City Council Shots

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 127, 19 August 1927, Page 16

City Council Shots

The City Council meeting last evening returned to more or less its usual timetable after several late sittings, and business concluded just after 9 p.m.

Hot water showers are to be installed in the Hobson Street baths, so that bathers will be able to wash down in fresh water after leaving the waters in the pool, about which there has been some question. The hot showers will be there, but the catch is that they must be paid for—which will distinguish them from Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington institutions. The council did not decide on the rate, or whether the charge would be by the gallon or the shower. ' * * * “I believe the time is coming when we will centralise our trucks and cars, and when a department wants one, it will ring up and be charged accordingly.”—Cr. Phelan.

The Parks Committee successfully recommended that an advisory committee should be set up to deal with proposals for the establishment of a botanic garden in Auckland. The Mayor, and Councillors Brinsden, Knight, Stallworthy, Crookes, and Alice Basten will represent the council, Sir Edwin Mitchelson will be asked to act, and the bodies represented will be the University, New Zealand Institute, Horticultural Society, Town-Planning Association, Institute of Horticulture, and Institute of Agriculture.

During the past two years more than £9,000 has been spent on renovating houses on city endowments. Most of the attention has been given to the piles and lower timbers. Repainting is anticipated to start in the spring. As the result of repairs, which are expected to last the life of the houses, the income has increased by over £2,150 annually.

Notice of motion has been given by Councillor L. A. Eady as follows: “That the Finance Committee be asked to bring down a report, defining the policy of the council with respect to future amalgamation of local bodies with Auckland City.”

Failure of plumbers, both licensed and unlicensed, to get permits before doing their jobs, is causing the city engineer quite a lot of trouble, and the council decided to prosecute in two cases. In one case the plumber was unlicensed. In the other the work was done for a friend, at a cheaper rate than usual. The friend declined to supply the name of the plumber to the council, as a result of which the friend will be the one prosecuted. The numbering of present and future premises on Great North Road is causing the council some difficulty. At present the road extends from the junction with Karangahape Road to Oakley Creek, and with the inclusion of Avondale it will extend to Whau Creek. It will then be 5£ miles long, and the numbers in the Avondale district will run into the thousands.

The old brick building at the corner of High Street and Chancery Lane, the site of which is required for street widening, is to be demolished forthwith. Health week will be held this year from October 2 to 8. The Health Department is now making its recommendations. Recent floods have left the city engineer with quite a number of small J compensation claims on his hands. He has to arrapge the financial settlement due for the death of seven fowls in • flood waters. The Council has relieved him of trouble in the case of another ; series of deaths, four fowls this time, by denying liability. A subsidence in a Parnell footpath resulted in a woman falling and dam- j

aging a pair *of stockings. She has brought the condition of the footpath under the notice of the council by claiming for the pair of stockings, as a result of which the engineer has a prospective visit to a hosiery counter. Floods at Ayr Street were so severe that the clothes lines carrying some of the weekly washing disappeared, so that the council has a claim for this loss but it is considering whether it is under any liability. The claims for fowls were ranged as high as 10s 6d each. * * * The only communication reported to the council in connection with the pronew penny sections, came from the Karangahape Road Business Promotion Society, which wrote .to the council suggesting that the first section should end at Pitt Street, and the second sections at Richmond Road, and Three Lamps respectively. They sent a deputation to stress this necessity on the ground that placing the heart of the business centre half-way through a section instead of at the end of it, would prove extremely bad for the business people who had invested their money there. The representations were referred to the Tramways Committee. A deputationist mentioned that they wanted time to approach their representatives on the tram-section changes. Councillor Crookes: It will be news to the members of the council that any particular area has special representatives. The proposal to procure a piano for Grey Lynn Library Hall was turned down. This was tried at the Gmfton Hall, which is the most used hall in the series. The piano was used so little that it had to have special tuning apart from ordinary tuning, and hnlly became in such a state that it had to be got rid of.