BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 99, 24 September 1874, Page 4

BOROUGH COUNCIL.

KAIAPOI. Tuesday, September 22. The ordinary fortnightly meeting of this Council was held on Tuesday evening. Present : The Mayor, Crs Beharrell, Parnham, Wearing, and Funston, and having made the declaration required from newly elected councillors, Crs Blackwell, McDonald, and Milsom, took their seats. Letters were read : From Secretary of Public Works, acknowledging receipt of the Council's letter calling attention to the necessity for repairs to the swing bridge, and unsafe state of the approaches to footbridge, and informing the Council that the provincial engineer would forthwith attend to the matters, also reminding the Council of the arrangement made with a deputation of that body, to hand over to the Government £3OO, the balance of the bridge reserve fund. The town clerk read a reply, sent by instructions of the Mayor on the Kith, stating that the balance of the reserve fund would be paid to the Government when they had put the repairs in progress, and asking them also to sanction the appointment made by the deputation, of a person to attend to the bridge at a salary jf £2O a year, and state how often his salary would be paid. The Major asked the Council to approve of this reply, which showed the Government that the Council could treat them as cavalierly as the Government appeared to be treating them. When the Government began with the work they would have the money paid to them. The Council approved of the reply sent. From Mr W. H. E. Pinching, stating that Mrs Newnham's chimney had been on fire, and was in a dangerous condition, besides placing a block of seven houses in imminent danger of fire. The landlord, Mr Funston, had been spoken to, but to no purpose. The opinion of Mr Ay res, bricklayer, was enclosed, reporting the chimney to be unsafe, and requiring to be taken down. Cr Funston said he would see to the matter now it had been brought under his notice. The letter was referred to the fire brigade committee. Cr Funston, chairman of sanitary committee, reported that Mr Beswick's nuisance had been abated on the 19th inst. The report was adopted. From the cash book it was shown that the receipts for the fortnight were—rates, £GO 19s 4d, and Government grant £125. The credit balance at bank was £3lB lis sd. Cr Milsom moved, Cr McDonald seconded, —"That the following accounts be passed for payment, viz, Bank of New Zealand (timber) £2O 19s 5d ; bridge-keeper's salary, £4 15s Sd ; foreman's salary, £1 ; Kavanagh and Burnell (ironwork). £1; E. Bate (painting), £G7slld; B. Smith (carting), £2 15s; T. Veysey (do). £1 7s 6d ; Jno Harper (do), £1 7s 6d ; F. Pearce (carpenter's work), £3 10s; J. Gaskey (labor), £3 4s 6d ; W. Smith (do) £2 5s ; A. Cameron (do), £3 4s 6d ; total, £54 6s 1 Id." Carried. The following committees were then appointed : Public works—Cr Wearing (chairman), the Mayor, and Cr Funston. Planting—Cr Wearing (chairman), the Mayor, and Cr Beharrell. Finance—Crs Beharrell (chairman), Blackwell, and Milsom. Fire Brigade—The Mayor (chairman), Crs Beharrell and Parnham, Sanitary matters —Crs Funston (chairman), McDonald, and Milsom. To sign licenses and cheques—The Mayor, Crs Parnham, and Beharrell. One tender for the footpath, from the foot-bridge to the Kaiapoi Hotel, was received and accepted on the motion of Cr Wearing, seconded by the Mayor, as no other councillor seemed disposed to'move the question. Cr Wearing, by permission, made a long explanation in reference to a letter written by Mr Beswick to the Lyttelton Times, showing that while Mr Beswick admitted having received a notice from the Council to remove a nuisance, he paid no attention to it for a month —(The Clerk : Or six weeks) —before he vvas summoned at the Magistrate's Court, and then he turned round to abuse the Council, and himself in particular as chairman of the wurks committee. In the letter it was stated that Mr Beswick purchased pipes on Tuesday, th;>y were drayed to the ground on Wednesday, aud notice

sent on Thursday to the Council; but they wore not put in until the Saturday. Now he considered the Council did very well to be able to pet their men on the work within about twenty-four hours, and Mr Beswick had no cause for complaint, yet he wrote—- " If they had done as they ought to have done," and so on. Such arrogance I After his having maintained an abominable 'nuisance over a month, after being told of it he turned round and abused the Council for not removing it in twenty-four hours. The facts were, that after Mr Beswick had been summoned he went to him (Cr Wearing) and asked if the Council's men would open the land on the street to put \he pipes in. JBaving a desire to see the matter ended, he consented ; the cost would not exceed 12s, and now he must be abused by by him. He had no doubt the public were aware of the fact that at the time of the flood, as the Council had a drain open across the street, the works committee offered to allow Mr Beswick to put in pipes to drain and improve his property, but after waiting a full fortnight they were compelled to fill it in. Crs Milsom, Blackwell, and Parnham said they could bear out the last statement. The Mayor noticed that Mr Beswick had gone out of his way to say that Cr Wearing had not represented his statements to him to the Council, which would be found, however, on reference to the reports of the Council. He explained that no advantage had been taken of Mr Beswick's absence to press a conviction, but he obtained an order of the Magistrate's Court, so as to save the expense of further proceedings, and after all the nuisance was not abated till the 19th, and then not done so much by Mr Beswick's common sense, but by his late foreman's. Cr Blackwell said the complaint of Mr Beswick that the Council had drained on to his land was unfounded. Further, had an outfall drain not been made at the time of the flood, Mr Beswick's property would have been a swamp. He had read the letter alluded to, but thought the Council ought not to have noticed it. It was certain the nuisance would never have been abated but for the Magistrate's order. Cr Wearing said he had always reported Mr Beswick's conversations with him to the Council fully, as he would find on reference to the Lyttelton limes report alluded to in his letter. Cr Funston endorsed what had just been stated, and considered that Mr Beswick's grievance was entirely imaginary. The subject here dropped. It was resolved that the official papers for the time being be duly filed. Cr Blackwell drew attention of the works committee to the state of Akaroa street and Fuller street footpaths. The footpaths on the former street was next to impassable, and not safe in the night time. Cr Parnham represents that a culvert in Otaki street was at too high a level to take the drainage away efficiently. Cr Wearing promised to give his attention to the matter. The Mayor recommended that the Government should be again written to on the question of the £SOO for protective embankments. The spring freshes would soon require that these works ought to be completed. The Government must, he considered, be burdened with very pressing matters when they could not attend to a question of that kind. He knew for a fact that the provincial solicitor three weeks ago, was asked to give his opinion as to whether the vote of £SOO could be handed to the Council, and it was time surely he had given that opinion. These delays to him (the Mayor) looked too much like humbug. It was resolved—" That the clerk write re the £SOO for protective works." It was decided that the clerk have full instructions to enforce the payment of the rates by legal process, and persons be jeminded that they must renew kerosene licenses. The Council then adjourned.