The Conference of Councils.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2507, 18 January 1877, Page 2

The Conference of Councils.

The adjourned conference of the County and Borough Councils was held at the Borough Council Chambers at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Present: His Worship the Mayor (in the chair); Borough Councillors—Kilgour, Eead, Gibbons, Ehrenfried and Wilson; County Councillors—Brodie, Coutts, Bagnall, Thorp, Mitchell, Thorburn and Spencer. The Chairman reported the result of the mission of the sub-committee to Auckland. They had met in Auckland to interview Mr Whitaker and Mr Weston. They were met fairly, and notwithstanding one of the County .Councillors was j inclined to run away with them, yet the County Councillors had met their propo- j sals in a fair and equitable spirit and the result was the memos prepared by Mr Whitaker' (which were published yesterday.) His report came to an end with the documents. Cr Brodie said that Mr Weston had approved of them, and the County Council had adopted them at their meeting. Cr Gibbons moved that the report be received and adopted. Cr Brodie said that they (the County Council) had adopted it, and it was for the. Borough Council to do so how. He was opposed to the carrying out of the agreement if the mines were not worked. They should be opened to tributers if nothing else. . .' » The Chairman said that the same thing had struck him. On the Kuranui Hill United side of the shaft the ground was being pretty well prospected, but ,on the south side hardly any prospecting was going on at all. It should* be a sine qua non that the prospecting go on. They now knew as much as the sub-committee did,; and the next thing was for the Borough Council to approve of the agreement. Cr Renshaw thought that before apprsving of it they ought to get something more definite as to what the mines in? terested would, contribute. The Chairman said that the represented by Mr * Weston ; did not exactly know what they could do. The Council could only pay a certain amount, and if they did not make up the balance the Pump would stop. He admitted ■that it was rather unsatisfactory,but;it might work better than if they had agreed to pay something they could not. They would have to put their shoulders the wheel and pay their quota. .Cr Mitchell seconded the motion, i He said they had pushed the matter referred to by the Chairman as far as they could with Mr Weston, and he had said that it would not be more than £300 and perhaps less. .'■.■; Or Ehrenfried thought they should not assent too quickly. It appeared to him that their revenue would be all exhausted before the County's was touched at all. The Borough was to pay the piper, and the County would get all the benefit if the operations of the Pumping Association were carried on with success. He thought the County should contribute equally with the Borough to keep the Pump going. Cr Mitchell pointed out that if the gold fields revenue was not devoted to goldfields purposes they would not have it at all. v

The Chairman said it was going too far saying that the County should give as nrach as the Borough. No one could say that the persons represented by Cr Mitchell, fbr instance, were as much interested as they were in keeping the Pump going. He then spoke to some length on the matter of. the gold duty, saying that it did not really belong to the Borough, and" if they rejected the proposals and the Pump stopped, A «.ey would get none at all. Cr Ehrenfried disagreed with the Chairman when he said that Cr Mitchell's constituents were not benefited. ;If they were " wiped out" of this it would be a great blow to the upper country. They were not going to allow Cr Brodie to control them, and he thought they ought to re-consider before approving of the arrangement. Cr Eenshaw also thought that these contributions of the mines should be defined. However, he would support Cr Gibbons' motion if "the. following was put into the agreement:—" That the mines contribute £260 per month." Cr Mitchell, after referring to the misapprehension that the gold duty belonged to the Borough, said that there was no way to make the contributions definite. The subsidy ran out on the Ist February, and delays were dangerous. They; might be sorry for deferring their decision if they did so. After some further discussion— Cr Head moved, as an amendment, that the matter be referrec". to the Borough Council for consideration. . . The amendment was put to the meeting and only two yoted for it, and the rest voted for the motion, whiph \yas therefore, declared carried. The meeting terminated with a rote of thanks to the Chairman.