LYTTELTON BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2158, 25 January 1881, Page 2

LYTTELTON BOROUGH COUNCIL.

The uaua.l moeticg of this Council was held on Monday night. Present—The Mayor (chairman), Crs. Hawkins, Beed, Grarforth, Wobb, Grubb, Wejbourne. The receipts amoanted to £lB7 4s since the previous meetinc. The following letter was read :—" New Zealand Railways, G-eneral Manager's office, Danedin, 19th January, 1881. Sir, —Proposed.

•aiding at Officers' Point: In reply to your 'letter of the 23rd ult, I have the ho< or to inform you that upon invcslig" i n it is found that it is not feasible to ounneui. tho site indioated upon the plan forwarded by you with tho present Government sidings. Under any oiroumstanoos, the working tf » ornate mding and store in the places indicated would be n source of extra expense to tl e depun.Toct without any corresponding advantage being gained, and upon these grom da only the • Government is justified in declining private acoess to the port station. Wishing, however, to meet the request of your Counoil as far as possible, the Minister will, under oertain conditions, be prepared to allow private aocess should other contingent conditions allow of it, and should the Government be relieved from any expense connected with it. It is understood that you do not apply on behalf of the bor.-ntgh in tbis matter, but in the interests of private persons who are sub-lessees or tenants of tho Board. The conditions which will govern the Ministers in dealing with this matter are as follows: — 'Certain changes in the Lyttelton yard are contemplated in connection with working tho new wharves executed by the Harbor Board. Concurrently with those alterations, an arrangement might be carried out permitting tho connection of a private siding with the Government lines at tho Gladstone wharf, such private siding to give access to a store situated on the Borough Council reserve in a slightly different position to that indicated on the plan you send. The private siding would be granted on the terms ordinarily impooed in such cases with the additional oondition that the applicant paid £2OO for work in accessory sidings which must be exocuted to admit of _ the traffic being carried on, and in addition a sum of '£lso per annum to cover the coßts of working a siding placed in the remote and isolated position this would ocoupy. Tho whole oost to the applicant would be about as follows : Cost of private siding to connect altered store with Government lines, -£4OO ; oost of necessary works necessary, £200; total, £600; also, an annual payment of £l5O, representing the extra oost of working the traffic abovo ordinary charges levied at this station. I have, &o. (Signed) J. F. Maxwbii, General Manager." Leave of-abienoe was granted to Crs. Moopberson and -Smith. With reference to the letter from Mr Maxwell as to the railway siding, the Mayor said Mr Maxwell had gone quite outside the question asked of him. It was highly unbecoming, he thought, for him to have assumed that the'Council was endeavouring to get the siding, not for the benefit of the town, but for private interests, inasmuoh as the assumption was a most unwarrantable one. Or. Seed thought the reply was an impertinent one. Or. Webb dissented from this entirely. He thought, with tho general manager, the Counoil could not benefit for the next four years from the proposed railway siding, seeing that the property was for that period in private hands. The Mayor remarked that, without the siding, the property would be comparatively of no value to the town, when it fell into the Council's hands at the end of the four years. It was a most important matter that the siding be secured, no it in reality meant rates or no rates in the borough. A committee-was appointed to meet the Minister of Public Works upon the matter. Messrs P. Cunnirgham and Oo.'s letter advising the tranimi -on homo of an order for pipes, &c. A. letter from Mr Erriokaon on a stormwater nuisanon was attended to. Messrs G. 3opp and W. "Salt were granted porters' licenses. Mrs Leslie, Highland Home Boarding House, complained of the nuisanoe caused by the smoke from Mr Queeree's chimney and from the rail fray engine house. The olerk was instruoted to write to Mr Queeree.' A water aocount was opened with the Union Steamship Company. Accounts amounting to £l4B 17a'Id were passed. The lighting committee recommended that all the lamps be painted, and it was adopted. Mr Kent, engineer at' the waterworks, sent in his usual report. Tbe Town Olerk was appointed, in terms of the Act, registrar of dogs. A resolution that tenders be called for leasing 1200 acres of reserve at the Rakaia was oarried.