CITY COUNCIL.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1566, 25 February 1879, Page 3

CITY COUNCIL.

Monday, February 24. The usual fortnightly meeting of the City Council was h-ld at seven o'clock. Present His Worship the Mayor and Crs. Gapes, ezard, Clifford, Jenkins, Tremayne, Binstead, Wilson, and Cass. FINANCES. The Town Clerk reported the following statement of accounts : —Keceipts since the last meeting, J 8274 2S; credit at the Bank, .#986 lis 7d. Drainage rate acconnt—balance, .£1254 17a 41 ; bills passed, .£2lO 19s 3d; bills to be paid, .£1535 12s sd. THE MAYOR'S REMARKS. The Mayor said that since the last meeting a plan of the reserve for the Town Hall had been forwarded to Wellington, and it was hoped that a satisfactory reply would be received in the course of a short time. He wished to bring before the notice of the Council the fact that their business had very much increased, and he would suggest that thoy met onco a week instead of once a fortnight. Since he had arrived at the Council he had received the following letter from Dr. Foster : Colombo street, February 21th, 1879. Dear Sir,—l promistd yon some time since that I would not carry out my intention to resign the city soliciWship without first communicating with yourself. I thinK yon will now agree with mo that I cau ro longer ho expected to continue to discharge the duties of that office. Since the meeting' of the Counoil on the 10th inst., at which my alleged neglect to properly correct the proofs of the hackney cirriage bt-law was commented on, I have made it my business to examine the papers. I find that I was correct in my statement to the Council that I had no opportunity of doing so. On the 14th December Mr Haskins brought me the rough slips of the by-law, with instructions to settle finally. It was not in a state to do this, but I nude a great number of amendments, and explained thi-ui afterwards to Mr Haskins at the City Council office, and they went back I believe to the City Council On the 10th of January I agnin received a proof of (he by-law along with a draft schedule of cab stands. I wns instructed to settle the schedule, and I did so. Ou the 2 ith I again received a pro f, with instructions to prepare clanses prohibiting the carriage of dead bodies. I advised upon and prepared the proper clauses, and inserted them in a suitable place in

I the by-law. Up to this time, while the by-law was Itill undergoing alterations at the hand! of the council, it would have been a waste of time to attempt to revise the proof, and if I had been instructed to do so, it would have been my dnty to Irei-'ommend it to be postponed. It was upon theae last clauses being agreed to by the Council ) that I ouscht to have received back the proofs of the whole by-law for final revision, in order to the confirmatory resolution being passed. I did not so receive them. The confirmatory resolution was passed hv the Council on the 28th of January, and on the next day Mr Haskins brought the bylaw to me, stating that your Worship thought I had better look over it before it was sent to the Colonial Secretary. I then went carefully through the whole by-law, and discovered the important printer's error, which I explained to the Council. I also took the opnnrtnnity of making several useful corrections, all of which the Council approved. I think that if after the Council had passed such a by-law without flrßt submitting it to my final perusal, I had declined to interfere further no one would have been much disposed to blame me. more especially as they had once already Jbeen fully advised by me with reference to this by-law of the consequences of doing so. (I refer to my letter of lath December.) Wnen I took the pains I did to rectify what had been unadvisedly done amiss, and on your iovitation attettd.nl the Council to explain the necessity of doing so, I acknowledge that I was not prepared for the discreditable violence with which I was assailed. I cordially thank the majority of the Council who refused to be parties to the attack, and carried through the necessary resolutions exactly as I had prepared them, but I am not inclined to expose myself to similar scenes for the future. . . , You will be aware from what has already taken place that the manner in which I was treated at the last meeting of the Council is not alone the reason of my wishing to retire. The circumstance affords one more illustration of the extent to which, under existing conditions, th. 9 legal adviser of the city is liable to be held seriously responsible for mistakes of Which he could not but be entirely ignorant. I have, therefore, to request that the Council will relieve me of my dnties as soon as it can conveniently be arranged. Allow me to express my sincere regret that I should be under the necessity of writing this letter to yourself, from whom I have throughout received all the courtesy and consideration to which my office entitled me.

I am, dear sir, Faithfully yours, Chas. J. Foster. He might state that he had received a letter from a lady, who proposed during the following week to give a performance for the benefit of the sufferers by the late accident at Kaitangata. He hoped the Councillors would all attend in person, and do the best they could to help the object which they had in view.

THE COUNCIL STAFF. The Chairman, in answer to a question from one of the councillors, said an early opportunity would be taken of calling a special meeting of the Council to take into consideration the question of the re-organisation of the Council staff.

THE SURVEYOR'S REPORT

This report was read hs follows: — No. 1. The works committee recommend that two thousand cubic yards of quarried stone should be delivered in Christchurch, with the view of findingemployment for some aged men that are unable to le tve the town in search of work, to break it. No. 2. Mr Hole's tender for 1000 yards of small broken st«ue for repairs of roads was accepted by the works committee. No. 3. The works committee and I interviewed the contractor for the foot-bridge on the East belt, but the committee were unable to suspend the work, as the contractor demanded compensation for so dmug and they had no power to award him compensation. , No. 4. With regard to the information required y the Engineer to the Drainage Board as to whether the trees will remain in the centre of the East belt, the works committee recommend that they should so remain. Wo. 5. Our carpenters are at present engaged in building two sonnd-proof rooms to be used in connection with the telephones at the Eire Brigade Stations. No. 6. Mr Gledhill's tender was accepted by the works committee for the stone lamp pedestals in Cathedral square. No. 7. The tenders for lasphalting and forming Lyttelton street the works committee desire to be submitted to the Council for acceptance. No. 8. I have made estimates for the asphalte crossings in Manchester street South and handed them to the Town Clerk. No. 9. The proper plan has been exhibited in the Town Clerk's office, and the necessary notices have been served for the formation, channelling, &c, of Allen street, so that it now remaiDs for the Council to decide whether the work shall be at once commenced or not. No. 10. A drawing of the widening of Colombo bridge, by adding footpaths each sft. in width, will be laid before the Council. The cost of the alteration will be £2CO. No. 11. I beg to call the Council's attention to the fact that no time is specified in the building by-law for the licenses to expire, which occasionally gives rise to misunderstanding and inconvenience. No. 12. The sanitary committee requested me to report on the following places: — Mr Palmer's private road. —The only portion of this road which appears ta create a nuisance is a piece about eight chains long, running from and at right angles to Kilmore street. If this length were formed and shingled I think it would do away with any inconvenience arising from the sand blowing. The cost would be £52. The roa-ls on Block 4, belonging to Mr Trendwell and others: — If these roads were to be formed and channelled, there would not be the slightest difficulty as to drainage, as the fall to St. Asaph street is so good that there would be no necessity to drain into the school ditches. To drain Richmond road, a small concrete channel might be made along the school fence into Harry street, instead of using the school ditch, which has hitherto been done; and in consequence of that ditch being closed up inside the school grounds, the channels in Bichmond road have no outlet. An estimate of the work is annexed hereto.

C. Walkden, City Surveyor,

Tt was resolved that the improvements in Lyttelton street should be carried out, ai recommended by the city surveyor. After some discussion had taken place en the various clauses, the report was adopted.

THE WATER SUPPLY. The chairman of the water supply committee stated that a report would be brought before the Council at an early date. Experiments ware being made, and from what he had learned, it would be of a most successful character.

The Mayor suggested that the scheme of Mr White should be fortified by the opinion of an engineer. The chairman of the committee said it was intended to employ Messrs Dobson and Son, who were professional men, to give an opinion on the subject. THE CITY RANGER. The Mayor read a list of the duties which it would be expected the City Eanger should perform. Or. Lezard called attention to what he cal'ed the "larrikin pest," and snid he hoped the Eanger would be able to put it down. It was resolved to add a clause on the subject to the ranger's duty. The list of duties as read by the Mayor was agreed to after discussion and amendment, the only members dissenting to some of the clauses being Crs. Gapes and Cass. The (own Clerk was authorised to advertise for applications for the post of ranger, such applications to be considered at the next meeting. CARLETON PLACE AND PARKES STREET. Cr. Gapes moved—" That a portion of tbeis streets be kerbed and channelled, the expense to be deducted from the first loan for drainage.'' Seconded by Cr. Tremayne, and agreed to. THE FIRE BRIGADE. Cr Lezard withdrew his motion in reference to a donation being given to the Christchurch Fire Brigade. He said he had been requested to withdraw the motion by Mr Superintendent Harris. CREYKE'S STREET. Cr. Wibon moved—" That this Council is of opinion that the city surveyor should be instructed to estimate the cost of asphalting the footpaths, and of widening, forming, Bhingling, and channelling the street known as Creyke's street, leading from Montreal street south to the Town belt, near the Belgravia Hotel." Seconded by Cr. Binstead, and agreed to. LYTTELTON STREET. The tender of Mr Smart for the formation of this street was accepted, the price being £165. SCAVENGERING. A letter was read from Mr John Brightling refuting certain charges that had been made against him as the city scavenger. After a considerable amount of discussion a motion was carried to the effect that the Town Clerk should supply the contractors with the names of the persons making the complaints. TIME OF MEETING. On the motion of Cr. Gapes, seconded by Cr. Binstead. it was resolved—" That in future the Council should meet once a week instead of once a fortnight." DR. FOSTER'S RESIGNATION. Cr. Cass moved —" That the resignation of Dr. Foster as the City Solicitor be accepted." Seconded by Cr. Wilson. Cr. Binstead repudiated all share in the nngentlemanly conduct which had led to Dr. Foster sending in his resignation. <'r. Gapes agreed with the remarks of Cr. Binstead. Cr. Lezard did not agree with either of the previous speakers. Dr. Fo ter had tried to make out the inspector as a common liar, he Mayor would call the speaker to order. Cr 1 ezard would withdraw the expression, and say that- at all events Dr. Foster was, accorl'ng ti the statement of the inspector, a perverter of the truth. After some further discussion, the motion was agreed to. THE OFFICE STAFF OF THE COUNCIL. Aft* r some discussion it was decided to hold a special meeting r.ext Friday evening, to consider the question of the reorganisation of the office staff DRIVERS' LICENSES. Several drivers' licenses were granted, after which tbj Council adjourned at eleven o'clock.