BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1358, 20 September 1883, Page 2

BOROUGH COUNCIL.

A special meeting of the Borough Council a as then held to receive the report of tne deputation from the Borough Council to the County Council, re Mr Graham’s application for remission of penalty, and delivery ol remainder of metal. Report of Deputation. The following report of the committee which had waited upon the Cook County Council to obtain their concurrence in re mitting the penalty of £2 per day and th< delivery of the remainder of the metal due, was then read by the Town Clerk That they interviewed the Cook County Council on Thursday evening last, respect ing the remission of the penalty in th* matter of Oxenham’s contract, and hav< .inch pleasuie in reporting that the County Council agreed unanimously that the penalty should not be enforced, and as this Counci has p issu'd a similar resolution, this may be considered finally settled. With referc ce to talr’ng over the line, bis Worship asked the Council if they wen prepared to take over the line, to which he n chived the reply that the matter would be placed in the hands of the Engineer. E. K. Brown, Chairman. Engineer’s Report re Metal Contract The following report from the Engineei re the above contract was then read by the Clerk :— Engineer’s Rbport re Oxenham’s Contract. Sir,— l have the honor to forward returns

for monies expended and due on Oxenham’e contract for supply of gravel. I may state tint in carrying out this work great difficulties wore encountered by the contractor, through floods, accidents to plant and rolling stock, and I consider a large amount of credit is due, for the works having been carried through. Appended is a schedule showing the dates of delivery, quantities, monies paid, and retained. The whole of the items have been carefully gone over and compared with the tallybooks, aud tickets, and with the accounts furnished by the contractor, aud have been found to agree. Every precaution, both ordinary and extraordinary, was adopted for seeing this work properly and satisfactorily carried out; the ordinary precaution of having the capacity of each truck measured was adopted, and as a further precaution the tallyman was instructed tn classify the various kinds of gravel delivered, such as fine, medium, and good, and a correspondent reduction was made in the value price ; such items as short measurement, short capacity, inferior material, wore carefully noted and deducted.

The accompanying schedule shows that 19,701| cubic yuids have been delivered and paid for at the contract price, but in addition to this about 500 cubic yards of material has been delivered, but condemned, and not paid for. I have, Ac., John Drummond, Borough Engineer.

Schedule shewing quantities of gravel delivered under Oxexham's contract, monies paid, and amounts due :

The Chairman did not see how to settle up with Air Graham until receiving the County Council Engineer’s report re the rails. Cr Lewis did not see why they should not pay over the £3fio Ils lOd, which had been received from the County Council. Lr Tutchen did not object t * paying the balance providing 25 per cent was retained to meet any claim, that might be m . *.e by the County Council, for any damage to rails. Cr Tucker said that he should like to retain some legal hold until properly settled. Cr Townley did not see how they could pay the whole until the County Engineer certified that the line was in proper working order. He thought a letter should be -ent to the County Council, asking whether they accepted the line. Cr Tutchen thought the County Council should be asked to allow their Engineer to inspect the line in company with the Borough Council Eugi .eer, and that a joint report be made. Cr Lewis said that the money in hand was really the 25 per cent on the whole contract. (For continuation, see Page I.J

1 « Quantity Amount Amount retained. delivered. paid. Date. Cub. ydi 3. £ 8 D £ 3 D 1882, Sept 26 450 0 0 Dec 7 6639 373 1 0 274 7 0 Dee 22 2462 369 6 0 123 2 0 1883, Jan 1!) 2334 350 1 8 116 13 4 Feb 13 131’1 208 13 0 69 11 0 Meh 13 835 125 5 0 41 15 0 Meh 27 120.', 180 0 0 60 0 0 Apl 10 1245 184 7 0 62 o 0 May 8 8094 124 9 8 41 9 9 July 3 52t> 78 18 0 26 6 0 July 17 737 105 12 0 35 4 0 Aug 24 1314 196 13 0 65 11 0 Aug 28 739 111 10 0 37 3 6 Sepc 11 555 83 5 0 27 15 0 197914 2941 0 11 981 2 7 Balance 2084 931 2 7 20000 2922 3 6