PETONE BOROUGH AFFAIRS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2620, 16 November 1915, Page 7

PETONE BOROUGH AFFAIRS

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL. ' The ordinary meeting of th§'Petone B<awigli Council was held last evening, there being present ■ tho'-'-Mayor'(Mr.< J.W. M'Ewen),' and Councillors Forsyth;' List,' Cox, Brocklebank, Anderson, . M'Dougall, M'Konzie, Jones, and Truemaii.i . . v.: . . The secretary of the Wellington Drivers' Union asked tho council to agree to a conference of representatives of the union and the council to disouss terms for an agreement, and it was decided to accede to' the request, and' the engineer (Mr. A. Cowie) was appointed to represent the council. _ Messrs. Clayton and Son. Ltd., advised that they anticipated shipping the council's- gasholder towards the end of December, and. asked the council to make deposit with London bankers as arranged. In this connection the sum of £2200 was remitted through the Bank of New Zealand. Councillor Cox moved, pursuant to notice: "That as an aid to recruiting the Government bo urged to amend the Soldiers Pensions Act, stating clear and definite the amount payable to all soldiers' dependents. In the event, of death on active service, such monies not to be subject to reduction or variations by. the Pensions Board, and urges that Parliament bo at one© summoned to amend the same; that .a copy of this resolution; be forwarded to tho Eight Son. the Premier and the member for the district, and also to all municipalities requesting their co-operation." In speaking to the motion the mover, stated that no matter how great the amount to be paid was; it was a debt of honour to thos© who gav© thojr lives in., the defence of the Empire. 'Couhoillor 1 Anderson, m seconding, thought' that most of tho council were m,accord with the motion. Other councillors referred to the man who did not go to tho front, but "waxed fat" by exploiting the public in raising the cost of necessities. The Mayor, in Teferring to the. wages offered to married men, quoted a case that had come under his notice, where -the applicant (the wife of a soldier) had to bo placed on charitable aid, being the mother of five children, arid receiving only 355. per week. A report was. submitted by the Gas Committee in which it was stated that owing to the business of this department having doubled during the past five years, the management was beine reorganised. Tho responsibility of the coal trading, it was suggested, should be handed over to the engineer, and tho financial work to the town clork. The report was adopted. The engineer's report referred to. t-ho damage done by the recent storm, also to the various borough works in hand. Tho sewage engineer's report and tho gas manager's, report were also roceivcd. -,