BOROUGH ENGINEER.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 491, 14 August 1912, Page 5

BOROUGH ENGINEER.

MR S. B. DODGE. APPOINTED BY COUNCIL. , At Monday evening's meeting of the Te Kuiti Borough Council the appointment of an engineer came up for discussion. The applications for the position had been reduced to three and the question before the Council was whether a final selection would be made immediately or whether the appointment should be held over pending a public meeting at which the policy of the Council would be placed before the ratepayers. Cr Forsyth moved that the Council meet the public before finally appointing an engineer. He said in justice to the engineer, he thought this course should be adopted. They bad to go to the ratepayers for the purpose of raising a further loan, and unless the loan proposed was carried they would not be able to pay an engineer. They should place the whole facts before the man selected. He could not conceive that the loan would not be carried, as the money was absolutely necessary to complete the work in hand. As a business proposition the matter was essential, while it was equally important for the comfort of the public.

Cr Young, in seconding the motion, said he thought the public should have the position placed before them. He would support the loan for all he was worth. It would be a retrogressive step if the loan was not carried, and the town would suffer severely. Still there was a possibility of the loan not being carried, and it would hardly be a fair thing to ap? point an engineer and induce him to throw up a permanency to come to Te Kuiti fo a t few months. He felt strongly that the whole position ought first to be placed before the ratepayers. Cr Falwasser sa'd he differed entirely from the previous speakersi The engineer was necessary. There was a great deal of work ahead and the sooner a competent engineer was here to take charge of it the better. He believed in going before the public regarding the loan, but thought they should be armed with a good engineer before doing so. A re-I port by the engineer should be placed before the public so that they would exactly where they were. Cr Floyd said he did not quite agree with the motion. There was still a certain amount of the old loan to be epxended, and a great deal of work was before them, in order to complete what had been started. They should have the report of their engineer to place before the public. Until they got that report they could not place anything definite before the people. Their own ideas as to what was necessary might be entirely different to the engineer's ideas. • The Mayor said he favoured appointing the engineer immediately and getting his report to place Defore the ratepayers. A report should also be furnished by the Works Committee. If the loan was not carried Te Kuiti would be a good place to get away from.

Cr Forsyth said the Works Committee reports had all been adopted by the Council, and he saw no reason why that commitee should now furnish a special report. A report from the Finance Committ-ee would be necessary.

Cr Young said it would be a simple matter to report. They should go before the public and state the whole position, and he was of opinion that should be done before an engineer was appointed. Cr Falwasser moved as an amendment that the engineer be appointed immediately and a report be obtained from the engineer to place before the public.

The amendment was seconded by Cr Floyd and on being put to the meeting was carried, Crs Falwasser, Floyd and the Mayor voting- for and Crs Forsyth and Young against. The selection of an engineer from the list of applicants was then proceeded with and Mr S. B. Dodge was finally chosen for the position. Mr Dodge is at present Borough Engineer at Greymouth. He has had a widely varied experience in all branches of engineering, having been engaged as assiatanct engineer in various boroughs in England, including Torquay Hove and Harogate while for a term he was acting district engineer in the Federated Malay States. Mr Dodge was also engaged in the Public Works Department of the Dominion for five years, and left the department to take up his present postion as borough engineer at Greymouth.