MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3305, 10 September 1889, Page 2

MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS.

A public meeting, convened by the Mayor, on requisition, was held in the Theatre Koyal last night, about 200 hundred persons being present, His Worship said at the request of some fifty or sixty ratepayers he had convened the present meeting for the purpose of laying before the burgesses tlicatate of affairs in the municipality, The income of the Borough was between £I7OO and £IBOO. Against that they had working expenses. Jubilee Fire Brigade, Charitable Aid, which latter they \youJd have to pay or go to gaol, he would prefer to go to gaol himself. (Laughter),. When those were deducted from the income they had some .6800 or £9OO for streets. The condition of the Borough ill respect to the streots would comparo favourably with any other Borough in the Colony. Ho thought when an election was pending a public meeting should bo called and matters put plainly before tlio burgesses so that they might know how lo dispose of their votes. He supposed a great deal'would bo said about the position ho had taken up, It might bo an unusual thing for the burgesses to present a petition to the Mayor, Thal.be was not prepared to say. If tho burgesses chose to ask him what right had he to refuse them? He had already said the Borough would have between £BOO and £9OO to spend on the public streots, He thought himself it would -be fairness to all to divide the.Borough itito sections-and call for tenders for the separate maintenance of the streets in each section, It was being done elsewhere he noticed, and it might be a cheaper way than employing a labor staff, not that the latter did not do a fair day's work, but the complaints were that the present system confined the work to ope particular party, As

the Council was at present constituted 'unless .-a resolution suited •:«rrjayer-beiiriiig.iiiijbritj.itwaarejectedl-fjjHß did not know, therefore,- whither.the maintenance of roads by contract would bo adopted or not. It had been tried at one'fame in Queen-street, and he thought very satisfactorily, THE WATER SOMA'.

So long as lie hail been in llio Council, the question of a water supply had.been the most pressing. When-ho saw the Jubilee first he could see that the engine would bo useless without ut better supply of water, and he offered to the Mayor Mr paselberg, to bring water in from his mill lead above the railway as far as Bentlcy-street, (The speaker then went into the particulars, now a matter of history, of his bringing in the water as far as the Post Olfice, of his being summoned before the magistrate by the Council, and beating them, How he had got.tho Borough divided into four wards instead of three as desired by the Council and Mayor Caselberg at the time, How from that time the Council had 'set their backs up and rejected any measure ho brought forward, and opposed him in every scheme for bringing in water, lie had brought the water in in spite of the Council, and had beaten them in the court, and since then the Council had persistently opposed him,) [" Ah, iny old friend Perry I" ejaculated the speaker, suddenly observing that individual amongst tho audience; " I'm glad to see yon, Walter,"] (Roars ofliuighler,) Or Perry: I'd ask your Worship to mind your stops. The Mayor: Seeing my old friend here tonight calls to my mind the circumstance that the only time I saw him in his shirt sleeves doing work for the Borough (laughter) was when he wis rigging up the gate which had become so offensive in the stream running through the tojvn. I told my old friend ho was doing something I'd have to pull out sometime (laughter), What my old friend was trying to do was to mako that old squirting thing of a creek do for. the Borough water 3iipp!y. The idba is ridiculous with a young town such as this, The gates had proved the means of blocking the stream tnd prevented it scouring itself clean, I have had tho gates hoisted to-day and sent a flush of water through the stroam, that you will see if you go and look has cleared the nuisance that existed from the Wosleyan Church to the Star Office. The cause of the nuisance wus the erection of tho gate by my old friend Perry. (Laughter.) Cr Perry rose in the body of the Hall and tried to make himself heard but his voice was drowned in sries of " platform," " platform," cheers, Mr Renall: No doubt my old friend Perry will come up on the platform and say he is sorry by-and-bye, (Roars,) Cr Perry : lean tell your Worship one thing, I'll tell them the truth,

Mr Kcnall: That's right, and shame the" old gentlemen." (Roars.) Cr Perry; I never put in the gale. Mr Renall; You como out in your shirt-slieves, perhaps you had boon working in your shop, or peradventuro you had come out to fight, (Yells.) Cr Perry: Go on, your Worship, Mr Renall; Well tho gate was put in; you were a councillor, and responsible. The one in Bannister Street is of more importance, as it supplies water to the pipes for tho gas tanks. I'm glad I wasn't in the council when that job was done. The Daily told us £2,000 had been wasted on that. I don't think he would tell us that to-night. Ho goes all round a thing, so that if he is wrong one time he's bound to be right the next (laughter), There's another thing I must refer to. The council wanted to spend £6O in diyorting tho stream. I was quite surprised when attending a meeting pt the Town Lands Trust tho other night to see ft deputation of councillors enter, They wanted the trustees to. vqte a. sum of ruouey to divert, this watercourse on Town Acre No 73. The proposal was to cut through the top corner of the acre, put in a iluming adjoining the footpath down to near my friend Perry's shop (laughter), What's theobject? What's the use of it when it is done ? Won't tho new channel silt up as well as tho old, if tho gates are not taken away 1 The old culvert will do as well if the gates, are shifted, 'and tho stream flushed, Let tho modioal mou go and lean over tho fence and take a whiff at ' tho stream now, They will takeapinch of snuli and say " there's no typhoid here." All that the stream wants to to keep it sweet and clean can lie done tor a few pounds. Go up to tho railway gates and flush it, that's what I did to-day. But no, that just what my friends (!) don't want. Thov would rafter upend £6O than £5 (applause), They are tho whole and 60ul of obstruction, I luivo spent my money and dono all I can. Since, there has been nnothor committee at work, because they were threatened that their rate of insurance would he raised if tho supply of water was not improved, A committeo from the centre of tho town was electod, of which Mr Hooper was appointed chair, man, He at once applied to me to have the work done. I sot to work to do it. Thirty pounds was subscribed by corlain ratepayers in Queeii-slroet The speaker then went into the history of his, troubles with the (Jounojl, who refused to assist in any way in stopping the leaks at tho bridge by Mr Eedman's. He also referred to the saving his supply would be to the ratepayers, and caused considerable laughter by his reference to the "squirtof a Jjouglas pump and the water cart," 'He said if the hurgesses were satisfied with the present state of things they would elect niembors hostile to him; if not, they would elect others, What he held to be essential to the Borough was to have a good water supply (hear, hear). A late plea set up by tho Council was that he would not hand over the water rights, If they wanted any rights it was their duty to frame a plan and offer what was fair and just to him, They had never dono anything of the sort. Would they hand over their steam engines to the borough? Go and try 'em! (laughter.) They had put in in Dixon street a culvert 73ft in length and 2ft square, that would carry more, water than his mill lead. That was made at a groat expense, and all tho water that went into it ran through an eight i inch culvert. (Cheers and laujhter.) i Great ingenuity I. A two foot culvert i to carry the'supply of a half inch i pipe. (Roars,) If anyone doubted I what lie'said/'let them go and inspect i the place. CrHessey: What half inch pipe! The Mayor: Wei), that is a license, i the same as an author uses to make ' hi? work go down. (Roars,) ]

Or Chamberlain: AVbat is •■ this meeting called for your Worship ? Tho-Mayor: What's that to do with you 11f you don't" like it walk out, (Cheers, yells, and hisses.) There's tb,o door! it's astonishing Mr,

Chamberlain, as a councillor, (loos not know "what the meeting is for. It's to let sonic light into municipal affairs, Cr Chamberlain: You have not enlightened anyone yet. Tim Mayor: I don't expect to enlighten you. You've sat in the Council and did nothing. Come up up here and tell the people why you have obstructed me, There's a fair I field for vou. (Cheers). Thero is a eiilceit in jDixon-atrnet alongside my. friend Perry's land. They- were careful not to touch his |Toperty. When I get a majority I intend to take it out. (Laughter). There's enough to carry the flnming to my mill lead. (Laughter.) My idea in bringing the water in whb I not to charge a shilling outside its benefit. £3O has been subscribed and I have never asked for a shilling of it. When the work is complete I may do so and no doubt they will respond, He then" took them into the Waipo'," but said ho " wasn't going to drown them." (Laughter). He referred lo the action of the Council in their futile and costly attempt to divert the conrae of the river until they wore stopped by the threats of Mr It, Meredith. He again went back to the wator supply, He had noi been licked but overpowered, ond if he could not get Ihosupportof a majority in the Council he could not go on with it. He appealed to them to assist him by returning members to the Council who would support him. If there was any question they wanted to ask he was willing to answer it. It not he wou Id ask friend Chamberlain to come up and say why he opposed him, (Ap. plause).

Cr Chamberlain, who was cheered on ascending the platform, said there appeared to be no chairman, He did not know why,,. ; . . ' The Mayor: It anyone, tackles yon I'll knock them down. (Laughter.) Cr Chamberlain said ho had asked Mr Renall what the meeting was called for, but did not get a satisfactory reply,. When the Borough was divided into four wards, Mr Renal! canio forwarded asacandidate, but didnotgot returned. He afterwards stood for Mayor and was returned, but he could not agree with the Council, and sot about to abolish the wards, so as' to turn them out; but they were all re elected, and tho same would occur again. (Hear, hear.) Mr Eenall said as long as ho lived thoy should havo tho water, but could they spend £Boo' or £4OO of the ratepayers' money and have the supply cut off by Mr Renall's heirs. The meeting had evidently only been called to do battle for certain candidates, It they wero not able to fight' their own cause ho did uot think it was the placo of tho Mayor to do it for them. Mr Renall had promised to complete his water scheme in a month, and on the strength of his promiso a clause in the ogreemrnt between the Council and tho Water. Committee limiting tho completion of I the work to a certain date had been left out,

Cr Hessey took the Mayor to task for his stricture on tho Council, and said Ins actions were most inconsistant, He referred to the remarks of Mr Eenall on the culvert in Dixonstreet, and asked if any practical man would rip up the culvert and fill in the vacancy for the value of the timber.

The Mayor: I stake a pound I'll get 500 feet of sound totara out of it in an hour, (Cheers.) Cr Hessey: How about Idling uj; the hole?

The Mayor: You don'l' know anything about it, Put down your £. (Yells), It's the timber at the side of the street I was talking about, Or Hessey : You said the culvert.

The Mayor: I didn't refer to that, Put down your £. Take a drop of wato.i John, tako a draft (roars). : Or Hessy: Are you prepared Mi Eenall to give us a right to tho water, Biibjeob to your right? The Mayor; You don't know what you are talking about (laughter), Cr Hessey: You talk about your generosity; where was it when tho school children muted a supply of spring water. (A voice: Good I Good ? Give it hira), You're like mo, yon like the dollars: As for getting 500 feet of the tember out of the culvert in an hour, I could rip it up in fivo minutes with a jack but how about replacing it. After somo further remarks he resumed his seat.

Or Oullpu said the Daily had stated that it was quite uncoustitu. tional for the Major to convene a public meeting on the eve of a Council cleotion. Ho did not know whetlior it was customary, but if not it ought to be, Ho did not want Mr Ronall'a advocacy, being rpiitc ablo to justify himself, lie could point to the reduction as due to his immediate effort, and also tho admission of tho principle by tho council of letting the work of street maintenance by contract instead of day labor, although they were slow to act on it, The Mayor had challenged Or Chamberlain to show what he had done in the counoil. No one councillor could do anything without the help of the others, If elected, ho should still continue on tho same lines ho had acted on in tho pa&t, He was not a blind supporter of Mr Renall, but voted with him bocause lie was the first to bring in a water supply, He was not fishing for rotes on both sides, If four years of service would not.justify his return, then the honor of serving as a councillor was not

Cries ot "Perry, Perry," resounded through the building as tho last speaker, resumed his seat. Cr Perry said as he was not a candidate he did not sec the necessity of ascending the platform. [Yells and cries of Platform almost drownod the speaker's voice.] The Mayor: If Perry will give me a" bob" I'll make a speech for him, (Roars). Cr Perry: I'll give you five shillings if you keep to the truth. The Mayor rose again and went over the ground of the water supply dispute. Or Hessey; I would liko to know if tho water supply has affected the insurance rates in Carterton and other towns. I'vo had my insurance increased, surely it is not the water supply that affected that, (Hear bear).

Mr Kingdom ascended the platform and said the question of continuing the water through the town was a nuisance to him, as it emptied itself through his garden, and ho .warned the Council he should take nciimi unless it was abated. A voice: Who are you, • Cr Eton ; iu response, to .repeated calls said ho had not come prepared with a speech as ho had already published his address, in one of the local papers, If returned he should base his actions upon, tho t lines indicated, (Cheers). . The Mayor apologised for Mr Wagg's diidenos in not addressing Ilia moctipg, ho boin§ new to public lilV,

He hail no doubt he would make a useful member if elected. Mr A. McColl addressed the meeting amiclit considerable interruption, Ho Slid he came to Jhsterton six years ago and cast his lot in with them. He did not approve of the Mayoi's system of walenvork ]f the Mayor wanted to give them * water nipply he must tjive tbemtho freo uso of the water,, [Cheers.] They did not want tha Mayor to go and let.down the wator jiisf when lie liked/ [A voice:.'Hiiro a whisky'McColl.]-: ••■'■«■"' •-■ ■■ .-.... Mr Hogg moved that a hearty vote of thanks be accorded Mr fienall for for his very excellent speech, In doing so he referred to drainage, the water supply, the cantankerous councillors, and suggested that Cis should erect a big lank overhead, and give their steam engines in perpetuity to work il, He did not believe thntl'rs wanted to spile the town by their opposition, but that their obstruction was persona! to Mr Konall, Ho advocated voting for the supporters of Mr Bwmllalilie forthcoming election. Tlw motion was carried by acclamation, and the meeting itdjoKroed,