BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 203, 4 February 1915, Page 5

BOROUGH COUNCIL.

A SPECCAL MBETIN3, A meeting of the Borough Council waa held last night. Present: 'His Worship, the Mayor, Ore Kibby, Jackson, Hear£ fcnwth, Johnstone, Cloltis, Amfjury Ciarke, Burgess, gyles and Maanix. HTZUOY HALL SITE. A report was read from the sub-eoui-mittee appointed to confer with the Fitzroy delegates with reference to the, ►new site for the Fizroy Ha. . Tku committee recommended that the «itc in Darnell street, opposite the hall, suggested by the delegates, be acquired from Mr Harknett for £350. The Mayor said the matter had been flung over for some time, but rtnee thu last meeting the sub-committee from Hie Council had met the Kteroy de««u« whose recommendation was embodied jt the report. Referring to the erlee* fIE Worship said he considered that it wws excessive, but as Mr Harknett kad pointed out that the hall would prejudicially affect the value of the remaining portion of tihe tection, and as there was something in the contention, Jie moved that the land 'be purchased 'for £250, and the hall immediately removed thereto. Or Amhury seconded the motion. In reply to Cr. Smith, the Mayor einted that tihe purchase money would come out of the sum of £7OO allocated in the Tramways loan for purchase of land. Cr Smifi said he was not prepared to vote on the question on the information before the Council. '. The Mayor: The hall must be remored for the car shed. . Cr Ki'iby congratulated the committee on having arranged a Terr good bargain, inasmuch as they had taken from poor little Fitzroy a site worth £6OO and substituted property worth £2BO. <He contended that there war* far better ' and cheaper sites available. As one of the originators of the Fiferoy Hall,, which h e and others had secured for the public, he felt very strongly that the Council was not giving that district » fair deal in failing to provide it witt/ ' an equivalent value. - Or Syke's pointed out that the ait* was selected by the people ol Fiteroy, and not by the Council. Cr Collis considered that some of thd sites mentioned by Cr Kibby were on Jhe main road, and tihe hall was not * jkuilding that should be put on the main road. _ The Mayor stated that the area offered to the Council contained 39 perches, plus an unused road at the back. Cr Clarke suggested that for the tin* .being the hall should be twisted" round and retained on the site until further consideration was given to the matter. In reply to Cr Kibby, the engineer .stated that to move the hall twenty, chains further away would cost from £a> to £3O. Or Kibby advocated a site baring tws road frontages and containing a auarter of an acr,-, the price being £235. Ha said the two sites could not bo compared. (r Jackson objected to the pan chase being rushed through. He co* sSdi-red tJlio committee had made a miltake. Cr Johnstone moved that the matter be deferred until the next meeting of the Council, so as to obtain informaiioß ' as to both sites, the cost of moving the' hall, and whether the hall could bt moved. The Mayor considered that if ther* ■was to be a war over the site it would be better to place the hall on the site of the Fitzroy pound. In reply to a question the Mayor said that the time for completion of the contract did not run until the contractor! had possession of the car shed site. The amendment was carried bv 7 to 4, 'the Mayor stating that he voted for it so as to ahow that lie was not endeavouring to force the matter through. Cr Clarke moved that the hall remain on the site. He contended that -the £305 might come in useful if fund 3 were short. The motion lapsed. The Mayor said he hoped that Councillors would make themselves familiar •with the site under offer, as well as the other sites. ANOTHER STRIP OF LAND. A report was received from the su£ committee, consisting of the Mayor and Cr. Kibby, appointed to interview Mr •Harknett relative to a reduction in the ,priee of a triangular strip of land adjoining the car-shed site. The report stated that no arrangement hnd been arrived at, and that it might be neccnsary to take the land under the Public •Works Act. On the motion of the Mavor, the matter was deferred until the next meeting of the Council. The Council then resolved itself into a Works Committee'.