CITY COUNCIL.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2460, 4 January 1871, Page 2

CITY COUNCIL.

Tins Day. At this afternoon’s sitting, there were present—The Mayor, Councillors Barnes, Thoneman, Mercer, and Walter. Amongst the correspondence read, was the fol owing letter from the Colnial Treasurer:— “ Custom House, Dunedin, “ December 22, IS7O. “ Sir—l have read the report in the Dal!a Times of what took place at the City Council yesterday, respecting payment for advertising the requisition to address a public meeting, which you recently presented to me, and as to payment for the use of the Masonic Hall, for the purposes of the meeting which you convened. “You must permit me to say, that if the report in the Times be correct, your recollection of what passed between us relative t« the meeting does not agree with my own. “I have to request that you will submit to the Council, at its next meeting, the following statement as to my impression of what passed between us, since I cannot allow the account as given by yourself to remain nncontradieted. “ When you presented the requisition to me, I told, you 1 must take time to consider it; and that I was reluctant to submit myself to the chance of a disturbance similar to that which had taken place at the meet'ng in the Theatre. I told you that if I did accede to the requisition, I thought the requisitionists names should be published, so that it should be known who had asked me to address the meeting. You objected, on the score of expense, and offered to pick out a few of what you called “the principal names.” I told you I did not think tlxat that would answer the purpose of guaranteeing an orderly meeting ; and you finally agreed with me that if, after consideration, I made up my mind to address the meeting, you would take the advertisement to the Daihj Times Office, and that I should pay half the expense. I am clear in my recollection that you equally agreed with me as to the expediency of publishing the requisition in order to secure an orderly meeting. “On the morning of the meeting, you called upon me in what you called your ‘dual capacity’ of Mayor and Secretary to the Masonic Hall Company. You asked me if 1 would hold myself responsible for the rent of the Hall, and for any damage which might he done to the forms. I replied at once, ‘No.’ You said, then the meeting could not take place. In reply, I said that sooner than those who had been led to expect a meeting should he disappointed, 1 would hold myself liable for the rent, if I was asked to pay it, hut not for any damage that might be done to the fittings. “1 then explained why I' conceived I

ought not to bo asked to provide a room. I told you—though perhaps not quite so plainly as I now put it—that some of the disturbance at the first meeting was through its being understood that you considered yourself affronted because that meeting had not been called by you. I contended that it was quite in order to call political meetings without the agency of the Mayor of the town in which they were held ; but that if the Mayor of Dnnelin was of a contrary opinion, he should remember that tho privilege he claimed involved responsibilities. It seems to me, still to be extraordinary that the Mayor should ask mo to pay for a room, wheu he presents to me a requisition signed by eight hundred of the citizens, asking him, not me, to convene a meeting. “Your Worship will now understand why I cannot allow it to be supposed that I admit you placed the matter before the Council correctly ; but after what has taken place, I will not avail myself of the amount voted by the Council, nor will 1 leave you, as I might do, to pay one-half the cost of the advertisement yourself. I enclose you a cheque for the full amount, namely LlO 17s ; being L 7 14s for the advertisement, and L 3 3s for the use of the Hall. The advertisement in the Stir I have already paid for. “ I beg that your Worship will bring this letter under the notice of the Council, so that it may receive publicity, such as has been given to tho discussion which took place at the meeting yesterday. “ I have, &c., “Julius Vogel. “His Worship, “ The Mayor of Dunedin.” The Mayor, in explanation, denied that I c agreed as to the necessity for publishing the names attached to the requisition, or to contributing on the part of the Council, half the cost of so doing. Messrs Briscoe and Co., wrote on the subject of the Princes street Reserve. It was resolved that the clerk should write to the tenants of the reserve, demanding payment of back rent by Monday next, failing payment, legal proceedings to be at once taken for its recovery. The reports of the various committees were adopted without amendment.