PRICE OF TAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1485, 14 December 1915, Page 3

PRICE OF TAR.

At last night’s Council meeting the Mayor moved and Cr Bryant seconded, that the general account pay to the gas works account sixpence per gallon for all tar used on the roads. In speaking to the motion the Mayor said that lie considered it was only fair that this price should he paid for two reasons : First, the gas works would not sell the tar because it was re quired for the roads and had been put to the expense of buying casks in which to store it and secondly, the gas works had to be made to pay. Crs Whibley said that at previous meetings the Mayor and others had made the statement that the gas works was a business proposition and should be run on business lines. If that argument held good on previous occasions it should also hold good on the present one. If the tar was not used on the .streets there would be no return for a large portion of it, as there was no sale for it. The Council had decided that the consumer that used a large quantity ot gas should get it at a cheaper rate than the man that only used a small quantity, aud if that was the right method to adopt in regard to gas then the large consumer of tar should get it cheaper than the small consumer. Personally he believed in one price only in a muuicipial enterprise of the kind, but as a rebate was being made in regard to gas it should also be made with the tar. It was not right to try and make the gas works pay at the expense of the general account. Cr Coley said that five pence per gallon had been charged iu the past for tar for the streets aud they should continue supplying it at that price. Crs Henderson, Stevenson and Thompson supported five pence per gallon being charged. The Mayor said that, taking all the circumstances into consideration six pence per gallon would be a fair thing. No money whs changing hands, it was really only a matter of book keeping. It would be quite a different thing if it were a private individual that was buying it. On the motion being put it was lost, the voting being.—For; The Mayor and Crs Bryant and Freeman ; against: Crs Henderson, Whibley, Thompson, Stevenson, Coley aud McColl.