Wigs on the Green

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 279, 28 April 1914, Page 5

Wigs on the Green

AT'BOROUGH COUNCIL MEETING. OK. CLARKE- "CLEANS UP." 'The meeting of the New Plymouth Borough Council did not terminate till lmlf-an-hour after midnight. The chief reason for these protracted deliberations was a lively discussion commencing at 11 p.m., on certain statements made at the meeting of the Taranaki Hospital Board on Wednesday last.

CLEARING DP. Cr. Clarke opened the ball, lie des. > cd first of all to clear up one. or two points before defending the Counc';. Jlad any councillor present told Mr. li.ui'daM'that he (Or. Clarke) had gone to the recent special meeting of the Borough Council fully prepared to slate M-. Kendall?

Cr. Sykcs said that he had made certain remarks tQ Mr. Kendall which 'w latter had misconstrued. Mr. Kendi.l had asked hira if the newspaper repo"is of Cr. Clarke's remarks at that meeting were true or not. He had replied Hut he thought so, as .Or. Clarke had no doubt known what he wished to talk about, and been fully prepared. He jiad meant no slur on Cr. Clarke.

Cr. Clarke accepted the explanation in the spirit in which it was made. Certainly he always did know what he wished to talk about at meetings of the Council. He next enquired about the "subterranean information" which Mr. Kendall Jiad referred to in his report to the Hospital Board. Had any councillor told Mr. Kendall that his services were required to relieve the Council of imaginary moral obligations? There was a general denial. Had the Mayor told Mr. Kendall not to report on the St. Aubyn and Fitzroy districts?

The Mayor: Most emphatically, no! Cr. Clarke: Now that all these little points have been cleared up we can proceed. But first of all, I want to defend myself. He had been accused of personal animosity towards Mr. Kendall, which he emphatically denied. He criticised Mr. Kendall's reports because the Council was paying for them. Not one of the Council had questioned the discontinuance of the arrangement with Mr. Kendall, so that the dissatisfaction wag act all on his side. Mr. Kendall's repots might have been very good, but they did not satisfy the Council. FALSE ACCUSATIONS.

He would not criticise the Hospital Board, who had wandered from one point to another, but would merely defend the Council. The Council had been accused of doing nothing. On October 13, Mr. Kendall sent in a report on the Post Office convenience. He quoted a'letter to show that on October 16 the Department's attentjon had been drawn to the matter, and they had replied that the conveniences were clean, and that ttie Public Works Department architect could find none of the defects whijli Mr. Kendall had mentioned. No further complaints were made, and the Council assumed that the health authorities were satisfied. They had boon told that they had neglected trie matter ot stables—and this accusation was the worst of the lot. He quoted a report of Mr. Kendall's which complained of the state of "many of the smaller stables,' three of which were to be seen from Curne Lane." There were no names mentioned, and the Council's own inspector had to make furtner enquiries, ontailii" double time and double pay. When the Council's inspector asked Mr. Kendall to appear as a witness against one stable owner, he refused because he wanted to bring the prosecution himself. The Council knew, and so did others, that it had done a lot of work in this matter. On February 3, the Board's inspector (he might not have been Mr. Kendall, but this did not affect the Board's position with the Council) reported that the stables were clean, and merely endorsed Mr. Kendall's recommendations as to the Gill street stable (which has now been demolished). Evidently, if the Council did nothing, someone else Had moved in the matter. The Council was justified m thinning that its own inspector had attended to the stables coniiilnned or m October. On February 28 bonrdin* houses, bakehouses, and stables were n" ported fairly clean. He then referred to the Mangaotuku stream, pointing out the complications that, stood in the wiy of its deviation, which could not be accomplished in a few days. It remained to be proved that the stream was a publie menace. Then there was the matter ot the baths, and the famous "suppressed report." The Mayor had evidently forgotten at the Board meeting that it had been suppressed. The Mayor explained that while he knew the report of Mr. Kendall was taken he thought that fcV Borough engineer's report, which showed that tlie matters had been already attended to, had been made public. Cr._ Clarke stated that the Council was justified in suppressing the report, as it was calculated to injure the town, the dram complained of had been in existence ever since the baths were built. There was no urgency about tho matter, and a delay of a month did not signify. The report as to the lack of sanitary accommodation for ladies during mixed bathing hours was incorrect. He tli en dealt with the reports circulated about the water supply, which, he said, were calculated to do harm', and could not do any good. He ridiculed the statement that the storage capacity was no bigger than it bad been 40 years ago, saying that in ordinary progress the capacity must run short. It was unfair to say that the Council was doing nothing, when it was known that the Council was spending £4OO to put in new filters.

Cr. Johnstone said that these had been authorised before Mr. Kendall made lus report. Two years hence it would be claimed that the Board had caused them to be put in. Cr. Clarke continued in the same strain, quoting the closing the Morloy street depot and the collection of rubbish as matters which the Council had been dealing with on its own initiative. He would always oppose "scare" action in these matters. He dealt severely with the action of the Hospital Hoard in (he matter of the typhoid epidemic. They had not. he said, moved at all for four weeks, although cases had constantly been reported from one small area in that time. Xo one had moved except the borough officials. If the Council had been in charge of its own sanitary inspection the matter would have been attended to long before. Where a borough council did its own inspection, it should be notified of infections diseases. Then as to the "subterranean information" which was supposed to have entered into the arrangement with Mr. Kendall. This was 'in-

correct. The arranger-cut had been made because of the smallpox scans and had nothing to do with the merging question. The Hospital Hoard would find the ('miucil full of "spine." The working of the inspection was left entirely to the discretion of the health authorities, except that they were ask( d to do the centre of the town first, and it took them six mouths to report on a small part of Devon street.

The Mayor referred to the foresight

of the Council in laying down {ho sewer in King street, which now enabled them to cope with the St. Aubyn trouble. A COMPARISON.

I Cr. Clarke compared the action of the Council with that of the Board. A special meeting of the Council was held to deal with the epidemic, and four days later the buildings in question were demolished. That was the only part of the business which concerned the Council. He then asked the Mayor a number of questions regarding the method of notifying infectious diseases. Later, he said that the Hospital Board had been guilty of neglect or gross stupidity in not sending its inspector sooner to' the infected area.

A CALAMITY. Cr. Johnstone, remarking on Mr. McAllum's expressed intention of "singing his swan song and departing into outer darkness sooner than be a member of the Borough Council," said that this would be a very great calamity, which no one would wish to see. Mr. McAllum had evidently supplied the cornedv at the Board's meeting. As to that' letter to Mi-. Lush, who suggested that the Board had anything to do with the "last clause," the Council had moved in the matter of appointing Mr. Kendall inspector because all the members had had a genuine desire to see the town clean. The Council had asked the Board to cooperate, and the Board had met them fairly. He defied any fair-minded man, however, to pick from the six reports which the Council received anything which would enable them to act. In six months they had had nothing of value. The last report, by Mr. Fielder, had left room for prompt action, which had followed, as it would always follow a similar report. A mountain had been made out of a mole hill, and the chairman of the Board, excellent man though ho was, had been a litt* in the limelight. He did not know the full facts.

Cr. Kibby compared the' Council, who had raised loans for its works, with tho Hospital Board, which levied £4OOO on the Council and could get money without polls or loans. The discussion closed with a resolution that at the municipal conference ; n July the necessity for having local bodies engaged in their own sanitary inspection notified of infectious diseases in their boundary, should be discussed.