WIDENING OF PRINCES STREET.

Evening Star, Issue 3813, 14 May 1875, Page 3

WIDENING OF PRINCES STREET.

The meeting in the Athenaeum Hall last evening of those interested in opposing the widening of Princes street arbitration was for the purpose of preparing resolutions to be submitted at the general meeting of citizens on Monday, and was attended by fifty persons; Mr E, K. Murray being (jailed to the chair. The meeting was addressed by the Chairman, who denounced this attempt of the Council to saddle the citizens with an enormous debt, and urged the latter as men of common sense, of right and of justice to resist the indignitypthat was being tried to be forced upon them; by Mr W. D. Stewart, who said the whole thing had been systematically mismanaged, and Messrs Connell and Moodie, Gillies and Street, and men of their class of business should have been the arbitrators appointed ; by Mr Carbide, who condemned the .widening of the street as unnecessary, and stated that the idea of the promoters of the movement was to get legal advice, and endeavor to get out of the bargain; and by Mr Hudson, who said that the citizens had themselves to blame for not having displayed more interest in the municipal elections. In the course of his remarks, Mr Stewart stated that he had looked into the matter, and thought the Ciity Council had no authority whatever to spend the city funds for the purpose of widening the street. Messrs Beveridge, Garrick, Hudson, Murray, and Allan (with power to add to their number) were appointed a committee to prepare resolutions for submission to the public meeting on Monday night.

We understand that legal proceedings are being initiated for the purpose of testing the validity of the Corporation funds being devoted to the payment of the compensation awarded to tfie tenants of the Manse Reserve sites in Princes street under the late arbitration, and that a legal opinion has been obtained that the transaction is beyond the powers of the Corporation.