ORDINARY MEETING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8724, 25 November 1913, Page 6

ORDINARY MEETING.

The usual meeting of the Ashburton Borough Council was held last evening. Present: His Worship the Mayor (Mr H. Davis) and Councillors J. Davison, J. T. M. Priest, F. Z. D Ferriman, P. L. Orr; G. H. Buchanan P. Stewart, G. D. H. Hefford, and h! A. Lloyd. An apology for absence was received from Cr. J. B. Christian. The Mayor reported a debit balance on the Temporary Loan Account .of £5200, and a debit balance at ' the Bank of New Zealand of £1139 us Bd, making an actual overdraft of £63Sv 15s Bd. The revenue received since last meeting had amounted to £251 8s lid, the chief items being:—Rates £177 5s 4d, rents '£27 I.os, Domain Account £27 7s 3d, fees and fines £8 10s, rubbish and sanitary fees £6 16s 4d. •-■ "

The Mayor explained that he had endeavoured unsuccessfully to have the Royal Artillery Band "stay between trains at Ashburton. The, "Director of the Technical School had willingly consented to provide the members of the band with afternoon tea. The speaker had then endeavoured to arrange- for special trains to Christchurch and excursion fares, and the negotiations in this connection were now in progress.

Correspondence. / •:■ ■ /', The Asliburton County Council wroto to the effect that £27 6s 9d had been passed by that body on account of I i payment for Asliburton Traffic Bridge, ■! and . asking for the Borough Council's 11 share (£3 18s. Id) to-be remitted.—The ■amount was passed for payment. 3' 1 Mr W. E. Dolman (Engineer and i Custodian) requested the Council Ho s ' consider the question of raising his ' . salary, as, on account of, the extra - work to be performed at the Asliburton i Volunteer Fire Brigade Station (owing . to ,th» increase in plant and buildings), p the duties had grown so largely they took up all his time. Three 3, months was too long to leave the fire ! plugs without attention. The cost of .attending to the fire plugs, 'he said, 'could be charged up to the Water- ! works Account. He enclosed a rough estimate of the division of cost and labour per week, as follows:—Cleaning I plant, burning rubbish, etc., 15s; coni stant attendance at telephone, 7s; | cleaning • bath and bathroom, 2s; at- ! tending street lamp, Is; attending fire plugs, ss; total, £1 10s. ■' He also asked that "his salary be paid fortnightly. The fire plugs,' the letter 'stated, needed attention in some part L 'or other daily, arid during his tempora ary absence he : would have to appoint ii someone else to attend to; the telei phone!-—The 1 Mayor said that some coni siderable time ago Mr Dolman 'had been " called over the coals " for nonattendance at the station. When his agreement was, first made: there was . no telephone at the station at all. It was afterwards arranged "that someone . ! should . always be at the station in 1 case of fire. That was about the time ' 'of the death of the late Town Clerk, i Another schedule of duties had been drawn up, and if" was there for the 3 v councillors 'to see. 'ilt was only right c' that there should be a schedule- of duties, and if the duties were greater the pay should be greater.—The Town - Clerk read the schedule of duties.-^Cr. L Stewart said he would oppose any in- : crease in the cost of the care of thy i! plant. Ho thought Mr Dolman was • {very well paid.—Cr. Ferriman moved, ■ : and Cr. ftwcltanan seconded, that the j matter be referred to the Fire Brigade Committee.—Cr. Orr -thought ' might be able to keep the water supply and Fire Brigade duties apart.— The' Mayor said that to do that they ; would need to rescind a resolution on jthe books.—Cr. Ferriman's resolution l was carried. Mr Robert Shand forwarded '£1 19s !3d, being half rates,for his property ov 1 the corner of Cass and Watson Streets, | which had . not been occupied during the past 12 months.—Received, and agreed to. Mr F. Makeig applied for the position of Borough Valuer, offering his • services for £30 for compiling the rate roll and valuing for the year 1914 and 1915.—This being the aonly application the offer was accepted, the work to be done-to the satisfaction of the Mayor and Town Clerk. : The Agricultural Denartment wrote in reply to the Council's letter urging that the Slaughtering, and Inspection Act be amended to provide that ' nV. swine'slaughtered for human consumption be inspected, stating that the Council's representations would receive early attention.—Received; An application from the Technical School Director for a permit to hold a distribution of prizes and function iv the Technical School in December was received.—-The Mayor said he thought that the application should be. granted !on the usual conditions, and a refund might be granted afterwards.—This was agreed to. It was resolved that the Mayor bo empowered to fix the Council's seal to Glasgow leases' for. Ivv-. Matthews ■'(T.S. 1214), and E. J. Tucker (T.S. 613). ', Reports. The Town Clerk reported that per- , mission had been granted to ,build a ' residence in Moore Street at a cost of : £300.—Agreed to. | The Foreman reported V"on various i works done during the month.—The report was adopted. I The Sanitary Inspector's report was ' also adopted. Miscellaneous. Cr. Ferriman said that there was a dangerous hole in the footpath near the Boroiigh School.—The Mayor replied that the matter would be attended to in the morning.

| The Works Committee's action regarding the purchase of horses was en-, dorsed. j Plumbers' licenses were granted to G. H. Nicholls and G. T. Russell and ,00,, and motor lorry licenses were granted to J. R. Jackson. I Accounts amounting to £143 6s were j passed for payment. i ~