CITY COUNCIL.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2347, 11 October 1881, Page 3

CITY COUNCIL.

The ordinary fortnightly meeting of this Council was held last evening. Present—His Worship the Mayor, Crs. England, Vincent. Hiorns, Lonisson, Cuff, Hulbert, Treleaven, Bishop, Ayers, Lambert, Thomson, and Bowman. —The Mayor expressed his gratification at seeing Cr. Bishop once more resume his seat at the Council table after his recent severe illness. [Applause ] Cr. Bishop thanked the Mayor and Council for their kind expression. Motions were duly proposed and seconded, taking over private streets known as Mortimer place and Lyttelton street. —The Town Clerk reported receipts since last meeting to ba as follows : General, £893 9s 5d ; Waimakariri, &c., £135 17s 11 d; drainage, £691 Is 6d. Bills paid and to be paid, £103519s lid. Credit at Bank, £23610s Id. —A letter was read from the Chairman of the Selwyn County Council on the subject _ of the maintenance of tho Park roads, giving the following as the result of yesterday’s conference: —Tho County Council would resume sole charge of these roads on the City Council paying onethird of the cost of their maintenance, calculated at £4OO per annum, Riccarton one sixth, and the County Council one half; or, the City Council to take charge of the Lincoln road and Carlton Mill bridge ; the County Council taking the Riccarton road from the Hospital, the cost of the boundary reads to be defrayed jointly in equal proportions by the County and Riccarton Road Board. The Mayor said that as one member, representing the Council at the conference, ho understood that the County Council would share half the cost of the Carlton Mill bridge. Tho City Council would take full charge of tho Lincoln road as far as the belt, power to be asked from the Government to extend tho Council’s authority in that direction After considerable discussion, amendmet ts, and alterations it was eventually decided to refer tho whole matter to the works committee, to report at next meeting.—The returning officer wrote that Mr T. S. Lambert had been duly elected to fill the extraordinary vacancy in the N. W. ward.—William Johnston wrote, resigning his position as engineer in the Fire Brigade. Resignation accepted. Appointment of successor left to fire brigade committee.—The hon. secretary of the Railway Band wrote, a-king the Council to consider the advisableme.-s of erecting a rotunda in which the band might be accommodated while giving open air concerts daring tho ensuing summer season. Cr. Hulbert thought it a question for consideration whether an? band should be allowed to perform in Cathedral square for the future. It wonld ba just as convenient, and far safer, if Latimer square were only used for this purpose. The city surveyor reported as follows “ 1. The works committee recommend that the right-of-way in block 14, running from Tuam street to Lichfield street, and also into Madras street, be channelled, formed and shingled to remedy the nuisance complained of in the inspector’s report. 2. The works committee accompanied me through the city to determine what was necessary to ba done to the asphalte paving, and they recommend that the work of repairing, in accordance with the specification herewith, at a cost of £494 6s 3d, be carried out, and that after its complet’ > \ tenders ba invited to maintain all the aepfialte footpaths in repair for the next ten years, in order to avoid the constant recurrence of small r- pairs. 3. Mrs Thompson, of Cambridge terrace, waited on his Worship the Mayor last week to request that the bath might be closed, or else so altered as to preclude the possibility of the bathers being seen from her windows, and his requested mo to at once commence raising the iron palisading romd the bath, and the work is now being carried out. 4. The work of lowering the road opposite the is now being carried out. 5. The tramway is now completed through Tuam street West, and is being laid down the Lincoln road. 6. The concrete channels in Queen street North are completed, and the road will shortly be formed. 7. Baker’s lane and Horatio street—Petitions to take over these two streets were referred to me at the last Council meeting to report on. Horatio street runs from Antigua street to Stewart street, and is 33ft wide. This street was formed and shingled at the expense of the inhabitants, and was channelled at the expense of the Council. The street is now in fair condition. Baker’s lane is 25ft wide, and no thoroughfare, and runs at right angles to Antigua street, opposite Lamb’s lane. Ti is street has but one channel and one footpath, but is in fair condition. The expense of channelling, forming, and shingling it. was paid by the inhabitants. The following building licenses were issued during the month of September :—Mr Marks, Oxford Terrace East ; Mr Banks, St. Asaph street ; Mr Cottrell, Bedford Row ; New Zealand Loan Association, Hereford street; Mr Beaumont, Cashel street ; Mr Landergan, Armagh street ; Mr Oppenheim, Willow street ; Mr Harriss, Montreal street ; Mr Cobeldick, Gloucester street ; Baptist Church, Oxford Terrace ; Mr Patterson, Cranmer Square ; Scott’s Manse, Lichfield street ; Mr Morrow, off Madras street ; Mr Hart, Hereford street ; Messrs Reid and Gray, South Belt ; Mr Boyd, New street ; Mr Stafford, Chapel street ; Mr Goss, Durham street.” With reference to clause No. X in the surveyor’s report, it was decided to channel the right-of-way, the residents to pay cost ol forming and shingling. Clause No. 2—Tenders to be called for carrying out repairs to amount therein stated. 3 he works committee to bo authorised to call for tenders for keeping asphalte footpaths in repair ’for terms of three, five, seven, or ten years. The remaining clauses were approved. The sanitary and fire brigade committees reports were read and approved In reply to Cr Hulbert, the Mayor said he had not forwarded any letter of condolence relative to the death of President Garfield. If it was the wish of the Council ho would be happy to take some action in this direction. Cr. Cuff, in replying to a question from Cr. Hulbert, said the sanitary committee were waiting instructions from the Council before commencing this season to flush the side channels with water carts. The committee were authorised to carry out this work. — Cr. Bishop said it was a great pity that ratepayers who took tho trouble to throw dirty water into the channels did not take the same trouble to flush them with a few buckets of clean water. Such a course would save the citizens generally a great deal of money. . .. , It was decided to invite applications for a piece of land for a atone yard of not less than one acre in extent, and within a reasonable distance from the centre of the city. The Mayor said that last week the question of the dismissal of the staff was adjourned in tho absence of some of the Councillors. He would now request Cr. Hulbert to resume the discussion.—Cr. Hulbert reviewed the action already taken on this matter, and which has been made public. He had a great opinion of Mr Harper and others, but as Council had passed a resolution to make certain alterations in the constitution of their officers, he thought these resolutions should be given effect to. He had no bias whatever in the matter, and if it were found justly that any officer should have longer period of notice than that given in the resolution, then by all means let this longer notice be given ; but if it were possible that any employe had the power to obstruct any resolution of the Council, it was all the greater reason why an alteration should be made in the direction indicated. He would move—“ That the resolution passed by this Council on 29th August bo carried out, and that tho legal notice therein contained of three months be deemed to be the legal notice of the Council to bo given to tho staff ; that Crs. Bishop, Lonisson, England and the mover be a committee to carry out this resolution.” —Cr. England seconded the motion. —Cr. Thomson, without any intention of taking further part in this discussion, desired to correct some of Cr. Halbert’s statements —‘ r. Cuff would not take the responsibility of landing the citizens in any lawsuit. —Cr. Vincent said that as many of the present councillors were new members, ho would move as an amendment “ That before taking any further action re giving tho officers legal notice that their services will bo dispensed with, the whole subject be referred to a select committee to enquire into the alleged gross irregularities or otherwise that are said to have occurred in tho several departments of the Council, to report next meeting. Such committee to consist of Crs. Hulbert, Louisson, Thomson, and the mover. Cr. Cuff seconded the amendment.—! he Mayor said ho was very glad to see such an amendment proposed, as the resolution implied blame to him His Worship then referred to the action taken by the town clerk shortly after he (the Mayorl

was appointed in bringing under his notice certain irregularities in ono of tbs departments. Those had been erquired into and remedied On no occasion had the town clerk obstructed him. Had he done so, he would have told him to mind his own business. He had read some articles in an evening paper giving, as they said, his (the Mayor’s) opinion, but they were altogether incorrect. His opinion was that if they had to pay the town clerk a year’s salary, they ought to get a year’s work out cf him. Had ho acted on his own responsibility as requested, he would have done wrong. If there had been, as stated, irregnlarities going on in the office for the last nine months, the public would naturally allot some of the blame to him, and it was only fair to himself as to the officers that a committee should carefully consider the question, and, if blame existed, place it on the right shoulders.—Mr Bowman, as a n<w member, must say that' an impression generally existed that the Council’s work was not well done, but still he thought the whole matter should be investigated by a committee. —Cr Lonisson viewed the whole matter at length in its legal aspect, and did not think the Council should land the citizens in an expensive law suit when the conflicting opinions of leading lawyers were considered. —Or Hiorns, ns a new member, having no bias whatever in the matter must say that if the Council wished to reorganise the staff, they should be permitted to do so without their uthority being brought into question by anyone, and if they thought three months’ notice sufficient, they ought to give that notice and no longer.—/i remark f-om the Major with reference to the noting of a late member of the Council on this question brought forth the retort from Cr. Hulbert that the gentleman in question had consistently supported this resolution. — Cr. Bishop had been away, and was somewhat on the horns of a dilemma. He did not know what to think, considering the legal opinions given, and he did not think the committee would do much good Be should, however, like to see relations between the Council and officers as to length of notice definitely settled. Perhaps the best thing would be to return the opinions to the legal gentlemen with a copy of the other, and ask whether each still believes in the correctness of their first opinion.—After further remarks, Cr. Halbert in replying, said if it could be shown that in equity any officer was entitled to a year’s notice he ought to receive it, but it was most singular that the position of all the officers bnt one was so sufficiently defined that they could bo dismissed or given notice if this were found necessary. This was singular to say the least of it. The Council occupied now a most humiliating position, one they had no right to occupy, and would not if the wishes of the Council had been faithfully carried out He did not think the resolution would be carried, bnt he felt that many Councillors who would vote against it knew in their hearts, from their own experience, that good cause existed for the resolution being carried Cr. Thomson desired to explain, in reply to a remark from Cr. Hulbert, that why the other officers were not in the same position as the town clerk was simply that he was first appointed. They were in a similar position with their former city solicitor, who, however, relieved them by resigning. This opened their eyes, and all future officials were appointel under a definite agreement —The amendment was put and lost. For-Crs. Vincent. Lonisson, Cuff, Thomson, and the Mayor. Against—Crs. Ayers, Bishop, Hirons, Bowman. Treleavan, Hulbert, England, and Lambert. —Cr. Bishop moved an amendment to the effect that the legal opinions be referred back to the senders, with a copy of the other opinion, and ask whether they will re-consider the advice tendered, or would they desire to confer together.— The amendment was seconded by Cr. Lambert and lost —The resolution was then put and lost. For : Crs. Bishop, Bowman, Treleavan, Hulbert, and England. Against: Crs. Ayers, Vincent, Lonisson, Cuff, Thomson, Lambert, and the Mayor.—Cr. Cuff gave notice of motion for rescinding a resolution of the Council passed on August 29th. After granting some licenses, the Council adjourned at a late hour