THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 568, 7 September 1869, Page 2

THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

A public meeting was held in' the Town Hall on Saturday evening, for the purpose of giving the candidates for the represent tation of the various Wards in the Borough Council, an opportunity of addressing the electors, and explaining their views upon the various matters of local'interest. ■'■' E. Masters, Esq., Mayor, occupied the chair, and, in introducing the bus.ine.ss, stated that he would call upon the candidates in" the" alphabetical order of their names.' He. called upon ' ""/.'.■' Mr J. Barclay, who said^ he had no policy.to explain,' but he was prepared to" answer any questions that might be put to him. It was impossible to lay a policy before a meeting of that kind j hisactions would entirely depend upon the questions ' which were brought before the Council. ; Mr. G. Simmons .thought it would be I better for the candidate to sit down, and; allow some one who had au opinion to give it. - - .-.-. ■.:... Mr Barclay, in answer to questions,; said he had no motive to serve in seeking to go into the Council. He would go in as independently as any man could. He merely wished to do the best he could for the town in general, and particularly for the Middle Ward. Its . wants had not been properly attended to. The front street was not the only one in town, and he wished to see something done for the others. Should he be returned, his conduct would not be regulated by' party feelings or cliques. At present he had no prospect of leaving Greymouth ; he woi)ld not say that he would not do so if 'it suited him ; but so long as he was here he wished to see the Ward represented as well as possible in the Council. Mr Coe put several irrelevant questions to this, as well as all the candidates, and on each occasion was put down by the meeting and by the Chairman. Mr M'Gregor said he had come forward as a candidate for the West Ward because he had been nominatedplt was unnecessary for him to explain:: bis views, for they all knew them, but should lie "be returned he would: endeavor; to serve the Ward and; the town in general. They were all aware of the Council's difficulties ; and it was not possible for him to say what course he would take, but he would endeavor to forward the interests of ■' Greymouth in every way that he thought :right, and in accordance with the wishes of his constituents. He should like to see the protective works finished from end to end, and the £1500 which had been voted for that purpose would go a long Way towards completing them. At all events he thought the residents Jn the West end of the town might have a passage made by which they could get in or out of their doors. ■..-■..■■ . ; . Mr P. Purcell said he had been requested by a number of the electors in the Middle Ward to contest this election.' He -.h^no.Jjitefttion.jif:-^to4H^,mtilJiejK_ then he heard that Mr Barclay and Mr Lahraan had consented to stand. If he had heard so before he would not have come forward, o He had been in Greymouth as long as most people, arid knew the wants of the Middle Ward as well as either Mr Barclay or Mr Lahman He should like to see those wants attended to a little better than they 1 had been. " The residents in that Ward had paid Hheir rates,' arid subscribed promptly towards the protective. works^ and still they were the worst off of any of the Wards. He would" not -go iri for spending: all the money at any end of the town, but he -would see that the. Middle Ward had its .fair.share. ; Boundary street was the principal place Which the Council ought to look toj forif nonprotected, and a flood came, the whole of the work which had , been) done would be useless, and all the scrub would be washed dpwn to the Camp Reserve. If returned,' he would; endeavor to represent them properly, for ; he understood their wants, having been here before there was a street cleared in the-town. In reply, to questions,, he thought. the. present division of the town into Wards was not fair, but if the Wesu Ward had been protected its assessment might have amounted to L12,0p0 a^-year instead of L4000.i 'He would be prepared to spend money on the back streets above Boundary street when the front stree^ was. fiuished. A certain portion' of : the ' rates' collected in the various Wards might go tc&make the streets'. It was; his intention tdTemainin Greymouth. f 'f; ■ Mr W.^F. Strike said the ratepayers were aware that' at the time Greymouth was incorporajked into a Municipality they had many difficulties to 'contend with, inasmuch as .they were all, new members, and not o:ie had belonged to a similar! body before. They had everything to leavh, and a most difficult Act to bring into operation;-— They were also aware that; when-'thkCouncil caineiuto powder they had a vefyi 'heavy debt of : LI7OO hanging ;over their heads, a«d: although : th,ey did not admit their, liability, for ilj at, first, yet .they knew they .would have to' 'pay it if ; the Government did not. He thought .the Government was 'entitled to : pay that amount,' although it had the -power to saddle it' on the Borough Council. The members of ithe; Council, sfcrived, to keep out of it as long as possible, but they were told that if they did not take over the debt it would be .saddled on them ; so to put as good a face on the matter as possible they took it over, and had made arrangements, to pay it. «•' •■ Mr Parkinson thought that Mr Strike ought tp speak his pwn opinions, and not those of the other Councillors. Mr Strike had come there to address the electors generally, and he wassurprised that Mr Parkinson should have interrupted him in the mariner" he had done. The. Chairman said it was merely a suggestion' which occurred on the spur of the moment. ;Mr Strike had been., speaking of the Council generally. ' 5 ■•* :/ Air , Strike wished to. bo" allowed to explain.'. That was a public meeting, and he liad : a'right- to explain the past conduct of :tlie Cdnucil, as well as theiCpurse which he interided to pursue for the future. They were well aware that the Council's difficulties were great indeed. They ran themselves iri debt, but .not foolishly; in ' carrying out the works which wo re neces-

sary for the protection of the town. They had expended every shilling of the rates, and all the revenue they could obtain from every source,, on these protective works. At last they had to stop ; they came to a dead-: lock, because the contractors would not go "on any longer without money. With reference to the debentures, . the-CouuciL had endeayored' to raise the loan by every meanfl in . their power but hitherto they had been unsuccessful. No doubt it would be floated yet, and-if so the Council would be enabled to carry out the whole of the works contemplated— which meant finishing the protective works," and forming the streets. Hitherto the back streets liad been neglected for the front ; he believed that if the front street was washed away the back streets would be of no value at all, for. the: site of the town w.puld be changed. He was glad to say that a vote had been passed 'by the County Council, which would enable the Borough Council nearly to complete the protective works, |or they were now in a position to call for tenders, as soon as the vote) would allow. It had been circulated that in the matter of representation he had not done justice io his, constituents in th,e. West Ward ; but he was prepared to prove that • it had been represented in a manner that he had no cause to be ashamed of. Since Greymouth had been incorporated there had been spent in the' Lower Town s,hip L 2642 7s 9d, the amount of- votes held by the residents there was 152, and the annual valuation L 5410. The amount expended in the Upper Township was L 2371 7s 9d, the number of votes 396, representing an . annual valuation of L 18,943. To reduce tlus/t'b the Wards, he found that there had* Jbeen expended in the West Ward, since .Greymqnth was incorporated, Llll6 "7s 9d ; the number of votes was 98, and ;the valuation L 3381. Now, he asked: if the West Ward had riot' been properly represented ? He stood there perfectly independent, and had acted so all along. '. He \ believed he could command as much support in the Council as any person they could send to it. If they did him the honor to return him again he would endeavor to watch over their interests to the best of his humble ability ; it was scarcely fair to turn away an old servant, unless they had some very good reason , to against him; He was prepared to answer any charge which, might now, be. brought, . or to give a reason for the manner in which iie had voted.. ; In reply to questions, Mr Strike said jthe LISOO had been voted for .the completion of: the protective works. He would not go in for an equal distribution of it among the Wards, but he would advocate that two tenders should' -be ; let for ? the work, to commence a^hpth ends of the town. He was not prepared to say how he voted on ;the question of shooting . dry rubbish into Boundary . street, it was a matter of so little im- v portance. : J Even in Melbournej whenever a street required a great. deal of filling the rubbish was shot into it. If he were the owner of a small vessel, and had a certain amount of control over the public funds, he .would not have, considered himself justifiedin contributing towards ah action, the expense of which the ratepayers ultimately must pay. With regard to the issuing of the, debentures, he never voted against them being issued or taken up by any particular person ; what he-' voted against was the resolution that tenders be called for the work. Previous to that L7OO, or perhaps as much as LIOOO. He did not think that any one of the Councillors would have opposed the taking up of these ..- debentures for any .particular work; but. afterwards he herrd casually, ,in the course of his own business, that certain parties: who .had promised to take up debentures had backed out of it, on this principle, that A. would not take up a debenture because B. would hb't,,aiid A. would not improve B.s property. At the next [meeting .of , the Council, Mr Moore broiigl)t,.downa ? proposition, and had no idea of ' carrying : ; it, but merely to y indicate his -own. conduct, to show that he had not , been making a fool of the Council — to call for tenders for certain works. He opposed''' that 'motion on the ground that it should not be assented to until the money Was forthcoming. In their position they were not justified in contracting idebt : unless they were sure they could meet it. The reason why he opposed the ; motion was simply as he stated at the time, "that he did not oppose the principle of taking up the debentures for particular works, but only because he would riot call for tenders until the money was forthcoming. Gentlemen had said to him, " We will not trust you with the money," and as a public body the Council should answer, " We cannot trust ?a private individual." jUnder other circumstances they ; might have considered the matter in a different .light, but one of these persons, who put his name down for a LSO debenture, on a former occasion , when- a subscription went round put his name down for L 3, and when they went to collect it he would only payL2. On such conditions they were not entitled; to run into debt. With regard to the' Native Reserve, the Council had clone everything ih its powei? to induces the; Native Commissioner to contribute towards the protective works. They had hob received one penny from ;him,- although : : ; they were spending ; .all iiheis? -revenue in protecting the Native property, as well as the freehold. H5 did iiot' think the fault, lay, with Mr Mackay, but at headquarters. Nodoubt, ultimately- they would receive something, but nothing equivalent to the' amount of work, cjone! Mr Simmons moved, and Mr Ancher seconded, that Mr Strjke.was a fit and proper person to represent; the 'West Ward in the Borough Council. r Carried unanimously. Mr Parkinson stated that he had received a letter 1 from Mr Lahman, stating that he had been detained in Hokitika in consequence of the confusion; which had arisen over the Treasury appointment. His duties in the County Council would not interfere with his duties iv the Borough Council. He wished it to be .understood 1 that Mr Lahman was still a candidate for \the Middle' Ward. ■ -i - Mr HoSie moved j arid Dr. Morice seconded, a vote of confidence in Mr BarMr Parkinson movedand Dears .did jthe. same Lahml.nL Mr Joyce proposed Mir P'urcell, and Mr Sampson seconded it. •■ . , . ; ; Mr,P Atkinson proppsed Mr M 'Grejjor, and Mr Joyce secorided the proposition. These, motions were severally: put, ,and all carried unanimously. The usual vote ;of thanks to'the Chairnian brought the proceedings to a close,