Manamatu Herald. FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1880. THE COUNTY ENGINEER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 108, 20 August 1880, Page 2

Manamatu Herald. FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1880. THE COUNTY ENGINEER.

Lively times may be expected at next sitting of the Council, as we hear it is probable a motion will be brought forward to rescind the resolution passed " in committee" regarding the Engineer's salary and the advertising question. We have expressed ourselves opposed to the scheme for paying Mr Hayns, and really the more it is looked into the more unsatisfactory the scheme appears. This opinion is generally shared in throughout the County, as it is felt that a multiplicity of offices is cast upon the Engineer, none of which could^be satisfactorily performed, while the Council would be paying a very much higher price for the collecting of rates and other duties than the work was worth. The scheme that will be proposed at next meeting will, we believe, be to the following effect, viz., the Engineer to be paid £300 per annum by the Council, and such per centage on Government grants expended by the Council as will, in addition to the slaughter fees, bring up his salary to £450 per annum ; his whole time to be devoted to the Council : also, that a rate collector be continued, as at present, and that he be required to collect the dog tax. The idea of charging a per centage on Government grants expended under direction of the Council certainly commends itself, and if acted upon will greatly assist the Council in paying the Engineer. As regards the slaughter fees, Mr Rockstrow estimated at last Council meetthat about £90 per annum was received from tbat source, so that the scheme mentioned would, without pressing heavily on the Council's funds, piovide an ample salary for the Engineer (whose time would be entirely given up to engineering work), without submitting him to the undoubted indignity of collecting rates and dog tax. We shall regret if no provision is made for allowing the other local bodies to utilise Mr Hayns' services. Still, the greater proportion of the work performed by them does not require the assistance of a professional engineer, and we have no doubt that in cases where an engineer's services are absolutely necessary the Council would, by special resolution, grant permission to Mr Hayns to do the work for the local body. In such cases the Council should insist on the body using Mr Hayns' services paying the usual fee into the County funds.