboys,--That Government be memorialised to negotiate with the proprietors to: purchase the Bannockburn bridge, and throw it open free. A committee, consisting of the Mayor and Or Arndt to draw up and circulate the petition. FINANCIAL POSITION. A number of accounts were presented, and ordered to be held over till next meeting. It Was stated the liabilities of the Council were close upon £9O, while there was only £4O in the Bank to credit. The Clerk reported he had great difficulty in collecting rates due, and a long discussion took place : on the position. Ultimately, it was resolved, " That any person refusing to pay rates when demanded by the Town Clerk be immediately distrained upon." The Council then adjourned.