VINCENT COUNTY COUNCIL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1119, 12 October 1883, Page 3

VINCENT COUNTY COUNCIL.

An adjourned meeting was held in the County offices, Clyde, on Wednesday,’ the 10th inst. ; ' Present- Crs W. Frpser (Chairman), f Fitches, Macginnis, Maokellav, Colclougb, . Jolly, StrouacU-, and McCarthy. : The Chairman having explained that the object of the meeting was the clearing off I the notices of motion left on the order ( paper at the ordinary meeting on the 27th ult., and consideration of what other bus* . inoas that might have since accumulated. Correspondence to and from the Commie- ( sinner of Crown Lands and the Minister of Lands relative to the proposal of the Go- j vernment to curtail the Dunstan Commonage by some 6000 acres was read and after j d’scussion, the feeling of the Council being , adverse to such a proceeding, the Chairman J was instructed to further write to the Go. ( vernment in strong protest against curtail- j ine the Commonage. : Resolved—That notice of the .intention to .make a rate of thre-farthings in the £ having been published, this Council now resolves to make the said rate and to be' ( payable on 17th October. : _ , Constable Bradshaw was appointed Inspecter of Slaughter Houses in the County j vice Constable Nestor resigned. ' : , • The pounoil went i ntofcCommittee to cor- -. iider lcridcra,' and oh resuming the' follow. ■ ing report wis read and adopted—That the j tenderjo'Cnbham for contract 111 be accepted —That in future no tender wi'l be accepted, J except it'be bn the printed form and socompanied by schedule of quantities ano prices. : 1 . , Cr Mackellar dissented to the Utter ( portion of the report Of • the Committee on , the ground that te muke.so hard and fast a rule would he Unjust to' tenderers living at a distance from the County Office and would place them at a great A long and'some what personal discussion took place, the contention being that after the report of a Committee was once adopted j no dissent or protest ceuld. he .. made, ami j that the only time any protest could be . entertained wasV. the time of . drawing up the report; The 'following notices of motion were ( now dealt with. ■ , By Cr Macginnis, seconded by Cr Stronach - . * “That the office of Hon. Treasurer J to the; Council expire on the fourth' ' Wednesday xta November in each year. - • ■ Crs Stronach. Pitches, McCarthy, m./ver. and seconder all alike spoke in support of < the motion, each contending that s the position was one of honour, and, moreover, gave the holder of the office a greater knowledge of the detail and minutiae of the ,County’s real financial position'than he ’ . would otherwise possess or could otherwise ( gain., it sbpuld be open to all . members of the Council and be a rolling office. Cr Mackellar, while' agreeing with the principle, yet thought it smacked somewhat of an attempt to get at the present holder of the office by a side wind, he would willingly support the motion if tbs following words were added-—“ And to take effect from November, 1884.” The sting would then be taken out of it. Cr Macginnis indignantly denied . that bp I ever had any intention of casting a stu-raa on Cr. Jolly, he h’d frequently been spoken ’ to; outride - the Council,, and accordingly . (aided the morion ; and he contended- tha f * itjwa* never contemplated by H-e Act that j tae-.po-filium'sbould die a permanent oiie. 'hhe original motion was Carried on a di--1 vision of 6 to 2, i. , ~ • ' 1 Macginnis moved, Cr. McCarthy seconded. - - I i | “ I hat all monies expended on ■ road? and works in the Engineer's department be paid direct to parties i receiving the same by that officer j whos u duty J, shall be to visit the | loads and works in the county at hast, , monthly to make such payments/' i The debate wag adjoilrned till 7.30. j On resuming, Cr. McCarthy said he was i in favor of the motion so far as.it was prao- 1 tioable, and would suggest that tbe wo da 1 “as far as practicab'e" be added to the 1 motion. This way agreed, to. < Cr Pitches not only thought it not prac- ( triable, hut that if the system was adopts it w-uld be mischeviousin its workings, and -i a great hardship to many hardworking and honest, yet poor men, who under the present system r-ere able to anticipate there- ■ suit of their labour to the county, whether 1 as wages men or contractors, by the mea- s of orders. The motion, if carried, would do away with orders entirely. Crs. M.ackellar and Stronach spoke against - the mnti- n, ns it looked as if it was a sideway of telling the Engineer that he did not frequently enough-visit'the out districts. Cr. Mackellar looked upon it as impossible ' for the Engineer to be lining from end to end, and in arid out of the county monthly, and attend te his other duries.' Even if he could “ The game would not be worth the candle.” , . ; Or. Colclougb said the question was the "order” question, and which should be abolished, as it wa* most sadly abuse 1, not alone to the disadvantage of the county employees, but to .other , tradesmen than those who got all the orders He had heard no. end of complaints and he would say if the order system was' to be continued that no Councillor should receive one. He had never held hat one order .since he had .been in the Council, and until it was paid, and. eyen , after that, he felt uncomfortable and as thriugh-he could not have given a ■Conscientious vote had. a diaputearisen in connection with thy work, on which ,Hie.,qrder. waf maije.. Sq.far asthe’ practicability ‘ of the system was concerned, when such a question cropped up he thought it was time to consider the whole county system. The Chairman said he could not see how the county system could be earned on withont{orderv but that- : wa« purely a depaitmental question, as was also the visiting of orit' districts by the Engineer. So far as, thy inference of neglect of duty by the Engi peer, he did not think such was meant, or he would strongly oppose it, not believing in the attacking ot any one by e sidewind. - Cr. Macginnis; in reply,. said the whole gist of the motion was te abolish the order system, which was an open deor to every possible swindling. There had been cases where.men had given two orders for the one amount owing, and be was only snrprised it did not more frequently occur. The motion was lost on a division of o| -14. Cr Stronack proposed, and Cr Jol y seconded—- “ That, a subsidy off for £ he paid imt of the County- funds to the Tinkei'a Sludge Channel for the ensuing 12 months, the amount of said sub-idy not to exceed LI 00, and the payment to be made, from time to time, on the certificate of the. County Engineer that an equivalent sum has been expended by the miners interested in the maintenance and repairs i to the said Sludg* Channel." i • After the following words were added—- • “and suck expenditure meets with his I approval "—and some discus ion, daring i which it 'yris very, genera ly ag eed that the - vote was not to be considered a general one, and that sTery rsqaest from slodgs channel

owners would be Ranted, trie.' mgtiou, was carried.'" : "I C « hif* Cr; Fraser moved, 'sud Or Colclougb seconded— .s< ■* ' “ That the Couiicil take into consideration the County Engineer's! ie-jiort-re providing a Water Supplyjfor Clyde, and proceed >t* adopt the measures to give effect thereto ” In support of this motion Cr Fraser said it would be remembered that the town of Clyde merged into the Coun.y on the initiatien of the County system, and thus having got rid of its corporate powers, under which it could have undertaken 'a water supply' scheme, they applied to the County through himself (their member) for the requisite assistance. It was to bt understood that the residents were fully .prepared,,to he specially rated ; therefoie the County WOuh* be put to no cost Though when taking into consideration the large amount of. revenue derived from Clyde, and the very small sum expended, the people.were fairly entitled to something. From a return made np be found that Clyde had contributed from all sources L 2336 4$ 6d to the revenue, and onlyffL6o9 19a-3d had been expended, leaving a balance in its favour of L 1676 5s 3d. He brought ub the motion so that the, CoaadU order . upon &jt Cut. he might state since the motion was tabled he had received the “ County Act amendment Act 1833.'’that materially the system under which the proposed work could he carried out. i

After discussion it was ordered that between now aud the next meeting the Chairman have printed all the requisite information • for < Councillor’s consideration, so that subject could be discussed at the next meeting, - Proposed by Cr Fraser, and seconded by Cr Macginnis—“That the sum,of LSO be expended in repairing and forming the track from Manuherikia Bridge to Manorburn crossing; Carried. 9. Cr. Stronach moved—“ That this Council, take into co sideration the'best means of dealing with tenders to prevent dtimnayism.” He said, having seen all the printed forms in connection with contracts, and as * the report of the Committee on contracts fully met the case, he would ask to withdraw it agreed to ; The Council then adjourned till 9.30 a.m. of the lltb.On resuming, Cr Colclough was apj ointed Hon. Trea surer vice Cr Jolly'resigned.- . Cr Colclough’s notices of motion- -Ist, relative to,-.memorialising the- Government to abolish the Gold J)uly i 2nd, relative to 'ho retention of the punt at. Lowburu, were gived effect to. - ■