Patea Town Board.

Patea Mail, 5 August 1880, Page 2

Patea Town Board.

The monthly meeting of this board was held on Monday night. Present, Messrs Milroy (in the chair'), Aitcbison, Taplin, Adams, Howitt, and Dixon. TRUSTEES FOR HE GREAT lON

GROUND. A LIVELY DISCUSSION,

In reply to an application from the Town Board, the Undcr-Sccretary for Crown Lauds wrote on the 21st July to the Chairman thus :

I am instructed by the Minister of Lands to acknowledge the receipt of your letter (without date), asking for the Cricket Ground and Recreation Ground at Carlyle to bo brought under the Public Domains Act 18G0 ; and to inform you that the Government is desirous of placing these grounds under tlio charge of a board composed of persons who will take an interest in improving and planting them, and making them available for horticulture, arboriculture, sports, &c. And I shall be glad if you will confer with the chairman of the County Council, and jointly nominate five or seven gentlemen who are known to take a special personal interest in the objects for which Domain Boards are formed. Mr Aitcbison : The Government evidently think the members of this Board will not take a very lively interest in arboriculture or horticulture.

Mr Adams : It is only since a rejected member of the Town Board has been in Wellington that this matter is brought before our notice. I can see that plain enough. The Chairman : I would not take upon myself lo act in the manner suggested by the Government, without taking the feeling of this Board. Knowing what is the public feeling at present, I do not think any good is likely to result from the mode suggested in that letter. The general feeling as to making appointments in this district is in favour of election ; and unless specially requested by you to carry out this letter I should not feel justified in acting upon it. Mr Aitcbison : I move “ That it is the opinion of this Board that the appointment of trustees to supervise the Recreation Grounds in the manner recommended by Government would not give public satisfaction, and that the Government be requested to agree to the following proposal, viz., four members to be elected by the general public and three members appointed by Government.” Ho said : Some points in that letter I disapprove of very much. It is really no reply to our application. The Government seem to have put the Town Board aside. They do not condescend to reply to our application in any form. They commence by making proposals ; and they refer to the appointment of persons who will take a personal interest in this matter. I think we have had enough of personal interest in this matter. I think wc have had enough of personal interest represented in Patea before this. [Mr Adams: Hoar, hear.] I for one do not wish to sec personal interest connected with this matter at all. If the Chairman of the Board and the Chairman of the County Council were to nominate trustees, as requested the Government, their action would be almost certain to give dissatisfaction, and would end in grumbling and disagrceablcness. As the land has been given by the Government, it is only right they should have representatives of their own appointed

to manage it, in co-operation with members of the Town Board. I consider it would be only right for the residents here to have an opportunity of nominating a portion of those trustees ; and by convening a public meeting for the purpose I think we shall be taking the most satisfactory course. The Chairman ; 1 will second the proposition, and X will sny I think it is the better way out of the difficulty. For the general good I think wc might meet the matter half way. If the Government would only agree to have four members nominated instead of the whole, it would be more satisfactory. Sir Adams : I object altogether to having the Government nominating trustees for this land. I do not sec what interest the Government have in it. The ground is given to the town, and the town ought to have all management in connection with it. It is perfectly ridiculous to give the Government power to nominate members of a board that they have no interest whatever in. I can see by this letter that the whole of our application has been tampered with. Sir Taplin ; I move as an amendment £I That the Chairman be requested to act in conjunction with the Chairman of the County Council in carrying out the terms of Government letter to deal with the Cricket and Recreation Ground, namely, to nominate five or seven gentlemen to act as trustees.” He said : The Government have acceded to our request to bring this ground under the Public Domains Act, but instead of quite carrying out the terms of our application in nominating the Town Board or reappointing them as trustees —they have been trustees all along, and wc see the plan has not acted—the Government have suggested another course. Very few members of the Board took interest in the ground until it was pushed into their notice. I think it would be a great pity now to thwart the Government suggestion. I cannot see that in appointing the Chairmen of the two leading bodies in town—and the chairmen are supposed to bo the ablest men in the place —any better course could be adopted in the public interest; and I for one could conscientiously leave the appointment of trustees in the hands of the two chairmen. You might, however, instruct your chairman that bis nominations should be those of members of the Town Board. There are some members on the Board who would not care to take a lively interest in the ground ; and you should nominate persons who would promise to do so. In appointing the Town Board as a whole to bo trustees, yon might have a majority who would not take interest in it at all. I believe that in nominations by the _ two chairmen, there would be no favouritism. I am only afraid that if we do not go on with the Government suggestion, the thing may be hung up, as many other Government questions .are if you don’t go on when they' arc in the humor. Mr Adams says there must have been some meddling with this application from the course it has taken. Well, I may perhaps take the blame of this under-hand business, if it can he so called. I specially waited on Mr Dale, when he was going to Wellington ; and I need not tell you that I have got a heart-felt interest in recreation and horticulture and tree-planting in this place. I asked Mr Dale to take out his pocket-book, and to make it his duty to see Major Atkinson or the proper persons, and try to get the Board’s application attended to and that at once. I did not know what shape the matter was going to take. These are the requests I made to Mr Dale. When he came back, he called on me and said he had seen Major Atkinson, who told him no application had been received from this Board to his knowledge. The Colonial Secretary was sent for then, and he did not know anything about the application. They enquired' farther, and found the Board’s application had gone to the Crown Lands department. I believe that the Government reply to that application was on the way to Patea before Mr Dale knew anything as to the nature of it. Ido not think Mr Dale is at all anxious to be on this board of trustees for the land. I think it is very wrong to impute motives to anybody. As to why the Chairman of the County Council should be consulted in this matter, as suggested by the Government letter, I don’t know. It is no use appointing dead-heads for a ground like that, which wants constant attention.

Mr Dixon : I second the amendment, although I do not agree that the Government have treated our application fairly. If the matter be referred back to them, without our agreement to it, there is no doubt it will be shelved.The Chairman : I cannot but take exception to the statement that Mr Taplin has seen Mr Dale. I think Mr Taplin was going out of his place in seeing Mr Dale in the manner he has stated ; and I think Mr Dale has acted wrongly in doing what he did in this matter without communicating with the Chairman of this Board. If Major Atkinson had written to ns saying there was no intimation of our letter being received by the Colonial Secretary, we could have understood that. Our application went to the department for which it was intended ; and I think this reply is quite sufficient to inform the Board that our application had arrived at its destination. I think this Board has a perfect right to express its opinion as to how' it should act in the management of the public estate. Wo know here how the public feel in reference to this matter. The Government in Wellington do not. From the tone of their letter, the Government want trustees appointed who will take a personal interest in the land. That is the very thing I have been endeavoring to avoid. I want men who will take a public interest in that ground. I do not want men of any particular sect to rule and govern that ground in the way they

may desire, to the dissatisfaction of seventenths of the community ; and I have a right to endeavor to make the best terms for the public. I have seconded this resolution so as to give an opportunity to the public of saying who shall compose at least a portion of that governing body. If we fail to get from the Government the terms we desire, we shall have to fall back on their terms.

Mr Aitehison, in reply, said : Instead of thwarting the Government we are trying to meet their views in a better way'. The general public who are interested in this ground ought to have a voice and vote in the matter as to who should be appointed to such an important trust. I quite endorse tue Chairman’s remark as to the action taken by Mr Taplin and Mr Dale. I can scarcely understand why Mr Taplin should this evening express distrust in members of the Board to take the management of this ground. He has expressed a want of confidence in them after voting for this very action, in asking Government to place these reserves under the control of the Board. He now states that he does not think the members of the Board as a whole will take a lively* interest in that ground. Mr Adams : The Town Board are the proprietors of the land, because the Government have granted it to them. I cannot understand why Mr Taplin should go to Mr Dale, when one of the members! of the Town Board was going to Wellington at the' same time/ Mr Dale was one of the rejected members of the Board, whereas one who was at the head of the poll and was going to "Wellington at the same time should be rejected by Mr Taplin. Mr Taplin asked leave to reply to certain remarks upon his own conduct. The Chairman ruled that he might explain some particular point, but that to go into a general explanation would be. making a second speech, and contrary to rule. The amendment was then put to the vote, there being for the amendment, Mr Taplin and Mr Dixon; against the amendment, Messrs Aitehison, Hovvitt, Adams, and the Chairman. The amendment in favour of the Government proposal was therefore lost..

Mr Adams moved a fresh amendment, to the effect that three members be nominated by r the Town Board instead of by' Government. Mr Howitt seconded.

Mr Aitcliison : I can sec no possible objection to that, and I think it will give satisfaction. It leaves four trustees to be appointed by the public, and the public will have a majority over the Town Board representatives. Mr Howitt: I think it will give the public abetter chance of being represented than by having those trustees appointed by the Government. The amendment was then adopted. The original motion, as amended, was put io the vote and carried without dissent. It provides for the appointment of four trustees to be elected by ratepayers and three to bo nominated by the Town Board. WORKS COMMITTEE. The monthly report stated that da}' labor had cost £2 Is 3d, repairing Yorkstreetand other footpaths in the town; and that 20 loads of gravel had been put down in York-strcct, and 12 loads on footpaths in Egmont-street (Taranaki-road.) Mr Dixon tendered his resignation as a member of the Works Committee. It was agreed that the vocancy be not filled up at present. FINANCES. The monthly statement of finances showed receipts £G9 3s ; expenditure account, £5 IGs Id ; balance at bank, £SO 18s Id. The following accounts were passed for payment :—Mr Ivcss, advertising, £1 IGs; Mr Houghton, advertising, Hainerton, conveyancing, £1 19s Gd ; labor, £2 Is 3d ; Mr Keys, gravelling, £8 IGs ; clerk to Board, rent, &c., £4 15s; firewood, £1 7s ; notice boards, 10s 6d. TENDERS, As already reported, Mr James Jackson has been appointed inspector of nuisances, at £5 per annum, and .Mr J, E. Keys is contractor for gravel during 12 months, at 4s 9d per yard. The ploughing, harrrowing, &c., of a portion of the Recreation ground, have been let to Mr F. Cowcrn, for £l9, and the work is now proceeding. The other business was unimportant.