The Baths Contract.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 34, 10 February 1904, Page 2

The Baths Contract.

"DKEF.ZE" AT Till: COUNCIL. A LIVELY DISCUSSION "Nll'l'KD IN THE DCII." On Monday night the llorough Council prcpnnd its..lf to hear M,Molllin, clerk of works, on the baths and uUautoirs contracts. it will be remembeiwl l.l»at nl the previous meetings some reflections were cast upon Air Molllin's reputation, councillors asserting that negligence had been shown. In order to give him a chance to explain matters he was asked to attend the council meeting The M : a;\or set (l;,e hall rolling instating the reasons for calling the foreman More the council, the whole tenor being that grave dissatisfaction had Ifcen expressed by councillots at the manner in which the work at the hifths had been tarried out, refer! ing more particularly to the extras and offices. Cr. Tisel) said ifc had spoken on this matter when Mr Molllin was absent, and would repeat what had been said by him at the previous meeting. Certain portions of the building wei-u not according to the by-laws, which provided for windows in out ollices. This mistake hail tf.-en remedied by the baths committee. No private person would huve bven allowed to proceed on tiie lines adopted in the erection oi the baths, yet the council acted in defiance of the -by-laws. Not an architect in the town would have passed the work ns a first-class job. Some of the timber was worm-eaten, and some of it was seeonld-clnss—very bad second-classi, too. He was surprised that this had i|vn allowed. The Mayor said the foreman was not put in change to curry out the by-laws, but the .specifications. Cr. Tisch : Do the councillors have to find out these, tiling, then ? The. Mayor : Certainly, if they pass the plans. Cr. Tisch objected to this ruling, and the Mayor then said the council's offiei'Ms were to blame, not the council. lie would support the foreman. If the phms were wrong it was the council's business, not the foreman's. Cr. Tisch asked if the foreman could hot have seen these things weiv wrong. Cr. Brooking : Quite so. He might have had opinions of his own, but had to kitiii thorn to himself.' lie was not there to design, the work, but to see that the specificationswere followed. Whether the [dans were good, bad, or in-di Herein was none of Mr Molllin's business. Cr. Carter asked if 'it would not be advisable to go into committee. He would not like to see this discussion reported in the public press. They must not run down their own baths.

Mr Moulin said that he had not known anything about this affair until it had been thresJ'ied out in open council and fully reported in the Daily News. He thought he should have been asked for an explanation etefore the matter was publicly debated in the council. He hail since been asked to attend the works committee on Thursday night last, and had then teen asked to come to the council meeting, understanding that the discussion would he in committee. He contended that the report of the previous discussion had cast discredit on him.

On the motion of Crs. Drooking and Carter, Up council went into conmvltiteei and the matter was fully and briskly threshed out.

On resinning it was reported that the committee set up lo consider the i ljiieslion of extras should again visit tne baths, this time with the foreman of the work, nr.d report at next meeting of the council.