MR O'DEAS CLAIM AND THE BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2214, 16 September 1886, Page 2

MR O'DEAS CLAIM AND THE BOROUGH COUNCIL.

TO THE KDITOR. ►Sir, —As I have by the last two meetings of the Borough Council been held up t<« the public as an extortioner, I beg to submit through your impartial paper the real and true state of the case, iam bound to myself now to lay open the whole affair to the public who as a body judge lightly on questions between man and man. To commence then, His Worship the Mayor'.s reported statement that it was previous to having a sum of money put on the minutes that he allied me whether a. sum of five guineas would be sufficient and that I had agieed id not correct, a-. i-> was .subsequent to the meeting at which the money was put on the u.inutes that he made the airangemeut with me, because it it was previous to the meeting referred to that His Worship arranged with trie for five guineas as he has stated, why is it that he allowed £10 to be put in the mmute-> at the next meeting of the council when £5 o-i would have done. Nmv, Sir, there is a teruble to-do about the claim I have on the council for £112 10->. First of all 1 would ask those who object to the claim being paid, Was the work ordered by His Worship the Mayor some two months aftei I fulfilled my original arrangement with His Worship the Mayor, ami under the resolution of the council on February sth, which was a separate arrangement alto gether. Secondly, \v,h the work done by me. Thudly, was the work taken and utilised, and fmuthly, is the charge an overcharge? Now, Sir, ,is regard-. Ko 1, 2, and li queues, 1 have only to lefei yom readers to the files of youi valuable journal dated lith Apiil, which proven the answei to each of the above three questions t<» be in the affirmative, as appeals in the leading article. Now as to 2S\>. 4, viz., overcharge, I here by challenge His Worship the Mayor or any other member uf the Borough Council to prove that my claim is in any way over and above the usual architectural scale of chaiges. And, further, 1 am prepaied to submit the whole matter to any two disinterested professional men, and if I am found to be nuking an overcharge I shall agree to the award being handed over to the new District hospital, which is to be soon in our inid-t. At the same meeting Cr. Tippen is reported to have said that it was clear that the Minister had misinterpreted the Mayoi's statement. 1 put it to the public. Are Ministers so ignorant as to misinter pret statements? Again, Sir, His Worship the Mayor is reported to have said that the Minister remarked that my plans weie vague. How, then, on the face of thi^, did both the Government and Boiough Council base their decision on them ? and also on my estimate foi the erection of a concrete building which I stiongly recommended. Now, sir, as to the council declining to grant me a civil answei to a civil question, viz., whether I was paid a sum ot £10 as was st.ited to the Minister for Pnolic Woiks. The action was to my mind veiy ill-judged, and all the more so because the Town Clerk has admitted in answer to one, of the councillors that [ was not paid the above mentioned sum, and which is published in your valuable paper, and now on the way Wellington. Many thanks to you, Mr Editor, for it. I think 1 have now given to His Worship the Mayoi an opportunity of coming forward and pio\ing to the public whethei he has plucked my brains oi not, whether he has obtained from in* professional services on behalf of the Borough Council which are not paid fi>i un'ess the claim rendered by me is settled, and whether he will be the me.mof depriving such a deserving institution as the new Ho-pital, of th" amount of the award if lam in fault. Considering that the council have admitted that there isomething owing to me, I think that thiis an oppoitnnity seldom offered to a in m who has taken such an active part in Charitable Aid, «fee, Agdin, Sir, His Wor ship the Mayor is reported to have said at the last meeting of the council that nil the councillors knew the arrangement he had made with me. I wish to infoiin him that they did not know, and, further, His Wor ship warned me not to let them know, and on that account I forgive those who were abusing me from the bottom of my he.ut. Before I conclude, t would appeal to eveiy gentleman in Waikato who I have ten dered my profession.il services- to, as to whether my chaigcs were unteasoruble, as to whether I had carried out, in c >uipliance with the conditions of my contract--, every work that was submitted to mv charge in an honourable and straightforward manner. I shall wait for one week for the challenge to be taken up. Hoping you will insert in full this long but hurried note, in justice to my professioual'character. and, mmoiiT, as it is the first of the sort I have had occasion to write to any journal in my life,— Yours, with best wishes, .James, ()'J)ev. Hamilton, September l.~>th. ISS(>.

A warning to married men. — A young wifo ia Adelaide, says an exchange, walUed iuto a billiard h. ill in which her husband was playing the other night, lai.l a neatly-done-up bundle among- the pool balls, and walked out without a word. Tho inmates of the room fled, fearing dynamite, but instead of exploding the bundle began to ki^k aud cry. The husband didn't stop to explain to the boys, but gathered up his child and went home. He in thoroughly icforined now, md says he begs to be evou^ed ftom having anything more to do with billiard bawls. The following instance of the depreciation of propcity in the Old Cnmtiyis from Farm and Home: — The failure last week of the attempt to di~ipo.se at the Auction Mart, Tokenhouse Yard, of nine or ten estate.- in Scotland which were put up for sale, including that of Dunecht, belonging to the Earl of Crawford, will probably help to increase the chorus, of lamentations concerning the depreciation tn the value of landed property. Over and above a rent-roll of £f>7oo, which it is averted comes iuto the possessor of Dunecht -without dillieulty, there ,>t»uK on the estate a splendid mansion, coutaming a hundred room-. There was no bid higher than £170,000, and the estate wa* bought in. It would be idle to deny that duiiug the last ton years there has been a depreciation iv lauded property to the average extent of 2o per cent., and this great and sudden diminution his led many people to believe that it represents merely tho beginning of a .state of things that will gradually decline from bad to worse, till to be a country gentleman and j the inheritor of a fine tenitory will be one of tho most unfortunate and pitiable lots in life. It would be impossible, as well as cruel, to contradict the a^-eitinn that the country gentlemen of England have recently sustained very seveie los>t>-. But jubt as when piosponty advanced by "leaps and bounds, ' men <,uv in imagination no end to the vista of material wealth that had opened out, s ( > now the disappointment of these exaggerated hopes has evoked a corresponding leaction. Mr F. C. Germann, Paterangi, advertises a farm for sale. For i>aiticul.<ib see advertisement.