BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 425, 3 October 1868, Page 2

BOROUGH COUNCIL.

The weekly meeting of the Council waa held on Thursday evening, in the Fire Brigade Hall. Present— The Mayor in the chair, Councillors Parkinson, Coates, Rae, Kilgour, Moore, Ashton, Strike, and Wickes. The minutes of last mcc.ting were read and confirmed. AUDITORS AND ASSESSORS. The Mayor announced in connection with the election of auditors and assessors, that only two gentlemen had been nominated for each office— Messrs G. W. Moss and G. Garsides as auditors, and Messrs H. H. Lahman and R. S. Allan as assessors. There would therefore be. no election, but the gentlemen nominated would be declared elected on the 10th inst. CORRESPONDENCE!. A letter was read from ihe manager of the Bank of New Zealand, in reply to a letter from the Town Clerk, stating his readiness to grant an overdraft to the amount of Ll5O. Letter received. Mr Sale wrote, in reply, with regard to the debt contracted by the town account of the Road Board, that Mr Bonar's opinion, apart from any legal question, was that the Council ought to decide the question whether they should take over the liability, and he thought that if the money in question was spent for the benefit of the town, the Council should assume the position previously occupied by the Board. Mr Parkinson moved — "That the letter be received, and consideration of it deferred until the Attorney-General's opinion on the subject fee received." i This was carried. The Clerk of the Road Board wrote stating that the Board were prepared to pay half of the District Engineer's salary, and that his services be equitably adjusted between the two bodies by the Mayor and chairman of the Board. The same gentleman wrote forwarding | a copy of a resolution passed by the Board, and enclosing two applications from Mr Perkins for payment of Mr Rae's account, and an account from Messrs Kilgour and Perotti ; also letters referring to Fowler and Thompson's account against the Board. The resolution stated that the accounts were referred to the Council. Mr Kilgour moved — "That the letters be not received." They had no money to pay these accounts, and if the Board had got themselves into .difficulties, that was a reason why the Council should guard against sxich a proceeding. Mr Coates seconded the motion. Mr Parkinson thought the letters should be received and replied to, respectfully informing the Board that they could not deal with the letters until the opinion of the Attorney-General was received. After consultation with the solicitor, he withdrew his motion. Mr Kilgour moved an addition to his motion in accordance with Mr Parkinson's suggestion. Mr Wickes differed with the Solicitor's opinion, and moved, " That the letters be received." This was not seconded and lapsed. The Mayor stated the Chairman of the Road Board had that day informed him that there was a pressing demand on them for Jl5O, on account of the Arnold road, and that if possible it should be paid at once out of the money due to the Board by the Council. The motion was agreed to. An account from James Jones, for .£9 Bs, was referred to the Finance Committee. A communication from Mr Heaphy, '■ asking permission to lay a tramway from the shingle bank at the upper end of the gorge to town, for the purpose of bringing in shingle and scrub at a cheap rate for town purposes, was referred to the Public Works Committee. The Mayor presented the copy of a petition which he had been requested to lay before the Council, by a number of citizens, in order that it might be taken over by them, and made more influential. It was a petition to the Governor, praying that the Native Reserve, upon which the ■ upper portion of the town was built, should be sold. Mr Kilgour moved — " That the petition be received, for the purpose of getting it signed." Mr Wiokes seconded the motion. The petition was read. One of its statements was that the lower portion of the town was almost unfit for habitation, and liable to be washed away by floods. Mr Moore questioned several of the statements made in the petition. Mr Parkinson did not think it was competent for them to receive the petition. They might place the services of the Town Clerk at the disposal of the promoters of the petition, in order to obtain signatures. He moved this as an amendment. Mr Coates thought it was wrong for any petition coming from them to_ say that certain people's property was liable to be washed away. Mr Kilgour withdrew his motion, and seconded the. amendment. He waa surprised that a question of such vital importance to the town should be met in this spirit. When the whole of the roadway, and a portion of the footpath in front of the lower township,, were gone that spoke for itself ; and if something was not done speedily to the protective works the buildings would go also. He was sorry to see it, but they did not know how soon the words of the petition would come true. Mr Ashton thought the petition should be worded properly. The whole town was in danger, and the lower portion no more than the upper. The petition was an insult to the inhabitants of the lower township. He moved as an amendment — "That the petition be revised, and several offensive clauses struck out." Mr Coates seconded. The Mayor explained it was not intended that the petition should emanate from the Council. Mr Kilgour was sorry to see the late animus revived, as there was no apparent reason for it. Every clause of the petition was perfectly true, although it might hurt the feelings of a few gentlemen to have it stated. If the petition was calculated to do any harm to any individual in the lower township, he would recommend that it be altered, but he could Bee nothing offensive in it. Mr Ashton thought the last speaker took a wrong view of the matter. It was offensive to say that their properties were liable to be washed away. Why should they not say that the ground the peti-

tions were asking to purchase was liable to be washed away ? Mr Parkinson thought the allegations of the petition could not be disputed. It was stated that the place was almost unfit for habitation, and this was true when a man could not leave his honse with any certainty that if a. flood game down his family could get away safe. If the residents in that township had the intolerable burden of ground-rents to pay as those in.the upper township they would concede appoint on,. this matiber, and be more ready to assist^n getting that burden removed. It wpuid be rather hard if they refused to insert that clause in. the petition. The Mayor ruled that the amendment, as worded, could not be received. Mr Ashton then moved as an amendment — "That the petition for the s,alg of the Native Reserve be rejected until revised." Mr Coates seconded the amendment, which was carried. FINANCE COMMITTEE. Mr Rae handed in the following report from this committee : — "Your committee report that the manager of the Bank pf New Zealand has allowed an overdraft of Ll5O to meet prgsent requirements, and that they have appointed Messrs Kilgour, Parkinson, and his Worship the Mayor to sign chgques for the payment of monies, and instructed tlie Town Clerk to> pay L7l 6s for labor employed, as per engineer's report of 24th September. "Your committee also report that they are of opinion that the Borough Council cannot comply with clause 39 of the Municipal Corporations Act, and have given instructions to the Town Clerk to conimunica^e with Mr Harrison, requesting him to endeavor, through the ' Government, to obtain legal power from the Governor under clause 380 of the Act, to borrow money on debentures, the banks having declined to advance tp the Borough Council sufficient money to enable them to proceed with the protective works." The report was received and adopted. TOWN CLERK. The applications for the amalgamated offices of Town Clerk, Clerk of Works, and Rate Collector were opened. There were, six applications : — Messrs Edwardt Tyler, J. C. Revell, F. Guinness, J. A. Whall, and H. Warren, Greymouth ; and — ' Dalrymple, Hokitika. An offer was also read from Mr W. W. Oardno, to collect the rates at 2| per cent., but it was not in accordance with the advertisement, and could not be received. On the motion of Mr Kilgour, consideration of the applications was deferred until the conclusion of all other business, and to be then considered in committee. The applications for the p'uee of Valuators were similarly dealt with. TENDERS. The tenders were opened for capping, planking, iron work, and filling up four chains of the protective work near the, wharf, viz.: — Trist and MKay, Ll2O, payable three months after completion of contract ; R. M. Bell, L 12 0; G. Smith, L 23, capping and planking only ; Edward Long, Ll2O, to be paid when completed ; — Heaphy, LlO5, according to a diagram transmitted, but not according to the specification. Mr Wickes moved "that the tender Of Trist and M'Kay be accepted." Mr Kilgouk seconded the motion, and it was carried. Tenders for the supply of scrub were opened as follows : — Edward Long, 6s 6d ! per cord ; R. Campbell, 9s. Edward Long's tender was accepted. | For the supply of single for finishing j the Boundary street dam, the following tenders were opened : — J. Jone3, 3s per cubic yard ; John Fullarton, 2s 6d, .and wait throe months for payment ; Ward and Bushridge, 2s 3d, from 500 to 5000 yards, delivered at the rate of 60 yards a day, after the 4th October, on condition that they were allowed to lay a temporary tramway along Boundary street. j ' Mr Strike moved that Mr Fullarton's tender be accepted. Mr Kilgour moved an amendment that the tender of Ward and Busbridge be accepted, on condition that they would supply the small quantity required. The motion was carried. ESTIMATE OP EXPENDITURE. Mr Parkinson moved — "That the Surveyor and Town Clerk be authorised to collect the necessary information for preparing an estimate of the monies re-. quired to be expended by this Council in public works and other expenses that will i have to be incurred during the next six i months, and lay the same before the ; Council at its next sitting." j Mr Moore seconded the motion, and it was carried. INSPECTOR OF NUISANCES. Mr Moore moved " That an Inspector of Nuisances bo appointed, at a salary of L3O a-year, and that a letter be forwarded to Inspector Broham, requesting him to allow one of his force stationed in Greymouth to act in that capacity." It. was patent to all that an inspector was required, and although it waa not supposed that he should at first act up to the letter of the law, still there were a number of places in town which could be kept much better than they were. Mr Wiokes seconded the motion, but after a time he said he thought the appointment had better be delayed, for so many nuisances existed on the public streets that the. first parties to be summoned would be the Council. The motion was lost. DRIVING CATTLE THROUGH. THE TOWN. Mr Kilgour moved "That steps be taken to prevent cattle from being driven through the town between the hours of 8 a.m. and 12 midnight, and that a committee be appointed,, consisting of Messrs, Parkinson, Wickes, Strike, and the mover, to draw up a set of bye-laws. Mr Strike seconded the motion, which was carried. Mr Strike moved "That the Town Surveyor be instructed to, ascertain the most suitable site in Boundary street for a Tramway Terminus, and report the same at next meeting. Mr Wickes seconded the motion, and it was carried. The Council then adjourned for ten minutes. On resuming, the motion of Mr Wickes with regard to the expenditure of the 75 percent, from land sales on iroads within the Borough, was, by leave, allowed to stand as a motion for next meeting. Mr Parkinson, by leave, moved "That the Committee of Supply be authorised to obtain the necessary books required by the Council.!' Carried. The Council then went into committee of the whole, to consider the appointment

of Town Clerk, and after discussing the matter until past midnight, an adjournment was carried until Monday evening, at 8 o'clock. The applications for the office of Valuator were then considered. The applicants were Messrs W. W. Oardno, W. Dale, and R. De Costa. On the yot§ being taken, Mr Dale was elected. The Council adjourned until Monday evening. ''