CITY COUNCIL.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9915, 21 December 1897, Page 6

CITY COUNCIL.

Monday, December 20. £*. The Council met at 7.30. Present—The tl Mayor, Crs. Gray, Andrews, Sandstein, m Loughnan, Hamilton, Morris, Appleby, w Kincaid, Sorensen, Prudhoe, Payling, Smith, ol Samuels, Woods, Stapleton. p 1 The amounts received during the tort- v; night was stated as being—General account £597 17s lOd, cemetery account £9 18s 6d, w suspense account £41 14a. interest account A £8 6j 4d. Accounts were passed for psy-JW ment as under :—General account £686 7_i sd. The overdraft was stated as being £7990. A petition was presented by Cr. Morris, signed by sixty-two hotelkeepers and others, urging that steps should be taken to erect a morgue, and so relieve them from the horrible nuisance caused by having to take in dead bodies sometimes "in an advanced state of decomposition. Cr. Morris said that on the previous day he had been called in to the White Swan t Hotel, where he saw one of the mo°t c horrible sights he had seen for some time. ,j The body of the unfortunate man was in an advanced state of decomposition, causing quite a nuisance in the neighbourhood. The hotelkeepers were the largest ratepayers in y the city, and it was only right that the City h Council should take the matter up if the v Government would not. t The petition was received. Cr. Gray urged that the morgue at the . police station should be utilised as a public ' morgue. He moved—"That the Govern* _ ment be written to, pointing out that there is a morgue in Christchurch at the police , station, and asking that it be used for the purpose of receiving dead bodies and for ', holding inquests." _ Cr. Morris seconded the motion, and | said that Dr. Symes had told him that the inconvenience caused to the police could be ' minimised by the use of the latest discovered disinfectants. _ { Cr. Pay lino supported the resolution. The Mayor said there was not the slightest doubt as to the necessity for the establishment of a public morgue in the city. ( The motion was carried. Cr. Samuels presented a petition from « the residents iv Queen street, Kilmore j street east, asking that the name be changed " to Union street, as there were two other streets, one in Sydenham and one in Christchurch, named Queen street. \ Cr. Samuels moved—" That the request '. be granted." . Cr Gray seconded the resolution, which j was agreed to. ( Correspondence was read -.—From Messrs Niven and Co., Napier, with reference to the fitting of the Wanganui abattoirs with ; their chilling apparatus, and offering their : services in case of the council erecting j abattoirs. ] On the motion of Cr. Smith, seconded by Cr. Payling, it waa resolved to reply to the writers that the Selwyn Council had the matter of establishing abattoirs under their consideration and referring them to that body. From Messrs J. Forrester and W. Langdown, as residents of Sydenham, requesting the council to reconsider the application of Robert Lyness, for tlie renewal of cabowner's license. The letter was referred to the By-law Committee. The city surveyor reported as follows :— The tramway hearse had been examined, and the under carriage was not suitable for converting into a water cart or other rolling stock used by the council, but it should fetch a good price if put up to auction. As to tarring the streets, he reported as follows:—Taking tar, sand and labour at its present value, the tarring would cost £184 per-mile. There are about ten miles of streets fit to tar, the cost of which would be £1840. It costs £700 per mile to thoroughly coat a street with new metal, and if the tarring will increase the life of the roads, say from four to five years, viz., by one year, the cost per annum will be £175 and £177 respectively (including the cost of tarring). As there are, say, thirty miles of streets in Chrutchurch, the tarring would entail an annual additional expenditure of £60, which would, however, be saved many times over by a saving in water-cart service and channel cleaning, which would then be reduced to a minimum. The works committee, after duly considering the tenders sent in for the yearly supply of road metal, for the ensuing year recommended the following tenders:—S. P. Andrews, 8000 cubic yards ot metal and 2000 cubic yards of screenings at 4s 6d—£2250 ; J. Queree, 500 cubic yards screenings at 3. 7d—£B9 lis 8d; total, £2239 lis Bd. Some discussion ensued on the clause with reference to the tarring of the streets, in which several councillors took part. Cr. Kincaid pointed out that it was merely a reply to his motion tor aa estimate of the cost. The report was adopted, i Cr. Prudhoe said that it was intended i by the works committee to lay down an experimental piece of tarring, Colombo ' street from Hereford street to Armagh > street. i The report of the city surveyor on a scheme for water supply for fire prevention, ' street watering and flushing the channels • was taken as read. i Cr. Gray moved—"That the discussion • on the subject be deferred until after the holidays." > Cr. Samuels seconded the motion, which i was carried. i The quarterly report of the superintendent of the fire brigade was read. The i brigade had responded to twenty-five alarms I during the quarter, eight of which were ; false. He drew attention to the danger of k business firms keeping such large stocks of t kerosene in the crowded parts of the city, i The report was adopted. " The Reserves Committee reported that 1 they had considered the request of the i Lands Department to hand over a portion j i of the reserve at Chaney's corner, and, t while admitting that it was a most suitable s site for a cemetery for the Belfast district, fe considered that as the city is so poorly * endowed with reserves, they could not re- , commend the council to part with a single t acre, unless the Land Department will , transfer to the council a reserve of equal , value. It had been decided to call for s tenders for grubbing out the gorse, broom t and lupins from the reserve, and, as the * work was urgent, the committee asked for " permission to accept a tender before next * meeting of the council, which would be some f time hence. The report was adopted, and the committee granted authority to accept tenders as asked for. The report of the'finance committee was to the effect that the Richmond loan for £1640 was now completed, and the loan could be raised. The council was asked to authorise the finance committee to take the necessary r steps to obtain the money in a similar way • to the £5000 loan recently raised. ? The report was adopted. ' Cr. Woods called attention to the remark > in the report of the superintendent of the 3 fire brigade as to the storage of large quinf tities of kerosene in business premises, and thought their inspectors should visit the £ various places and report as to the number j of cases of kerosene stored. 1 Cr. Louohnax moved—" That the council authorise the finance committee to take the necessary steps to raise the Richmond loan." Cr. Sorensen seconded tne motion, which was carried. It was resolved to place a public seat on the North Belt at its intersection with the Papanui road. s Cr. Gray moved-—" That the Works s Committee be instructed to take steps to 0 put down an experimental length of tarring n the street from the Bank of New Zealand to c Hobbs's corner." v Cr. Prudhoe pointed out that the road iS referred to was in a bad state. i- Cr. Gray then moved—" That permission c be given to the Works Committee to select h a section of the streets of the city for h tarring, as an experiment." c Cr. Smith seconded the motion, and 1 suggested that the length of street should i- he from the Bank of New Zealand to Tuam y street. n The motion was carried, i, Cr. Gray called attention to the fact that d the condition under which two horses had il been presented to the city by the Fire n Brigade Demonstration Committee had not c been carried out. The condition was that •a two horses should be stabled during the day d at the Lichfield street station. He also I, called attention to the tact that a valuable to horse, belonging to the Council, was being ie I spoilt owing to being unequally mated, so y I that it had not alone to drag the ei-guM but 6 jfthf oti-tr bent »1m» A

Some discussion ensued, in which Cre. Samuels, Woods and Prudhoe took part. The Spevkvor explained that the horses presented to the Council were too big for the stables of the Council. They could get them in but could not get them out, and the matter had been held over from week to week in view of a new Council yard being obtained. Hβ had received instructions to purchase two new horses, but had been unable to get suitable ones. The council then adjourned for four wejks. A