Thames Borough Council.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2608, 18 May 1877, Page 2

Thames Borough Council.

A special meeting of the Borough Council was held at the Council Chamber this morning, at 11 o'clock. Present—His Worship the Mayor, presiding ; Councillors Ehrenfried, Gibbons, Wilson, Butt, Maenab, Kilgpur, Bead and Howe'.- The meeting was to take action for recovering the Borough's share of the gold duty. .

Cr Kilgour, as one of the conveners of the meeting, explained his reasons for so doing. tie said it was unnecessary to re'callthe whole circumstances connected with the gold duty. As he understood/the Government offered to pay the whole gold duty to,.the .Borough, and< the County's share be paid out of it, but the Mayor declined. Theu the Government left the division to the local bodies themselves.

; The Mayor explained.that the difficulty commenced;with his being shown a telegram. : Cr Kilgour saidihe still believed that it was to be left to the two corporations to decide. He.was quite satisfied that the Borough was to get its share. He would read the telegram which would make, it quite clear:—" Wellington—F. Whiteker, Auckland.—Be Thames gold duty it will be very difficult for us to divide the duty. Could hot the County isnd Borough decide upon the proportion each is to receive? We pay the duty to the County, and the County immediately pays over to the Borough its share. Thiß would be very: simple if. it can be arranged, and be within the law. —H. A. Atkinson."

That was (lie considered) conclusive. A committee of the two bodies had been formed to divide effectively the proportions of gold duty due to the Borough arid County. Mr Brodie and Mr Bagnail had acted for the Co'ifnty, the speaker and Mr Benshaw for the Borough. (Or Kilgour read the - report of the ©ommittee, which has already been published.) That report informed them of the Committee's duties. They had arrived by calculation'at the Borough's share for the four months. He wished to call attention to" the fact that Mr Brodie took an active part in the proceedings of the Committee,'in coming to the decision arrived at, and he felt much surprised that Mr ' Brddie had thrown any difficulty in the way. of, tlie Borough getting its share, of-tfvp,.,gold duty, and especially as he.h'adref<aped. r to the legality .of the matter. If *tt»e Borough had no legal title ,to the gold duty they had an equitable^ one, and the County had no legal title to anon gold duty. HeJtbtfrefore wished.J&Jtt&Jpme steps taken to put the County Council right on this matter. I ';. O U The Town Clerk's letter to the County Council and itjte reply th?r»toMfft3ftK: The Mayor thought Cr Eilgoar had put the matter clearly-fttfope £gf||||nncil, but he had not J suggested* any .oonrye of action. «-j- —-—-

Cr Kilgour had not. Ho left it with the Councillor th e -OT«iBent.TIAJ 1 The Mayor said if no jCoaanulor had anything to propose JrtD&ill&JitfßKJtha' 1 Council what he proposed to 4o ( bul which he had notjiAonfc s *>«i»||ftt» this. special meeting. He wag' one. of those who agreed to the County hwMfßg- tb»cold duty, and took U^^|^fe part in matters preCedinW^^^^Hndgc^* nent come to *t«4AjH^HK^with Mr Whitaker,, afc f i|me)i_Jߣ: (the . Mayor) had suggested uutr*f§l" whole urn ihould.be paidr^^^oaftjW^ boroughs share immediately; w) them. He- was, theo^iuiwfMiwfcft: h«Mt; that a County Councillor had jrMWdiatod all knowledge of the agri Ji mailJEwal -t^"he would have regarded as atliojind and fury-had not the ChairJxuu>4£jjj^LCouitfjr.given a tacit acquiescence > ia.jraek viewi. He th#rlfore should sutftftJHtuU the Government be commanioated with and be askM tSretain the gold dutgtif off tiftchiime;, as they could inforni them of the respeo--tive amounts to be; paid; fßjjtfe* Borough and County, and he ft^fy would doit. .It was.purelj^ c *^f«^ in.jthjp. Financial Arrangements A«[|fb|j|jUt£ payment of the gold du^yi.raiiM^i'ilKithiq, a.* Borough to such Borough JMMrjßot been >■. provided for, but the.n&ofii»meqt fed admitted that it wa»aft'MMtvr<:At an in-* te*view, with Mr Wbkaton Mr Brodw had contended thatr^t -sk«ald be Wid to the County, bttt tfcat; had &*&/ met by 'the statemeht' thif it woriW not be paid fo eitbejf' 'Obnnty^br. Borough until the Cotti^V Share- s,had been arrived at. Until^tbMJilhe it could have been kept in th'e?jtaiblic account! The Borough's right to the gold duty, had been admitted by the r Government, and would be legally admitted' aftthe earliest opportunity. He regrettedttmtthis diffisi" culty had occurred with the County Council, as it irritated'the pnßlic mind, and was calculated to engeriddltf W.li6stile feeling. He felt it for himself ibecanse. in suggesting that all the gold .duty be -paid over to the ■ County- he had perhaps shown some weakness. He would again suggest that the Government be communicated with as he suggested.

; Cr Bowe had considered the matter settled until he saw the report of the County- Council meeting.' He thought Brodie had fought all he intended to do. It was not treating.,,ll»e Borough with proper respect, the way this* matter had Been managed. It was a pity that* any hostility should arise .-between the" fwo" bodies. He approved of the course sugigested by the Mayor. Or Ehrenfried coacarred.'.,l!roWi.taai: the County Council had showa their colors, and a disposition to take ad van* tag© of any trifling difficulty, it behoved the Borough to bare the matter of the division of the gold duty put beyond a doubt. He thought the County Chairman was much to blame for countenancing any action likely to prejudice the arrangement. 'A letter to the Government, couched in very strong terms, should be sent, asking that a proper officer be appointed to make the division. Cr Kilgour approved of the Mayor's suggestion, but as the Committee for i arranging the division might not be continued it would be better to have an officer named by the Government to make the division.

Cr Howe said such would Lave been done had not the Borough aud County come to a mutual arrangement. I Cr Gibbons said possibly the present machinery might- do until the legislature had provided for the division;"Cr Ehrenfried proposed that the Town Clerk be instructed to draw up a letter in terms of the suggestion, and that- such letter should bo seen by Councillors before it be sent., v ■. ;: '■.;<;■;'■:> ■:■_■■ The Mayor thought that when Councillors had expressed their views they might leave the writing of the letter to the Town Clerk or himself. Cr Ehrenfried disclaimed any intention

of discourtesy to the Mayor, but he felt very strongly on the matter, and would Kke to see the letter. He felt ineliued to make it pretty strong. After some conversation it was agreed to send the.letter .in terms of the suggestion of the Mayor and Cr Ehrenfried's motion, as follows.—

Council-Chambers, Thames, ': •■■■■ / : May 18th, 1877. Sib,—lt will in the recollection of the Government that while under the Financial Arrangements Act, 1876, no provision is made for Boroughs receiving goldfield revenue raised in their limits, the right of this Borough to such revenue" was at once conceded by the Government, and, after some objections, agreed to by the representatives of the County. „,. In the month of February the Hon. Mr Whitaker showed me a telegram he had received from you dated 21st Feb., 1877, in these terms. [Telegram published above from H. A. Atkinson.to F. Whitaker.] On that; occasion, 1,, for the purpose of obviating the difficulty, concurred in the whole amount of revenue being paid to the County, they " immediately paying over to the Borough their share." As youare also'-no doubt aware certain arrangements have been made between- the Government, the County, the Borough and the Pumping Association by whick the Borough charged; its Gold fields Revenue with payments in aid of the Association's pumping operations. ;. # By the joint action of the Borough'and County Councils a basis has been fixed fpr the division of the revenue between the Borough and County. v / ; The, Government -have paid over considerable sums on account of Goldfield Bevenue to the! County Council in pursuance of the above arrangement. At a meeting of the County Cbuiicil(of which newspaper's report is annexed), held on the 12th instant, one of the Councillors denied the right' of 'this Borough to any share in the Goldfields Revenue, and to general surprise this view was not repudiated by the rest of the Councillors, but was acted upon as appears by copy of,letter annexed. [Letter from County Council.] Under these circumstances I have to ask that the, payment of the whole amount of Goldfields Revenue to the County be discontinued, and that for the future payment be deferred until .under the arrangements referred to in paragraph three the relative sums payable to the Borough and County be adjusted, and then that the amount coming to the Borough be transmitted to them direct.

I am the more anxious that this course should be adopted, as it is—from the tone of the. meeting reported to be—feared that the Council might, even in the facetof theirs and the Government's recogV nitieti; of the manifest rights. of th» Borough, at some future time, lay claim to the fhole-revenue, and quote thejact of tbtir^hatittg received the whole in supporftsf. their pretensions, .\; :' Though the amount paid by the County to the Pumping Association' may equal pr exceed the nmouajt^of revenue belonging to the Borough, and chargeable with, •uch jpijnent, I would stili ask that the Counfy •feouki 4>e called on to hand over a ohequf for the amount of Gpidfield^lteTenue dwing to the .Borotighr'sb that the Borough. accounts might be accurately kep£ anid the rights of the" Bofough 1 be jcecognised as existing throughout. ; ' J. £. MACDONALD, j „ ; ':Mayor. > ' j The Hon. the Colonial' Treasurer;