THE WATERWORKS COMPANY AND THE CITY COUNCIL.

Evening Star, Issue 3206, 30 May 1873, Page 2

THE WATERWORKS COMPANY AND THE CITY COUNCIL.

We have been requested to publish the following correspondence :

City Council Chambers, Dunedin, 9th May, 1873. Sir, I have the honor, by instruction of the Council, to acknowledge tne receipt of your letter of date as per margin (April 21st, 1873), replying that it is impossible for your Directors to say what the Company may do with regard to completing the sale of the Dunedin Waterworks to the City Corporation on the basis of the late negotiations. Referring to your reply, I am now directed to intimate that the Council, taking into consideration the present state of the water supply to the City, are desirous to erect works capable of furnishing a supply to all parts of the City. Before taking any steps in this direction, they wish to {dace it in the power of the Dunedin Waterworks Company to carry out the arrangement formerly contemplated ; and they now renew the offer made to take over the whole shares of the Company at an advance of fifty per cent., and the Council will also arrange to pay shareholders so desiring their price in- City debentures of thirty years currency, or fifty years, in the event of Parliament so authorising, or in cash. The Directors of the Dunedin Waterworks Company are requested to state whether the Company are prepared to treat with the Council on such terms. If the proposal be declined, the Council have resolved to take immediate steps for the erection of the new works required, which they are empowered to do under the “Municipal Corporations Waterworks Act, 1872 and they will also apply to Parliament at the ensuing session for the repeal of the Company’s rating power, improperly held by a Company which is unable to supply the wants of the inhabitants of the City and suburbs. The Council leave the proposal herein renewed in the hands of your Directors, for a period of fourteen days from this date, for acceptance or rejection. —I have, &c., J. M. Massey, Town Clerk. Thomas Dick, Esq., Secretary Dunedin Waterworks Co.

May 19,1873. Sir, —I am instructed by my Directors to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the9thinst., and in reply respectfully to refer you to my letter of date April 21st. lam further directed to state that the Corporation has been misinformed as to the inability of the Company to supply the wants of the inhabitants of the City, —I have, &c., Thomas Dick, Secretary. J. M. Massey, Esq., Town Clerk.

The following is the letter referred to;— April 21,1873. J. M. Massey, Esq,, Town Clerk. Sir,—l am instructed by my Directors to acknowledge receipt of your letter of April 15th, asking for a definite reply as to “ whether, in the event of the General Assembly of New Zealand passing at the next session an Amending Act to enable the Council to issue 50 years’ debentures, the Company will complete the bargain for the sale of the works on the basis of the recent arrangement.” In reply, I have to state that it is obviously impossible for the Directors to say definitely what the Company may do six or nine months hence. The bargain between the Company and the Corporation hag been broken by the Corporation, not the Company ; and it is impossible to saw how the shareholders may again view the question, as the majority in favor of the sale at the last meeting was very small.

My Directors feel constrained to point out that the attempt of the Mayor, as reported in the Times of the Uth inst., to shift any blame there may be in the matter on to their shoulders is neither air nor wise, seeing that it was no part of their duty to ascertain or instruct the Corporation what were or were not their powers and seeing also that the time originally proposed for taking over the works dates as far back as Octo - or last.

My Directors, whilst regretting that the Corporation found themselves compelled to break the bargain, fully exonerate them from any intentional mistake ; but as the interests of the Company in regard to various works which (greatlv-to the injury of the Company) have remained in abeyance pending the sale to the Corporation, require that no further delay shall take place, they must decline any further correspondence on the subject till the Corporation are in a position to give legal effect to any fur- * ther offer they may wish to make.—l have. Ac. TBoMAßDlCs,Swretery, 1