MEETING OF RATEPAYERS AT GERALDINE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2438, 15 December 1892, Page 2

MEETING OF RATEPAYERS AT GERALDINE.

A meeting of ratepayers in the Geraldine Town and Road Board districts was held in (lie Oddfellows’ Ball, Geraldine, on Monday evening. Thera were about 40 ratepayers present, and Mr A. White occupied the chair. Mr White explained that the meeting was an outcome of a recent meeting of ratepayers, and had been called for the, purpose of considering the management of the Geraldine Cemetery Board, and the advisability of petitioning the Government to have the boat'd made an elective quo —instead of an appointed one, Several ratepayers had expressed their opniions that the present board had not carried out their duties. It is rather a delicate | subject. The Cemetery was in a very disgraceful state. The funds they had had, or ought to have had, certainly should have kept the cemetery in a more creditable state. He believed that some of the members of the board had left the district, and the others were quite willipg ta give up their positipus ae members o|

the Cemetery Board and have it reorganised. The chairman then read a letter from Mr 0. G. Tripp, which stated that he was very pleased to see that a public meeting was to bo held at Geraldine to petition the Governor to have an elective Cemetery Board, instead of an appointed one. He thought the ratepayers should have all other boards made elective as well as the Cemetery Board. Mr J. Mundell, as a member of the Geraldine Cemetery Board, said that they were perfectly willing as a board to hand over their powers to a new board, whether it be a local board or an elective one. The feeling was that an elective body would be the best for the interest of the ratepayers in general. They could have an elective board from either the Town and Road Board districts or from the Town Board district only. The chairman mentioned that the Cemetery Board was in a disgraceful state. He presumed that the chairman meant the cemetery, and not the board.

The Chairman : “ I said ‘ Cemetery,’ ” (Laughter.) Mr Mundell, continuing, said that they endeavored as far as was in their power as a board to carry out their duties to the best advantage, but the difiiculty was that a good many members came from the country, and it was a difficult thing to get quorum at their meetings. The result of that was they were not able to conduct business as they would have liked to, and there had been apathy on the board that should not have been. He felt that the right and proper course was to hand over their duties and powers to an elective body. He thought, personally, that a local body would be the best, as they would be near at hand and could attend meetings. He considered that the present Town Board could attend to the duties exceedingly well. The one objsction he had against the appointed Cemetery Board was that they did not get the Government auditor to go over the accounts as other boards did. if they ran to waste—very well, they could run to waste —and if they made a profit there was no one to say anything about it. He maintained that every public body should be amenable to Government audit. Mr J. Hutfey, another member of the Cemetery Board, endorsed all that was said by the previous speaker with regard to the difficulty they had in getting members to attend meetings. They hid met repeatedly without a quorum, only about three persons attending. The consequence was that business could not be done. They did the best they could in the meantime, and got their actions sanctioned when they got a quorum. For his own part, he was quite agreeable to have their duties handed over to another body. There was one thing that rather went against the feathers of the members of the present board, and that was the statement that the cemetery was in a disgraceful state. It was only about a month ago that they had let the contract for clearing gorse- and broom in the cemetery, and the grass had been mown. He did not know what else they could expect in a place like Geraldine. An idea had crept into the minds of some people that they, as a board, had funds by which they could make the cemetery into a little flower garden. They contrasted Geraldine with a place like Temuka. The Geraldine Board had no Governmentjsubsidy, and they had no funds except what they derived from the sale of burial plots and for burials. K>ome years they had not more than twelve burials in the year. After paying the grave-digger’s salary they had very little revenue left to do anything with. They had been in a better position lately, because there had been a great many more deaths. There had, however, been a great deal more money spent on the cemetery than some people imagined. Money had been spent in planting trees. They planted three lots of trees before they could get any to grow. His belief was that they could not get trees to grow till the place was trenched. He had always done his best to attend Cemetery Board meetings, and he would be very glad to see it an elective board. Mr K. Brophy, a member of the Cemetery Board, said that from what had been said by previous speakers pretty much of the blame had fallen on him. He lived a long distance away, and the reason he did not attend meetings was because ho did not get his post-card till the day after the meeting was held. (Laughter). He was quite willing to see the board made elective, but it should be from the whole district; With regard to thi cemetery being in a scandalous state, two days after the last meeting of ratepayers he went through the cemetery, and could not'see that anything more required to be done to it unless they wanted it laid out like the Temuka cemetery; but they would not be in a position to do that They were possibly in a better position now to do something in that way. The chairman said that two gentlemen present appeared to be slightly grieved because he stated that the cemetery was in a disgraceful state. H© was in the cemetery six weeks ago, and must say that the grass and gorse were not in proper order, considering that the board must have considerable funds in hand. He could not see any reason why the cemetery should not be something like the Temuka one.

Mr Brophy pointed out that it was part of the grave-digger’s remuneration to have the grass, and that was the reason it was allowed to grow so long before being cut. Mr Shiers asked if anyone could inform the, meeting what sum the Cemetery Board has iu hand at the present time.

Mr Mundell said he believed he could tell, but he declined to do so at the present stage of the thing. This was part of the business they were then turning up a little bit. (Laughter). They were appointed by the Governor, and, of course, having that high appointment, they did not deign to drop down to the level of men and tell them everything. (Loud laughter). They would hand the money over in good time, when an elective board took their places, but he, for one, did not feel justified in giving the information asked for.

Mr Shiers said there seemed to bo a doubt about the work being done, but if the board had not the funds to keep the cmxetory in good order they could not do bo. That was his reason for enquiring as to the funds in hand.

Mr Brophy said for his part he could tell them that the Cemetery Board was at present in a better financial position than ever it was before.

Mr Huffey informed the meeting that {or every £1 that the Geraldine Board got the Tcmuka Board got £lO, and that during the past 10 months the Geraldine Board had more revenue than over it had before, and the board was at tlm present time in a good financial position. He could tell them the amount they had in ■hand, but did not consider himself bound to do so. All they could say was they wore not ashamed of what they had done. (Hear hear). Mr W. S, Maslin, as the ipoyor of the resolution that the present meeting should be called, aaid that the course had

been made very clear since members of the board had spoken and expressed their willingness, as a board, to hand over their functions. He thought that the time had passed for appointed boards carrying on the business of che publics as heretofore. There was a time when it would have been impossible to have an elective boaid, but now their district was getting more thickly populated, and appointed boards should be things of the past, and every local matter should be in the hands of the ratepayers. There was too much of the Star Chamber about the Geraldine Cemetery Board. They could n't get any reports of finances, or meetings, and everything they did seemed to be such a profound secret that no one knew the state of their finances. He considered that the members of the board knew very little about their finances. He did not think they were in the positiorf to know what was owing, perhaps through not having proper books laid before them. Mr Hutfey certainly had not got it, or he would not have spoken of 12 or 13 burials in a year. It was 14 years since the Cemetery Board erected their cottage and it would perhaps surprise some to know the number of burials since that time. They could go to the registrar and see for themselves that there had been 351 deaths and out of these 306 had been buried in Geraldine. The fee for digging a grave, etc., came to about £1 6s. Taking it at £1 a grave, there would be £306 for gravedigging. Then each person had a plot, and some had more than one, but taking it at one plot each it would, roughly speaking, come to about £450. The grave digger was paid £2910s per annum, and the sum received for grave digging was ample to pay this, and if there was any deficiency it would require very little from other sources of income to make it up. There ought, therefore, to be at the present time, less necessary expenditure, £450 or thereabouts to the credit of the board. (Hear, hear). The members of the board present told them that they were in a very good position, but he believed, with all due respect to the three members present, they knew very little about it, for he knew for a fact that no money had been paid into the bank to the credit of the Geraldine Cemetery Board for a considerable time, and then in some mysterious manner in one mouth over £7O had been paid in. The members could not then be acquainted with the financial position of the board as they ought. There was no system of audit, and he believed the public auditor considered it outside his duties to audit the Cemetery Board accounts. This all pointed to the need for a very desirable change, for if the hoard were made elective the accounts would be audited by the public auditor. He moved—“ That this meeting petition the Governor to have an elective board for the Geraldine Cemetery.” He would leave it to the meeting to say whether it should be denominational or not. He thought, however, it should be on broad lines, and that a denominational board was a mistake.

Mr C, E. Sherratt said that on looking up the Act he found there was a section in the Cemetery’s Act of 1882, as far as he was aware under which the present board was managed, and which referred to accounts. There was also an amended Act of 1885. The Act of 1882 read that —“ The trustees should keep accounts of all moneys, and such accounts should be at all reasonable times open to the inspection of any persons appointed by the Governor.” The Town District Act was very similar. It read—“ That from time to time the board should appoint a treasurer and accounts should be audited by one or more independent auditors appointed by the Governor.” If the Cemetery Board had asked tho Governor to appoint the same auditor that examined the other boards’ accounts to examine their accounts it would have been easily arranged, Mr N. Dunlop had great pleasure in seconding the resolution. He thought it was high time tfle board was jpade elective. The three members present had no doubt done their duty as well as they were able. Mr Mundell, however, had justified himself and blamed the cemetery grounds. The grounds could not help themselves, but the board could. There were several matters that might have been attended to, such, for instance, as drainage of the ground. He did not know when the meetings of the board were held. He had heard, but could not say whether it was true or not, that there had not been a meeting for some four or five years, and he thought that any board that had not done its duty shonldTia told about it, He thought the elective boa,rd should compromise the whol o hi the district.

Mr 0. E. Sherratt said he had carefully looked up the Act, and found that no provision was made for an elective board, but that the Act provided for a nominated one by the various denominations; or local authorities could be appointed by the Governor. The question was, if they had an elective board how would they conduct the election 1 He thought there would be difficulties in the way, unless the Local Regulations Act was incorporated in tha Cemetery Act, and their resolution might be in vain. He could see that it was possible for the various denominations to each appoint two of their number, and send their names to tho Governor for appointment. Mr Brophy agreed with Mr Sherratt that nomination by the ohuroh vestries was the best way out of the difficulty at the present time.

Mr Shiers said their member would be in the district in a few days time, and perhaps he could give them every information on the subject. Mr R. Y. Ferguson said that from what he had heard that evening it seemed that the business of the Board had been conducted in a scandalous way. He could not understand how Mr Maslin, an outsider, could give the meeting all the information he had given, when members of the Board present seemed to be ignorant of it. (Laughter). Mr Maslin had laid a charge against the Board, and he thought it should be cleaned up. He thought a resolution should be passed asking the Governor to have the accounts gone into and make the board accountable if anything were wrong. Mr Maslin said he had not laid a charge against'anybody. Mr Brophy thought some of tin gentlemen were rather hard on tin members of the Board. (Laughter). The chairman was not present, ana the meeting was taking advantage of his absence. He had not doubt that at the end of the year a balance-sheet would be published,

Mr Amos Sherratt said it seemed to him that the Board had been going on from year to year, and there was no one among them who had the courage to ask the treasurer for a look at the books, or asked for a public audit to be made. They could have done what the school committee did; that was to get ijcunoone in the town to audit thorn books. From what Mr Maslin had said certainly a charge had been formed in his mind against someone that had boon handling the money —(Laughter) and he questioned whether the same charge had not been

formed in the minds of everyone in the meeting. There seemed to be something radically wrong somewhere, according to the statements made, and the cemetery might have been drained years ago. It was scandalous that every grave dug had to be bailed out to the last moment of burial, and then something put on the coffin to make it sink. It would not be long before he should want a place to rest his bones, and he should like a respectable one.

Mr C. E. Sherratt moved as an amendment to the motion —“ That letters bo written to the various clergymen representing the allotments in the cemetery, asking them to nominate from their vestries, for appointment to the Cemetery Board, two persons each, living within a mile of the District.”

A desultory discussion then followed on denominationalism as it affected the Cemetery Board. Messrs C. B. Sherratt, A. Sherratt, and Brophy, spoke strongly in favor of the amendment, and Messrs Maslin, Dunlop, Mundell, Shiers, and others opposed it, on the grounds that the cemetery was a public affair, had nothing to do with sects and creeds, and should be on a broad basis.

On being put to the meeting seven persons voted for the amendment and eighteen against it. Mr Ferguson proposed—“ That it be brought under the notice of the Governor that the books of the Geraldine Cemetery Board have not been audited for a number of years, and that a Government auditor be sent at once.”

Mr White pointed out that the board had written for an auditor, and he would be in Geraldine at the end of the year.

Mr Ferguson’s motion was then allowed to drop. Mr Maslin said he had nothing against the personnel of the board. What he had said referred to the board as a whole, and no person in particular. A committee to work out the details for carrying out the resolution was appointed as follows : —Messrs W, S. Maslin, J. Mundell, A. White, Herlihy, W. Shiers, N. Dunlop, and John Farrell. A vote of thanks to the chairman closed the meeting.