COST OF DESTRUCTOR

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 48, 19 May 1927, Page 7

COST OF DESTRUCTOR

BIRKENHEAD OBJECTS COMPULSORY LEVY OPPOSED “It is totally unnecessary for Birkenhead to have a garbage destructor. The present system of disposing of refuse in the borough is quiet adequate and will be for many years to come, and while I occupy this chair any attempt to compel us to join in by the Health Deoartment will be fought to the bitter end,” said Mr. E. G. Skeates. Mayor of Birkenhead, at the meeting of the council last evening. A scheme for having ohe big destructor for the four North Shore boroughs put forward by the Department of Health has been turned down by the Birkenhead Council as unnecessary and therefore a waste of money, which is needed for other purposes. Mr. Hatfield said that it was a deliberate attempt on the part of the Health Department to foist something on to the borough that they did not want, and in his opinion they should fight any attempt to compel the council to act against its decision. Mr. Furley, a new member of the council, described the action of the department as a deliberate attempt to make Northcote and Birkenhead bear part of the cost, so as to benefit the boroughs of Devonport and Takapuna. In his opinion they should not be bullied into this scheme. The town clerk, Mr. Finch, stated that the cost of the scheme was £5,700, of which Birkenhead had to find £726. The basis on which the department had allocated the cost was by the number of houses in each borough. The department reckoned that there were approximately 1.000 houses in Birkenhead, whereas there were only 745, so that even had the council adopted the scheme, the proportion of the cost the borough would be called upon to find would not be a fair one, and furthermore one that would be difficult to raise without hindering the programme of borough improvements that the council had decided upon. Mr. Clark said that the department could not force the council to act against its own decision and if they thought to get oyer the difficulty by an investigation of the system in vogue at the present time in the borough, with a purpose to condemning it, evqn then they could not compel the council to cart garbage five miles for the sake of convenience to the other North Shore boroughs. The mayor then moved: “That this borough cannot see its way clear to join with the other three North Shore boroughs for the purpose of erecting a joint destructor, as, in the opinion of this council. Birkenhead does not require anything of that nature at present.” The motion was seconded by Mr Furley and carried unanimously.