THE TOWN HALL QUESTION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4930, 10 January 1877, Page 2

THE TOWN HALL QUESTION.

A public meeting, convened by his Worship the Mayor, in answer to a requisition, was held at the Odd Fellows’ Hall last evening, “ for the purpose of obtaining the opinion of the rate payers as to the advisability of erecting a Town Hall.” There was a very good attendance, but some difficulty was experienced in securing a chairman, Mr. S. Waters first proposed that his Worship the Mayor should take the chair. The Mayor said he felt much obliged for the compliment, but he could not accept the honor on that occasion. Indeed, after what had taken place, the views he had expressed, and the steps he had taken, it would be unfair to the meeting were he to occupy the chief position. He had been glad to accede to the request of the requisitionists, and out of respect to them he had attended ; but whilst he should be very happy to afford any information that might be asked for, he could not preside. . It was then proposed that Mr. Toomath should take the chair. Mr. Toomath hoped the Mayor would reconsider his decision. The Mayor said he had a distinct objection to preside, and should not do so. Mr. Toomath said he too must decline the honor. Mr. Gisborne was next proposed, but refused to allow himself to be nominated, as he held strong opinions on the question. Mr. Waters then said he observed a gentleman present who had but lately returned to Wellington, but who in former years took a great interest in the city, and perhaps, he would accept the office of chairman. He alluded to Mr. Barnett,_ That gentleman must know little or nothing of the matter, and could have formed no prejudice ; therefore he would make an admirable chairman. Mr. Barnett said he must decline. He was not even a ratepayer, and therefore had no interest in the matter, and no qualifications for the position. Mr. Henry Blundell, senior, was next called upon, and declined for the same reason that Mr. Barnett had expressed—he was not a ratepayer. However, if permitted, he would suggest that Mr. Thomas McKenzie be chosen. In answer to loud calls, Mr. McKenzie appeared on the platform, and expressed regret that so much trouble had been experienced by the meeting in getting a chairman. He said he held it to be the duty of every person in the community to render what little assistance he could in carrying out city business, even if his abilities did not particularly He in that direction, _ and therefore would take the chair. Not being a party to the calling of the meeting, he could not say anything as to the objects of the promoters —doubtless these would be fully explained—and he could only ask the meeting to accord a fair hearing to every person, and to be cool in its deliberations. Whatever was done he hoped it would be for the benefit of the city. (Hear, hear.) He would now call upon the promoters to explain the objects of the meeting, they having failed to supply him with the ordinary advertisement, Mr. S. Waters said the Mayor had called the meeting, and certainly he was under the impression that his Worship would have taken the chair on this occasion. He (Mr. Waters) was one of those who had signed the requisition to the Mayor to get an expression of public opinion on the subject of the building of the Town Hall. He expected the Mayor in answer to the requisition to get an expression of pubUc opinion. He was not prepared to make a set speech ; but he hoped every ratepayer present would say what he had to

say on the matter. They did not come there to thwart the Council in its endeavors, if it could be shown that the proposals .were reasonable and proper ; they wanted to know the basis of the action of the Council, and if they found that the Council could legally and justly erect the Town Hall without interfering with the drainage expenditure and without unduly trenching on the pockets of the ratepayers, then the Council were at liberty to proceed with- their project. (Hear, hear). He hoped every one who had a voice would speak out. He had felt sorry to see so many persons refuse the chairmanship. It spoke poorly for the Welliugton people, or rather h; should say it spoke volumes for the apathy of the ratepayers of Wellington. (Cheers). Mr. J. Anderson said it was a crying shame (hat money taken from poor ratepayers should le squandered in wealthy favored localities. He had a small cottage in one of what were termed the private streets, and he had paid rates for years past, and yet though he and others had petitioned the Council for repairs, the only answer he had received from the Council had been insulting refusals. Now there was diphtheria and fever, and this mad project of spending £IO,OOO on a Town Hall. If the Corporation had £IO,OOO to spare let them spend it on the' streets. (Hear, hear). Yes, hear, hear. (A laugh). He should like to know when the private- streets were to be made. The line must be drawn somewhere. The people did not want the money spent on offices —on such fanciful ideas as town halls, reclamation, and wharf accommodation. Whoever heard of such a miserable project as more wharf accommodation. He should conclude his observations by moving the following resolution: —“ In the opinion of this meeting, the City Council do not fairly represent the interests of the ratepayers, as the rates taken from the working men are expended on the more wealthy citizens.” The Chairman said as he had not been placed in possession of the object of the meeting he supposed great latitude must be allowed. Would any gentleman second the resolution ? A ratepayer remarked it was not worth seconding. (A laugh). The Chairman : If no one seconds it, it must fall to the ground. A Ratepayer : I do not see what it has to do with the Town Hall. The motion accordingly lapsed. Mr. Henry Anderson said, in order at once to test the feeling of the meeting as to whether a sum of £IO,OOO should be spent in the erection of a Town Hall, he should move a resolution ; but before doing so he might be allowed to explain that he had come to the meeting in his capacity as a journalist. He had hitherto taken no part in getting up this meeting, though he had persistently and consistently advocated such a meeting ; and had not intended to speak, but finding that the promoters, possibly through want of organisation, possibly through inexperience, had fallen into a state of confusion and allowed a resolution not at all in point to be proposed, he might be pardoned for stepping into the breach and uninvited attempting to solve the difficulty by moving a resolution bearing on the Town Hall question. He would read'the resolution:— “ That, in the opinion of this meeting, the proposal of the City Council to expend a sum up to £IO,OOO in erecting a Town Hall and Corporation offices, should not, under existing circumstances,.- be carried out. (1) Because the sum in question (£10,000) could more usefully be expended in putting the whole of the already formed streets of the city into a thorough state of repair, and in forming and metalling the other streets on the plan of the city, which as yet do not exist. (2) Because the Council being already committed to large undertakings in connection with additional wharf accommodation, increased water supply, and drainage, it is unadvisable to undertake additional works which are not at present necessary, and that the proposed Town Hall and other buildings on the scale contemplated come under this designation. (3) Because the financial position of Wellington Municipal Corporation—with an overdraft of £14,000 at their bankers, on which £I2OO a year of interest has to be paid—is not such as to justify the expenditure of a sum of £IO,OOO for the purpose in question.” ■ Such was the resolution he had to submit to the meeting. Perhaps it was necessary he should say a few words in respect of it, though he was entirely unprepared to do so. He could not speak as an orator, but he could speak as a man and express his opinions in an honest healthy manner. In the first place_ the ques- . tion was to be considered from this point of v ; ew — W ere a town hall and Corporation offices necessary, and was the city in a proper finan- - cial condition to allow of their being built. The argument used in favor of the expenditure was something in this wise:—lt appeared that during the mayoralty of Councillor Dransfield he (that gentleman) had made a judicious purchase of some reclaimed land, which had brought a profit, and the increment now amounted to nearly £IO,OOO. This £IO,OOO it was proposed ...to spend, and for what? Not merely to secure public offices, but to erect a monument to the greatness and to the sagacity of Mayo* Dransfield, and to secure a home and a dwelling-place for Mayor Hutchison. ■ (Cheers.) Not a room in which the people might meet, but a room in which the “ upper ten” might dance, and in which the Mayor and Councillors, “ with their chicks and dams,” might muster with ostentation and display. He would not object to the building if it were necessary ; but for all business purposes the City Council did not require a large meetingplace. If it built at all, £2OOO or £3OOO would be quite sufficient expense to go to instead of £IO,OOO. But apart from that view of the question—as to the necessity of the Hall—there came the question of the financial position of the Council. By the last balancesheet he found the Corporation had an overdraft of £14,000 at the’bank. The City Council did not perhaps care about an overdraft;, but it cost the ratepayers some £I2OO a-year; and if the Corporation had £IO,OOO to spare, why not let it go in reduction of the overdraft. But beside that the City Council were committed to very large undertakings at the present time. Thus, it was proposed to expend £50,000 for drainage, £20,000 or £30,000 for an additional water supply, and £20,000 or £30,000 for increased wharf accommodation ; and although these sums were specifically stated, yet it was well known to practical scientific men that the cost would be much greater in the long run. His Worship talked of a complete drainage scheme, with an outlet to Lyell Bay, but they would be bold men indeed who would assert that £50,000 would be sufficient to perfect a system of drainage such as that. The cost would be muchnearer £150,909. He argued that the Council had at the present moment quite as much work on its hands as it could possibly bear, and that as the proposed Town Hall was totally unnecessary it would be worse than useless to carry it out. They should watch and see how this drainage worked, watch and see how much it would cost, and how much expenditure they would be put to in connection with the increased water supply and additional wharfage accommodation, which were undertakings necessary to the health and progress of the city. When they saw their way to pay for these things, then let them talk about building a Town Hall, but not before. (Applause.) But there was a stronger argument than this. Why should we spend £IO,OOO on building a Town Hall when a very large proportion of the streets in the city yet remained unformed? After the clear and lucid statement which the Mayor read the other day, and which received such universal approbation from all sorts of people, there could be no doubt that an enormous portion of the city was yet entirely unformed and unmade. What did that mean ? Why he would tell them, and he spoke as an old resident of Te Aro. The fact of our streets being unmade meant that dreds of people who lived in such localities pji ( four or five months in the year had -got to , tramp to their homes through mud and mire, exposed to the rain and wind and all sorts of discomforts. It meant that the streets were almost impassable, that the people had no roads to their houses, and that they had to pay extra for having coal and firewood and other necessaries taken to their houses. These people lived under conditions of the most ex* treme physical discomfort, and he spoke feel*

ingly on the subject, having endured it for three or four years himself. (Great applause.) He remembered when he used to go up to the top of the hill where he lived, and every morning used to see little, children coming out of ° the houses, sliding down the slippery roads, stumbling, falling, and scarcely able to get along, carrying their milk from door to door. He said distinctly that the object of building the Town Hall was simply to gratify foolish ostentation and vanity, for which necessary works would be utterly neglected. (Deafening applause.) And there was another thing to be said, which was this—why should we spend £IO,OOO oti buiklhm a Town Hall when the city entirely lacked drainage I (Hear.) He did not now refer to tie drainage scheme of £30,000, or he should rather say the £150,000 scheme ; but he referred to' the fact that when a man wished to keep his backyard clean and his children from becoming the victims of epidemic disease, he was met by the assertion on the part of his Worship the Mayor, “ Oh, we have got no money, we cannot make this drain for you ; if you will contribute some of the money, perhaps we may make the drain.” But he (Mr. Anderson) had to say in reference to that, why should so large a sum as £IO,OOO be expended on a work which would not be required for years to come, when people who wanted drains constructed to save their children from disease and death could'not possibly have obtained them. He repeated it was shameful. (Applause). When he looked around him and saw one or two familiar faces in the crowd, the faces of fathers who had lost four or five dear children within the space of a few weeks —children whose deaths had occurred through purely preventible causes, whose deaths lay at the doors of his Worship the Mayor and the City Councillors, he . protested against this wilful misappropriation of the ratepayers’ money. (Confusion, and cries of assent and dissent). It had been said that a meeting of this kind would not be represented by public opinion, and one gentleman connected with the City Council had said outside, “ Oh, I dare say you will succeed in your public meeting and carry any resolutions that maybe brought forward but, he continued to say, “ the real public opinion in this city was in favor of this project.” A Voice : Ho they are not. Mr. Anderson : That statement of the gentleman he had referred to was utterly false. The people in this city were entirely opposed to any such project. But then the gentleman continued : “ Well, and suppose this resolution is carried, and all that is said by the opponents of the project be decided on, the City Council will go on all the same and carry out the work proposed.” A Voice : “Oh my !” Mr. Anderson : An enlightened expression of public opinion, backed up by the support of an independent Press, would exercise a powerful influence on the sayings and doings of the City Council. He believed the meeting would unanimously pass this temperately worded resolution, and that the members of the City Council ' would not venture to disregard it; they dare i not, they could not, and they would not, 1 venture to treat with indifference the voice of i public opinion. Mr. Waters said he merely rose to second the i resolution put before the meeting so ably. The ] "■entleman who moved the resolution was good i enough to say that there was no proper organi- 1 sation by the promoters of this meeting. 1 Possibly there was no organisation. He was - ■one who signed the requisition to the Mayor. 1 He did not sign it with a desire to come before 1 them and discuss the hardships of the rate- < payers of Wellington. He signed it because 1 he felt that public opinion was with him. He 1 understood, however, that had it not been for i the courtesy of the Mayor the intention of the 1 promoters would have been frustrated, as at a i meeting of the Council, which he understood i was open to all ratepayers during its delibera- 1 tions, it was suggested that there were no men of note or influence who had signed the i requisition, and that therefore it was unnecessary to take any notice of it. But he held that it did not matter who signed the requisition, it was the duty of the Council to respond to it as long as those whose signatures were attached were ratepayers. He had come there merely with the intention of hearing what wiser heads than his thought of the matter, and he was not prepared to sayi much now, except that he thought the proposal to build a Town Hall was entirely wrong; that it would be a useless expenditure, in the face of the many necessary matters which claimed the attention of the Council in other directions. He could have understood such a proposal when there were no halls and no places of public amusement in the town, as it would then have provided a convenience for the public; but now he could not see theobject of it. As hispredeoessorhad said, the proposal was probably made to gratify the whim of one or more'Councillors; aad as he had so ably placed before the meeting reasons for opposing the building of a Town Hall, he would content himself with simply seconding the resolution. Mr. Cord said he was a ratepayer, but an illiterate Working man, nevertheless he should like to state to the meeting what h> thought about the matter. He could speak feelingly, although not perhaps so feelingly as Sir. .Anderson had, because as they all knew he had perhaps some reason to speak feelingly. He should like to have seen some other gentleman bring forward that resolution, but he had put it t 6 the meeting very well However, before the resolution was put to the meeting, he should like to hear what the Mayor and some of the Councillors had to say about the matter. He did not think the back streets of ' the city were being neglected. (A Voice; “I do ;” then groans and hisses.) He lived in a private street himself, and he considered that if a gentleman was possessed of a lot of property, and let out an acre of ground, he should be made to pay two-thirds of the cost of improvement to such property. ' (More i noise, and cries of “ Question” in a variety of tones.) He repeated the back streets were not neglected ; neither was the drainage neglected. (A V dice, angrily: “ Will you sit • down ?” followed by much groaning.) ' The Chairman rose and claimed a hearing 1 for the speaker, reminding the meeting that they had promised an impartial hearing for ' the different speakers, and explaining that by constant interruptions they were only prolonging the meeting. A Voice : Let the man confine himself to the question. Mr. Cord then concluded by remarking ; that if the streets were neglected, and if the drainage was neglected, why then, of course, the Town Hall should not be built. The Chairman then read over the resolution, and was about to put it to the meeting when a Voice exclaimed, “Is the Mayor at home ?” A few called for other well-known gentlemen present, and there was at last a general and loud request for the appearance on the stage of Mr. Toomath. Mr. Toomath responded to the call, and said it had been very far from his mind that he should have the honor of addressing the meeting that evening. He had not been awaie, when signing the requisition, who the gentlemen were who had interested themselves in preparing and getting ready for this meeting. It was a natural conclusion on his part that those who took so much trouble to get up a requisition would also have prepared the resolutions which they wished to submit to the meeting; and when he told them that he was not aware of the gentlemen themselves who moved in the matter (with the exception of what he saw In the papers) it would he sufficient to say to them that, so far as ho was personally concerned, his reason for signing it was that he agreed in its purport. He confessed that he looked upon what had occurred with a good deal of astonishment. He had been told since his name had appeared on the requisition that he had been guilty of great audacity in taking the step he had taken. His own impression about the expenditure of borrowed money was, that it should always be spent with a great deal of care, and with a wellprepared plan and a well-digested scheme. He knew that any one in private life who went to borrow money, and who intended to act prudently, would naturally say to himself, “ Can I do myself any good by,borrowing. If I am to pay 8 per cent, for it, then I should

i have 8 per cent, for having to use it, and if 3 there was no gain from that source then it > would be idle for me to risk my property in >’ the venture.” If that was the case in pnvate r iif e> he held that it should be equally true, and more so, in public life; and iu ■ borrowin'' money public bodies should see that works proposed to be undertaken were of a productive character before expending it. But ho had heard it proposed thafin addition to the Town Hall certain shops should be erected iu connection with it that might be let with a view to producing an annual income. In connection with this, he mentioned that he had addressed them some time back regarding public competition with private enterprise, opposing it as far as the gasworks were concerned. In the present instance he should oppose the Council’s competing with the buildings being erected by private enterprise. He referred to the Athemeum and the Hall to be erected iu Te Aro, and he thought such institutions should receive public sympathy and support. He contended that it would be a scandalous waste of public money to erect a building such as that suggested, for any such purpose. He was not prepared to say, however, that the Council were acting from pomp or ostentation ; and would be very sorry to lay any of the deaths that occurred at their doors. He should say the same if he were one of the sufferers himself. The Council might say that the £IO,OOO was a gain, anil that therefore it should be spent for such a purpose. He took the liberty to dispute, and disputed the right of dictation to the gentleman who happened to have been in office at a fortunate period. With regard to the statement made that none of the names attached to the requisition were of any note, that they were poor and despised, he said he was very glad to be able to state that he was one of the number, and was very glad indeed to say he was counted worthy to be among that lot. For they had yet to learn that those who looked upon themselves as being very great were the first to put themselves forward to do good. He would now give them his own views on the matter. The opinion of the poorest man in the town was not to be despised, but had a right to be carefully weighed and thought over. Probably he might be met with this statement, that he was trying to prevent the expenditure of £IO,OOO, which would provide many poor men with employment for some time to come. He did not deny that. He should not advocate the saving if the money was to be rightly expended, but he thought the demand was legitimate that before an outlay of the kind was made there should be a reasonable prospect of obtaining a profitable return. He might be told that if other places he had mentioned were utilised for the purposes of the City Council, the offices would he divided, and that time would be wasted when officers of the Council wanted to transact business with one another. There was a very great deal in that, and he should be prepared to support this much, that a sum of £ISOO should be taken for the erection of offices that might form part of a building to be erected by-and-by, and when circumstances required it. By this means the officers of the City Council could meet under one roof, where they could readily confer when their duties required it. He might be told, however, that money was now cheaper, and that it could begot at 5 per cent.; but he was not prepared to argue that question at all. He did not think if it could he got at 2 per cent, that it would be wise to spend it in that way. He remembered that some time ago, when he was a member of the Town Board, that body had power to levy a rate ef Id. in the £ for drainage purposes; but as there were at that time no plans for the drainage of the town before them, he objected to the levying of such a heavy rate, and proposed at a public meeting that the rate should be Jd. in the £. He considered that next to a supply of pure water the question of drainage was the most important. Until the drainage was perfect he did not think that the ratepayers should trouble themselves about a Town Hall. Suppose they erected this Town Hall, what benefit would they derive from it ? What good would it do them ? When they got it what were they to' do with it ? (A Voice : “No good.”) The Council had, in his opinion, all the buildings they required. They had a place to meet in and offices for their employes, and surely that was enough for them at present at any rate. (Applause.) He would like to know whether anything more could add to their comfort, of in any way tend to promote the well-being of the community ? If the cost of the proposed Town Hall were to be presented to the ratepayers, he would prefer to see the money expended in the erection of a Home for the Destitute and Friendless. He was appealed to for a contribution a short time previously towards the cost of a statue in remembrance of a gentleman whom they all respected, and he had hoped that the money raised would be devoted to the establishment of an asylum for the poor, or something of the sort; but that had not been done ; and when he heard that the City Council intended to spend £IO,OOO on a Town Hall he thought that the members thereof had mistaken their mission, and that they could not have read the police reports in the newspapers. In conclusion, he would say that they should first provide for their destitute and drainage, and when both those things were provided for perfectly, they could then talk about building a Town Hall. Mr. Gisborne, before the motion was put, had a few remarks to make in support of it, and he would do so chiefly on the grounds to which Mr. Henry Anderson referred in the latter part of his speech. Under ordinary circumstances, and at an ordinary time, he would be most willing to support a motion to the effect that a creditable Town Hall should be built in Wellington; but at the present time, and under existing circumstances, there were matters of more urgent, and, indeed, of paramount importance for their consideration. The most important, and, in fact, the most vital of those claims was the sanitary improvement of the city of Wellington. He need not say that they lived in a most unhealthy town. Daily experience proved it, and statistical figures confirmed that experience. He had obtained from the Registrar-General's office some figures which he was permitted to make use of and which showed the mortality up to the end of December. He need only point out to his hearers that the only proper test of the sanitary condition of the city was the “ mortality rate” extending over a period of years. The excess of births over deaths had no bearing on the matter, because they found that in the most squalid hovels the greatest number of births frequently oc urred. He would read to his hearers a return showing the rate of mortality in New Zealand during the years 1874, 1875, and 1876. In Auckland in 1874 the proportion of deaths to each thousand inhabitants was 16T8 ; in 1875, which was a remarbably * unhealthy year throughout New Zealand, it rose to an enormous amount—3s77 ; and in 1876 it decreased to 22'68. At the Thames, which was an exceedingly healthy place, in 1874 the rate was only 12 - 28 ; in 1875 it was 18T6 ; for 1876 no information had been received. At Wellington in 1874 the rate was 24 - 96 ; in 1875, 26-01 ; and in 1876 it was 26'08. In Nelson in 1874 it was 13‘05 ; in 1875, 27'39 ; and in 1876, 16 - 72. In Christchurch in 1874 the rate was 25‘81 ; in 1875, 30'44 ; in 1876, 25'69. In Dunedin in 1874 it was 24‘99 ; in 1875, 22-24 ; in 1876, 19-66. In Hokitika in 1874 it was 13-90 ; in 1875, 13-28; for 1876 no return had been received. So that it would be seen that for the year 1876 Wellington was at the top so far as the rate of mortality was concerned ; that was to say, it was far behind the other cities in the matter of proper sanitary provision ; and while all the other towns had decreased during the years 1875-6 in the proportionate rate of mortality, Wellington was the only town which had increased in its death rate. That was not a satisfactory state of things. If they looked at English towns they would find that in London the proportion of deaths to the thousand of population was only 22 - 05, while in Wellington it was 26 - 08; it looked, therefore, as if they had come all the way from London in order to die at a faster rate than they would have died at if they had remained. He found that the only chief towns in Great Britain which in their death rate equalled Wellington,

were Birmingham, which showed 26'8; and Sheffield, which showed 26'9; while the only ones which exceeded it were Liverpool, with 32’0 ; Manchester, with 30'4 ; Leeds, with 287 ; and Glasgow, with 31T. All the other principal towns had a lower rate of mortality than Wellington. He did not wish to say anything harsh of the City Council ; hut when he reflected that for the last three years the Council had had the power to borrow £50,000 for drainage purposes; and when he reflected further that they had not stirred a finger to borrow that money, and that they were unable to borrow any more for that purpose now; and when he reflected still further that that sum judiciously expended would have gone far to clear the city from its fatal impurities—in which many were compelled to live, and by which he feared many were doomed to die —he considered the members of the present City Council and of preceding City Councils, by their inaction in the matter of public health during the last three years, had incurred a very grave responsibility—a responsibility which he should not like to have upon his own shoulders. (Applause.) They were not apparently the men to come to the ratepayers and ask them to put their hands in their pockets and provide them with sufficient money wherewith to build a Town Hall. If they had done so, the reply of the ratepayers would have been “ Gentlemen, this is not a time, when we are bound to look after our health and our lives, to talk of the convenience and comfort of the City Council.” (Applause.) If he could believe that this expenditure of £IO,OOO would be a paying transaction he would support it, but he thoroughly rejected the notion. A contract for a building for £IO,OOO meant that there would be an additional cost of at least £2OOO. or £3OOO, and the total sum would be about one-fourth of the money which the Council were authorised to spend in drainage. If the Council had money to spare they should devote it to improving the sanitary arrangements of Wellington rather than to the building of a Town Hall. . If they had to leave their present ■ premises there would he no difficulty in obtaining new ones at a moderate outlay for rent, and if they wished to occupy their own property, they should simply expend a small sum to put up a few offices in the Market-house —(Applause. A Voice; “jThat’sthe proper place ”) —which at present was only a public nuisance. Some persons had suggested that the Morgue was a proper place for them to meet in. Well, that might not be an inappropriate place, and perhaps its melancholy associations might rouse them to a due sense of the importance of their functions. Mr. Mclvok said he had just come to Wellington to live, but judging by what he had heard, he did not think he would live here long. (Laughter). In fact he was almost frightened already. He was rather surprised to find the City Council so heavily in debt. He had heard that the Council had been spending a great deal ot money lately, and had certainly expected to find them in a different position. As a stranger and an unprejudiced person he thought that the Council might judiciously , expend some money in improving the footpaths in all the principal streets of the city. The footpaths should, in his opinion, all be asphalted four feet wide before a Town Hall was built. The simple fact was that at present the streets of Wellington were as rough as “ the rocky road to Dublin.” (Laughter.) While the Council wanted to spend £IO,OOO on an ornamental Town Hall the street in front of the room in which they had met was as rough as, it could possibly be. He had travelled overland from Christchurch to the Kumara goldfields, and had found that road in better condition than Willis-street. He sincerely trusted that the Town Hall would not be built before the streets of Wellington were asphalted. The motion was then put, and carried unanimously. Mr. Henry Anderson then rose and said he had a merely formal motion to propose. It was, —“ That copies of the foregoing resolution be forwarded by the Chairman to his Worship the Mayor and the members of the City Council.” It was not necessary that one should make a speech in support of such a resolution, because, as he had already said, it. was merely a formal one. However, he might, say that after the active and intelligent expression of opinion—he might almost say an enthusiastic expression of opinion—which had been given that night, he had very little doubt that when copies of the resolution should be forwarded to the Mayor and the members of the City Council, it would very materially influence the opinion of those gentlemen on the Town Hall question. (Applause.) Never before, though he had lived in Wellington for fifteen years, had he seen a more respectable, enthusiastic, and orderly meeting, and one more determined in the expression of its views, than the present. He had no doubt therefore that when the resolution which had been passed had been sent to the proper quarter, it would carry weight as being the resolution of a majority of the ratepayers. The resolution carried by the meeting would be backed by the Press ; for though hitherto only one section of the Press had spoken in favor of this movement, he had- no doubt that other sections of the Press would now come round. (Laughter.) He did not, in speaking of this, refer to the journal with which his esteemed friend, the chairman, was connected, because in point of fact the New Zealand Times had gone against the Town Hall project; but he referred to another organ of public opihion. The people would' see that it would come round. The organ he referred to was in the habit of turning round, and he had no doubt it would do so on this occasion. (Laughter.) -He would only say that if when a copy-of .the resolution which had been passed was forwarded to the Mayor and City Council, they still persevered in their plan, if they still persisted in spending £250 on plans for a Town Hall which would not be wanted for years to come, and if they spent £IO,OOO on a building which was not required, and depreciated the value of their property by £BOOO by taking the land on which they proposed to build the Town Hall, they should beware the “ Ides of March ;” they should beware the next election. (A Voice : “ Not one of them will get in.”) If they persisted in carrying out that project in the face of the ratepayers, they would rue the day they did it. Mr. Madeley seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously. Mr. Waters proposed,—“ That the best thanks of this 'meeting are due to Councillors Moeller and Allen for their attempts to frustrate the expenditure of £IO,OOO on the erection of a Town Hall.” He was glad that the ratepayers had decided that the members of the Council should not carry their job any further. Had the meeting not been held, Councillors Moeller and Allen would have stood alone. Mr. H. Anderson seconded the motion. The Chairman explained that he had seen Councillor Moeller that afternoon, and that gentleman had informed him that he would have been present at the meeting had he not thought that it would not have been right for him to speak on the subject at a public meeting, when he could do so at a meeting of the City Council. His motives for not attending were honorable, but his feelings were not changed, , The motion was carried unanimously. On the motion of Mr. Waters a vote of thanks was accorded to the Chairman, and the meeting separated.