ACTION AGAINST COUNCIL

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22112, 7 June 1937, Page 8

ACTION AGAINST COUNCIL

COURT INJUNCTION TO BE SOUGHT MEETING OF OPAWA RESIDENTS MONEY RAISED TO MEET LEGAL COSTS INVOLVED A decision to seek an injunction in the Supreme Court to restrain the Christchurch City Council from allegedly creating a nuisance if it continues with its proposal to dump refuse was made at a meeting held at the site of the Opawa dump yesterday morning. A total of approximately £ls was contributed toward a fund for the purpose by 30 persons out of the 60-odd at the meeting, and a canvass of the rest of the district was arranged. Three motions were passed by an open-air meeting, which was held close to the site of the dump in Ombersley terrace, and an inspection of the> area was made afterwards. The only signs of dumping at present are old tins and rubble in part of a low-lying section off the terrace, where there is also an artesian spring. The meeting was convened by the Opawa-Hillsborough Burgesses Association, the chairman of which, Mr G. J. Bryce, presided. The association had been urged by the ratepayers to arrange for a protest to be made against the dump, he said. Mr L. A. Jarden, secretary of the association, said that they had taken the matter up in 1929, when they advocated to the council the purchase of the area as a playground and park, and they had heard nothing further until the council announced that it was going to makei a dump there. They would be quite satisfied if the dump was filled up with dry rubbish and made into a park. Offer of School for Meeting: A suggestion that the council should call a public meeting in Opawa to state its case and to hear the protests of the residents was put forward by Mr F. H. Dephoff and carried. Mr Dephoff said he represented the Opawa School CommitI tee and the Burgesses' Association. The school committee had decided to invite the council to explain the position. What it objected to was indiscriminate dumping. If the City Council could produce evidence to show that such dumps would be satisfactory the committee would be content; but the council had yet to produce the evidence, and so the committee had decided to place the school at the disposal of the council if it wished to call a public meeting. He thought they should take a broader view than had been adopted by the chairman of another body in an outlying district. Mr J. McCullough, a member of the Christchurch City Council from 1911 to 1916, said he did not agree wiith Mr Dephoff. The meeting had been called to protest against the council's dumping refuse there. He had had experience of the council's work, and therefore wanted the protest against rubbish being dumped anywhere in Christchurch to the detriment of the health of the people. He failed to see where the council was going to obtain anywhere in Christchurch sufficient soil to cover the dumps except at great cost. The whole scheme was, he thought, a "blind." ' "For many years *here have been complaints about the smoke nuisance from the destructor," continued Mr McCullough, "but I know that most of these have come from the staff of the Municipal Electricity Department, who have to shut their windows and do not like it. The destructor is nearly burned out. Why did the council not put the matter before the whole of the ratepayers instead of poisoning the air with dumps it Is creating?" Mr McCullough moved: That this meeting of ratepayers and residents of Opawa and district emphatically protests against the council's proposal to dump refuse in the city area without, first having it burned, and demands that the council refrain from putting such a scheme into effect. The motion was seconded by Mr C. Pope and carried, with a request that it also be forwarded to the Minister for Health, the Hon. P. Fraser. False Economy Alleged Mr Hiram Hunter said that for 20 years certain men had been trying to get. the destructor removed in their own interests. The couacil was making a sad mistake in abolishing it from an economy point of view, as there was £30.000 worth of machinery there in good order which would have to be scrapped. The destructor had saved the city thousands of pounds through its lighting plant, yet it was proposed to do away with it. He had noticed that the Mayor, Mr J. W. Beanland, said he would erect a fence costing £6OO at Spreydon. He wanted to know who gave the Mayor authority to say that? As he understood it, the powers of the Mayor went no further than to preside over the council's deliberations and carry them out. He suggested the holding of meetings in every district, as the whole city would be affected by the proposal. Mr L. Hollings, president of the Spreydon Burgesses' Association, said he had come to the meeting by invitation. He did not think Mr Dephoff had intended a personal attack by his remarks. In Spreydon dumping had been going on for some months, and he had been approached by the residents to take some action. There was a minute on his association's books which gave him authority to act, and after making objections to the Mayor he had called the meeting to be held next week. "My plan is to move an injunction in the Supreme Court against the council for creating a nuisance. With your help that can be done, and we can establish a prima facie case to stop them. I am going to fight the council on this issue. It is not just a dump they are making; it is an insidious attempt to change the system of disposing of refuse." The chairman said that it had been established that a number of virulent bacterial diseases were carried by flies. Another point was that the council had advertised some of the Opawa land for sale and a park did not seem likely to materialise. Another to be considered was that any consulting engineer could remove the smoke nuisance from the destructor if the council was willing to have it done, and at a small cost. After Mr Hollings had explained that he hoped to raise funds in Spreydon from the meeting this week, Mrs Reay moved that a fund be established in Opawa to get an injunction. The motion was seconded by Mr J. Goddard and carried. The fund was handed to the secretary of the Burgesses' Association for that body to take any action necessary or return the money if the council abandoned its proposals.