CITY COUNCIL.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2064, 5 October 1880, Page 3

CITY COUNCIL.

The ordinary meeting of the City Council was held last evening. There were present — His Worship the Mayor, Crs. Ayers, Lambert, England, Thomson, Hulbert, Cuff, Cherrill, Taylor, Yincent, Bishop, and Gapes. The Mayor stated that he had Just received a long letter from the Tramway Company, which appeared to ba in answer to the report of the tramway committee brought up at last meetiug, and he would suggest that the letter should be simply read and referred to the tramway committee, so that it might be brought up for consideration at a meeting to be appointed. He pointed out that the Council could scarcely consider so long a letter on such short notice. He also drew attention to a model of wooden pavement now very largely in use in some parts of New Zealand, which he had received from Mr B. Smith, of Wellington. The ordinary business was then proceeded with. The Mayor reported the credit at the bank to be £1561 5s lOd. The weekly statement of accounts gave the following totals—Receipts General account, £5lB 11s 2d; drainage rate account, £2l 17s 2d ; Drainage Board, £B7 Os Id. Bills to be paid, £15511s 2d. A petition from residents in Victoria street was deferred, to be considered in connection with the surveyor’s report. A letter was read from Mr Henry Dodd, enclosing an account for work done on the north town belt. It was referred to the works committee to enquire into and report to the Council. A letter was written from the Selwyn Council in relation to the question of keeping the Lincoln road in repair, and inviting a conference on the subject of the maintenance of the Hagley Park roads. On the motion of Cr. Ayers, it was resolved that Cr, Lambert and the Mayor be a deputation to wait upon the committee of the Selwyn Council and other bodies interested. The City Surveyor’s report was as follows : 4th October, 1880. 1. The works committee ordered me to construct a concrete channel to give Mr Bowman the frontage which he is legally entitled to opposite his promises in Victoria street. 2. Mr Izard has paid into the City Council funds £l5O Is, the amount of my estimate for forming, shingling, and channelling a new street, to be called Richmond Terrace, and leading from Selwyn street to Richmond road. 3. The pipes of the Victoria street artesian are now down 137 feet, and they are on very hard bottom, but they are still being driven, although but slowly. 4. I am instructed to prepare an estimate for forming and channelling that part of Cambridge terrace between Montreal and Cashel streets. 5. I waited on a committee of the members of the Club with regard to the request that they would allow a pipe connection to ba made with their well in order to supply a drinking fountain in Latimer square, and I find that the water that would be available for the purpose would only give an intermittent supply, that is to say that when all their services are in use there would be none to spare for the fountain, but when only some of their services are in use there is water running to waste. 6. The late dry weather has caused me to find out that the timber top of Cashel street bridge was in a vary decayed condition, and in order to ascertain the extent of decay I was obliged to strip off the planks, and consequently shut up the bridge. I find the timber is in a worse condition than I anticipated, and the repairs will coat about £145. C. Walkdkn, City Surveyor, In connection with clause 1 the following letter was read:— Christchurch, September 29th, 1880. The City Surveyor. Sir.—Coming down Victoria street this morning, I saw some city workmen marking, or rather preparing, the ground by Mr Bowman’s store for a concrete channel, and as I understood from Mr Bowman that the idea is to take away the semi-circular piece which was asphalted and channelled at _ considerable expense by a resolution of the City Council, I am distinctly of opinion that no committee would be justified in proceeding with this work without first obtaining the consent of the Council in the usual way. I called at the chairman of the works committee’s office to speak with him upon the subject, and was informed he was out of town. —I am. &c., C. T. Ick, Mayor. Some discussion ensued touching the action of his Worship the Mayor, and ultimately clause 1 was passed. Clause 6 was referred to the works committee with power to act. The report as a whole was then adopted.

The following report was read from Mr Superintendent Harris: — To his Worship the Mayor. Sir,—l have to congratulate Council upon the immunity from fires during the past quarter. We have only had three alarms, all of which have been beyond the city boundary. The first was the general manager’s office at the railway station, the second a large quantity of rubbish on the Park road, and the third Mr Gwatkin’a house on the North belt. I notice it is proposed to enlarge the Victoria street tank. I wish to inform you that we have ample supply of water for fire prevention purposes in the drain at the intersection of Durham and Ivilmore streets, constructed by the Drainage Board. There are several other places at which the drains will give ns a supply of water. I thins it will be well before deciding on works of this kind to refer them to the fire brigade committee, that they may enquire if they are needful for fire purposes. My reason for bringing this matter before you is that I find the charge of this and similar works is placed to account of fire prevention, when as a fact they are constructed fcr street watering purposes.—l have, &c., W. Harris, Superintendent. The report was approved. The finance committee reported drawing attention to the fact that the expenditure for scavengering the streets would at the present rate exceed the Council’s vote by about £4OO at the end of the financial year. The report was referred to the sanitary committee to report. The following letter from the secretary of the Tramway Company was read, being that referred to by the Mayor in his opening remarks: — Christchurch, October 2nd, ISSO. To his Worship the Mayor of Christchurch. Sir, —Tho directors of the Tramway Company desire to submit for the consideration ef the City Council the following statement with reference to the report of its by-law committee presented at the last sitting of the Council. Your committee report that eleven deviations have been made from the original plan, and theyinfer that these deviations, as they term them, have been made contrary to onr powers. The directors now propose to show that this does not fairly represent the case, which stands thus; In the original plans only the main line was shown, as at that time it was hardly possible to define the necessary passing places, side lines, and loop lines, so a general power was asked for and granted in the Governor’s order, copy of which was assented to by the City Council on 23rd July, 1878, and formed a schedule to the

deed between year Council and tbe company, and the order was not asren'ed to by the Governor nntil two months later. _ The directors desire to impress on the Council the fact that this order was first submitted to your Council and approved of by its solicitor, Dr Foster, ani was inserted in the deed of con esaion which was prepared by him, and exeent. d by tbe Connell acting on his advice. This order gave the Tramway Company authority to make the loops retened to by your committee, and by them termed deviations Nos. J, 2, 3,8,9, and It, and also gave power to make side lino No.C, wiiich accounts for seven of the said devia’ions. They will now refer to the deviation* from the original plans Nos. 4,7, 10. These alterations have been made ii accordance with clause No. VII. of the Governor’s Order in Council wherein it that the lines must be kept as near as possible to the centre line of tbe different streets, allowing for curves, &c., and, further, thbse changes were made by the company in tbe sole interest of the general public traffic, and absolutely «g inst their own pecuniary interest. To furth-r explain and. prove this statement they up, end a letter from t> eir engineer ( jlr Warner), also detail plans of these three deviations, from which your Council will at once see that their only desire has been to avoid the footpaths, and keep rare to tbe centre of the various streets. And now as to devintion No. 5. This differs semewhat from, the loops already referred to, ina much as it is the terminus of the various lines, and it was originally understood that the line would, as pointed out by year committee, follow the lino of the kerb in front of Godley sta'ue and it is correct that this coarse has not yet been adopted, they having made the portionlhat was more immediately necessary in the centre of the street, and this was partly occasioned by the fact that six months after your Council granted the concession to this Company, your Council by bye-law mad 3 a cabstand in the square in such a position that practically renders itimpossible to construct the lines as laid down without the cabstand being altered, and the directors would respectfully ask yo-r Council, in view of the increased traffic at this point, to consider the advisability of making such alterations as will enable them to carry out their original intention. Having thus dealt with the eleven presumed departures referred to by jour committee, but which the directors maintain are strictly in conformity with the Order in Council contained in the deed of conces.-ion, a copy of which is in possession of the Council, and. they presume, accessible to the by-law committee for their information, they must, therefore, demur to that portion of the statement of your committee that it conM not “ ascertain that the ('ouccil ever authorised or were asked to sanction the alterations.” lu reference to South town belt curve, where tha line cuts through tha end of the cabstand, “ Ycnr committee report tbat they desire to clear the Council from any blame in appointing the stand, 'he cabstand was placed in such a position that it would not have been within some distance of tha tram line; but tbe Company, when laying their line, found it was practically impossible to put it where they had asked, and, therefore, altered the curve running from Manchester street into the South town belt to suit their own arrangements without having consulted the local authority.” It is correct that the line, as st present constructed, is not the same as that laid on the plan, as it was found that the plan would not, in the first place, comply with the Governor’s Order in Council, and, further, if carried out. would bav* be=n detrimental to the public traffic bv throwing the line on the western kerb of Manchester street, and in fact, as your committee state, was practically impossible. But while your committee is anxious to clear the Council from making the cab stand so that it cleared the line as shown on tho“deposited plan, they utterly disregard the fact that on the same day the cab stand was made (six months after tbe concessions were given to the Tramway Company), a ’bus stand was made at the railway station some 20ft further away right across tha line of the tram, as shown on the dep s ited plans, and it is surely strange that if tha plans had been to closely studied, this point was not discovered ; and they think your by-law committ'e should have stated this fact in its report. But further, when constructing tbe line at the point referred to, and when it was seen that the company must either keep to the original plan in defiance’of the Governor’s order, and by doing so, have occupied 70ft of the ’bus stand, or do as they have done, and run the line through the comer of the cab stand, thus merely reducing th*length of the cab stand by one cab, and the ’bus stand by one ’bus, this was pointed out |to your previous by-laws committee, and Conncillors Bishop, Lambert, and the city surveyor visited the spot with the chairman, and the proposed alterations were pointed ont. The company have always understood that it was contemplated to alter the length of the cab stand, also tbe’bns stand; tbe last report of your Council confirms tha statement that this interview did take place. To remedy tbe cab stand difficulty there are two courses open; tbe first, to agree to tbe plan deposited September 20fch last, but which does not apparently meet with the city sarveycr’s approval, as in his opinion it interferes more with the ’bus stand than the present lines do, although they_ again respectfully remind the Council that this 'bus stand was made six months after concessions were given to the company and is made to across tbe line, as shown in the deposited plans. Tha other, and certainly the more simple and convenient for all parties, is to take off about 10£t. from the western end, and pnt that length, if necessary, on to the eastern end. Referring to the suggestions of your committee as to future concessions, had the directors not at the present time negotiations in hand with yonr Council, they would think it unnecessary to refer to this portion of the report, bat as the Council have the undoubted right to make whatever terms they may chose to agree to in any future negotiations, the directors respectfully suggest that the Council should not bind themselves by adopting suggestions that may afterwards ha found impracticable to carry ont. It would be in their opinion, better to allow such suggestions to stand on their own merits as they arise. Taking the objections in order, “ Yonr committee state tbat they cannot hear of another tram line running alongside of a footpath of an important thoroughfare to discharge their passengers, even in cities where the traffic [is infinitely larger than in Christchurch.” Your committee could not Lave been aware that both in Wellington and Dnnedin the trams do run alongside the footpaths in certain places to discharge their passengers, and in both these cities the traffic is larger than in Christchurch. In the former city the tram runs alongside the footpath at the railway station and also at the theatre recently burned, and they submit that where possible passengerswho travel by tram have the same right to bodeposited at the footpath as those who travel in other vehicles. Yonr committee have .furnished a memo, purporting to be a comparison of the comparison of the concessions in Christchurch with those of Dnnedin and Wellington, but as it may tend to mislead, the directors think it ought to be referred to. Your committee omit to state that in Dunedin all municipal rates and taxes on all property in connection with the lic.es are remitted, and that at tha end of fourteen years the Council is compelled te take over the whole property at a valuation, and the circumstance that the Dnnedin tramway has to repair 15ft of the street is explained by the fact that the proprietor has a double lino of rails through tbe whole length of the streets, and further the whole traffic in Dnnedin being thrown practically into one street renders tho Dunedin concessions much more valuable than the Christchurch one. In respect to tha Wellington concession, it is true they have to pay 10 per cent, of the profits, but not till all expenses are paid and tha shareholders first receive 7.V per cent, on their investment. Up to this time Wellington Council has received nil . As there appears to be a desire in some places to create an impression that this company baa received from your Council an 1 ‘ ill-advised concession,” they would point out that had they invested their capital in cabs and ’busses they would not have required any concessions from yonr Council, and would only have been responsible for ordinary fees, and would have ent up the streets to a greater extent without being called upon to pay a shilling for repairs. In conclusion, the directors very much regret that an impression has been created in the minds of some that the Company has endeavored to thwart the Council in any way ; if there is any difference between the Council and the Company, it has been quite unintentional on their part. They some time ago suggested a conference with your Council, with a view of adjusting any matter in dispute, and they again take the opportunity of repeating the advisability of such a meeting, and if there should still remain any questions which cannot be otherwise settled, then tbe directors think it would be in the interest of all concerned to refer tbe matter to tbe Governor as provided for by clause 32 of the Tramways Act.—l have, &c„ Alfred Evans, Secretary. Accompanying the above was a letter from Mr Warner, engineer, setting forth the position taken up by the Tramway Company, and adding that the whole of the deviations made in connection with the tramway, were against the best interests of tho company. It was, after some discussion, resolved to refer the foregoing letters to the by-law and tramway committee, to report to next meeting, when the whole matter will be discussed. Certain questions having been asked and satisfactorily answered by the surveyor, Cr. Bishop moved, and it was agreed to, that a departmental committee be appointed, through which all questions connected with the officials or the routine of the Council officers should reach the Council, such committee to be combined with the finance committee. Or. Bishop's name was added to the reserve* committee. Some routine business was then disposed of, and an application for a license dealt with. The Council then (at 9 30) went into committee, and on resuming adjourned.