PUBIC MEETING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 2423, 3 July 1891, Page 2

PUBIC MEETING.

THE AMALGAMATION QUESTION.

' la response to an advertisement calling a public meeting to discuss the advisatble- | ness of an extension of tho municipjljfcy, , b to include the suburbs of Hampstead'and . Allenton, over a hundred people attended m the Orange Hall last night, most of ' whom were suburban, residents. ; The Mayor of Ashburtos- presided, and m opening tho business said thoso present , had no doubt seen the advertisement' i calling the meeting, which, was for. the , , purpose of considering if it was advisable 3 to incorporate,with the borough fif Ash- - burton the Suburbs of Allenton and • Hanipstead. In virtue of the position ho 5 held as Mayor of Ashburlon he had taken tho chair, but he did not intend to say < [ anything on the question, preferring | rather co leave the meeting to discuss it i 5 upon its merits. So far as the borough ; . was concerned, it had nothing to gain by , amalgamation with the suburbs, and the 5 only reason^for the movement from the , borough's side was that Ashburton, as a I borough, appeared before the world as f having but an insignificant population. They all knew that the town was the I Centre of a large agricultural district, that j surrounding it there was a large suburban' s population, and he thought the borough \ should occupy a more prominent place m the census. He would ask j Mr J. C. Duncan to move the first rej solution, which he did as follow^: — ' " That m the opinion of this meeting it is 5 desirable for the Town Board of Hampwteid. f- and that part of the Upper Ashburton Road ' Board known as Allenton to be incorpo- ' rated into the Borough pf Ashburton." , He had always been m favor of the J amalgamation of tl*S suburb* with the c l>orough, and the resolution he had moved i was quite an expression of his senti- , ments. ' . Mr G. W. Andrews seconded. The r Hampstead people, of whom he was one, < had always got on very well together. * The ratepayers appeared to }>6 satisfied ' .with the management; of their business by 3 the Board, and there had boen no requests % that he had heard of fur any change; But he quite believed that if there were only one rating body it-would be far better. , By joining the borough (hey would'at 3 least get rid of the County Council j a body i who had been taking their money m rates i for many years, but had never given them 3 any equivalent for it. Some people thou'xhfc there would be:''disadvantages by 3 joining with the borough;—that they: ■ would get into trouble abo^ gorse fences 3 etc., but he had no fear of trouble arising ' from thc>se sources. Tl:e borough was 1 not limited to the area it, now occupied, I but could be extended if desired to mll elude an area of 5000 acres, and could [ have a municipal governing body coin- , prising up to eighteen Councillors. He » would Jiked to hive seen Tinwald j included m tie motion, so that j a borough of some extet.t could . then have been established. With s such an amalgamation as was proposed, I it would perhaps be necessary to divide 1 the new borough into tvavdti, as, from his k reading of the Act, when an extension of ' the municipality took place, if the new ' comer had any liabilities he had to bear r them still-—they' were not, by the amalgamation, transferred to the shoulders . of those he was going with. He thought i the shilling rate of the borough was > somewhat higher than : the rating of i Htunpstead, but then no inconsiderable , part of their rating wenc to the ' ' County Council, who ga^e nothing back. • He h'-ul seconded the motion with the I. object of lett'iu? every one have a say m * the matter, so that it could be fully discussed. They were nob tied up to the 3 Borough of Ashburton, because, if they , desiivd it, the districts of Ham.pstead and j Allenton c .iul-.l form a borough by them- ; s.'lves. 3 After a question by Mr Bar; fib as to Mr ' Andrews' figures relating to the extent of > ground a borough could cover, Mr C, W. Purnftll s^iid he had ahvays > been of the opinion that it was a mistake ' to constitute Hampstead a town district. 1 Two bodies m a locality like theirs ' looked as if there was a conflict o! interest", whereas no conflict of interests existed. In the proposed amalgamation the suburbs hud a great deal more to gain than the ' borough. The chief advantage the f borough would gain would be an j improvement m its status, bub there 2 were several advantages that a union t would confer upon the suburbs. Iti s the event of a large water supply s scheme, being carried out, the suburbs s woul I benefit equally with the town, » as I hay would also do m a sa'iitaiy ' system. Then there were the borough 1 reserves. Ashburton was one of the most richly endpwed boroughs m the colony. I The income from these reserves as yet , was not very large, but as population ' increased the value of, and the income .from, these reserves would greatly m- 1 c crease, and the time would come when j 1 they would be so valuable and yield such | s an income as perhaps to save the necessity 3 for levying rates at all. There was no chance of either A Jlentoj} or Hampstead 1 obtaining endowments, as there was no more Crown land available for a purpose ' of that kind, so that it would be wisdom ' on the part of those districts to come m and share the benefit of the reserves. 1 It would perhaps be said that Ashburton ' had an overdraft, That was perfectly > true; but the. amount was verj small, ■ arid the borough had never'paid more i than a shilling rate, and there were few boroughs paid as low a rate as that. Then the borough had a Fire Brigade , whose services would be at the command , of the new borough, and the present water . supply could very easily be extended to , Hampstead. The present year had shown '. them that thuir wells were not to be deI pended upon for a water supply, an 1 per- ' haps they would soon have to move m the matter of introducing a general scheme of water supply. In fche benefits conferred by such a scheme the suburbs would also share. Then, as to the by- , laws, to the provisions of which regarding the keeping of pigs and the matter of gjrse fences reference had been made, "it was not necessary that the by-laws should cover the whole of the borough. The Municipal Corporations Act provided that by-laws may be limited m their operation, if need be, to only certain parts of a borough, so that that objection was disposed of. Tjjen the extension of the borcugh would give them a large? number of men to choose their Mayors and Councillors from. The borough had been well served m the past by its Mayors and Councillors, but there were not. enough men to choose from, and it had boen frequently found necessary for the burgesse» to actually press (he positions upon representative burgesses, who had already given long service m the Council, The extension would extend the field of choice and lighten the work from those had already spent much time m the seryioe of their fejlq\jr townsmen. Tho new borough could be diviqed into wards, so that there* would be no chance of one district overriding (he other. He would like to have seen Tinwald included m the motion. It had been said that a river divided the present borough from Tinwald, but a river ran right through the.centre of G.hristchurah, and the same was the case m several cities .he could iiuitance.' The bridge removed the objection to Tinwald. If Hampstead, Allenton, and Tinwald were to join with Ashburton there would then I be a borough of 5000 inhabitants, and that figure would look well m the census returns, and the borough would carry jnuph more weight. . ' [j Mr F. Johnson asked the Mayor whafc '■£ benefit; Hampstead would derive from the \ am;i]|?wj)a.tiuii ? ' , •. J

A Voice—None afc all. Mr Johnston—Then I would move an amendment— The Mayor—Did you ask me the question ? . ■ Mr Johnston—Yes. The Mayor—Then you had better let mo answer it. , The benefits to be derived by Hampstead and Alienton have been vory- clearly pointed out, I think, by Mr Purncll, the last speaker. In reply to Mr Sileoek, as to the effect of the pausing of the resolution, Tho Mayor said anothev resolutidn would be moved to give effect Lo the one now before the meeting, and went on to explain the usual mode of procedure in preparing- and presenting a petition to the Governor. Mr F. Johnston moved an amendment to the effect thit the Hampstead Town Bwird take no action in the matter. The Mayor said the amendment being a direct negative was useless, as all that tho mover and those who thought with him had to do was to vote against the motion. After some further remarks from Mr Craighead on the boui-dnries of Alienton, Mr Mayo on t'le m-itter of gorse fences in Hampstead, and Mr Crooks, whocriticised a letter that had appeared in the local papers advocating union, the last named gentleman went on to twit the Council with their action towards Hampstead Town Board in regard to a recent . .application by that body for a share of • the borotuhs present water supply. Mr McElrea .spoke strongly against the amalgamation, and charged the Ashburton Council with great mismanagement it, with all the reserves they had and the lot of money they had received from the County Council, their rating was so heavy that people' we're removing across the belts to avoid it, and there was an overdraft of £1600. Mr C. Fawcei-t opposed the Amalgamation. Mr J. Keir thought thert, was a wrong ! impression abroad among the speakers who had spoken against amalgamation. The Borough Council had no interest to serve in promoting the union, and the movement was only promoted with the 1 view of giving the district its proper standing in the colony. Hampstead was now paying more rates' than it would if amalgamated with the borough. The oh- ' jection about the by-laws had been completely answered already, and he had 1 heard no real objection yet raised to the union. He was a. resident in Alienton [ and a ratepayer in the borcu^h and he favored the amalgamation, ; Mr Harrison spok<j ot some length on 1 the advantage of union, but would have ' preferred to sea the request fcr it come from the suburban residents themselves, who eeamed to think there was some overjd advantage t« be desired by the borough which they were requi-ed to help in securing. This was not the case. They would in the end join the borough he was sure, as they would come to see how awkward it would be, in view of a general water supply coming in in vhich they would n< t participate except on the borough's own terms. Mr Barrett wus of opinion that the whole of Mr Purnell's remarks . were in favour of the Borough people refraining from asking the suburbs to join the borough. Mr Joseph Miles was of the same opinion. Mr Leslie opposed the amalgamation. Mi Kilworth thought there werp difficulties in t:io way of working such a large district as was proposed. It was a large undertaking to carry water to all the streets in cho proposed extende.l borough. A Drainage Board could take charge of Alletiton and Hunpstead for a sanitary system, and a water supply could be • ».u_=;hb in by a similar body. The census question was only a matter of sentiment as the County statistics were always available. The question was one for study, and he hoped the residents would look for what was be.^t,not for how much they were to g tin or lone. The Mayor .said, in reply to a question, fchat the question had boon brought forward by him at the Borough CbunoiL In regard to Mr McElroa's rotnarks, he said tha*- tho overdraft had been reduced to £1390 and would be.wiped eat altogether in two years and a half. Mr McElrea overlooked the work tho borough had done when lie talked about mismanagement. The streets of the town had all been made, the channelling and footpaths done, the outfall drain constructed, a proportion of the traffic bridge paid for, a,nd the pound purchased by the borough. These wore not small undertakings. The rates were about the lowest of any borough in the colony, and when they considered that O.itnaru was rated at 5s 9iin the £ he thought they Avould allow that the Council had manage:! the boroughls affairs as well as any other Council-in .the colony did their work, or any business firm'could have done. Mr J. C. Duncan said that if the district was to prosper all little differences must cease. A few years ago Germany was made up of a number of little States, all cutting each other's, throats, and open to the attacks of outsid.e eaejnies. Bismarck came upon the scene and the Confederation became united and the German nation was now the greatest in the world. (" No.") Well, it was not the least anyhow, In his native country the Scotch Highlanders had been cut up into clans under petty chiefs, and fought with each other and stole fiach others' cattle. But when Scotland joined with England there grew oufc of the union the Great British Empire. He did not know if he required to apologise for quoting the Bible, but it was there said that a house divided against itself could not stand. He urged amalgamation as a means of drawing outsiije capital t.i the district. The Mayor pointed ouc, in reply to Mr ■Tasker, that the Alienton rating was Is 4d in the £, Hampstead Is lid, and the Borowgh Is. The motion was put and lost by a considerable majority. Mr Purnell hoped the residents would reconsider tlje question, notwithstanding ■the vote that hud just been taken. 4 very groat benefit would bo derived by the .suburbs by amalgamation, and the question of reserves was a vital one. It was offered now to the suburbs to come in on equal terms, and there were a great many reasons in. favor of union. Mr Williamson said if the people of Hampstead thought they were better as they are, they had better remain as they ;are. In. regard to the appearance of the census returns he thought any disadvantage there could be got over by doing'as the large cities did—be returned as Ashburton and suburbs. He had been in favor of amalgamation on proper terras, but he was siot perpared to hand over the •borough's income for tho bonent of the I'suburbs. The Mayor was wholly disinterested in this matter, and he moved a vote of thanks to him. Mr Silcock thought the reserves would very soon be confiscated. Bfr Purnell--They cannot. They have been Orown granted, Mr Andrews "also tendered thanks to the Mayor, The vote was passed. The Mayor, in thanking them for the .vote, said the time would come when the suburban ratepayers would regret having voted against the resolution. They were subject to two rates-^-Hainpstead to the Town Board and the County Council, and Alienton to the County Council and the Road Board. Ashburton's maximum rate was one shilling, and no higher rate could be struck, without a vote of the ratepayers. The borough had an income of £3000, and the suburbs could only add £400 to that, Who, then, was to be the gainer—die town or the suburbs 1 Th<J latter by amalgamation would have th« fyeuetit of an. experienced, engineer* a

water supply, a tire brigade, and other things, which the borough had and they had not. Considered from a personal view, as most of his property was m the borough it was not.to his advantage to further the movement, but he did so on J public grounds. ' In two and a half years the borough's overdraft would be wiped out. and probably then they could do with a sixpenny rate. The reserves promised soon to afford a large income. .The proceedings then closed. i