CITY COUNCIL NEWS IN BRIEF

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29824, 17 May 1962, Page 15

CITY COUNCIL NEWS IN BRIEF

Two members of the Canterbury committe. of the National Historic Places Trust, Dr. R. S. Duff and Mr J. A. Hendry, have been invited by the City Council to inspect the house in Port Hills road bequeathed to the council by Miss Mary Duncan, to decide if its historic value, age. construction and condition warrant steps'- being taken to preserve the house for posterity to ‘show a typical early settler’s house The house on the property. “Earnbank.” is more than 100 years old.

Committee Clerk. — Mr W R. Davies, of the City Rate Collector’s staff, was appointed a committee clerk in the Town Clerk’s department. Mr Davies has worked for the council since 1947 and since 1952 has been in charge of the district electors’ roll and the recent conversion to the strip system. River Carnival.— A combined loss of more than £6OO on the river carnival held last year made future river carnivals unlikely, the Canterbury Public Relations Office advised the council. The organisations which met the loss were the office, the Canterbury Rowing Association and the New Brighton Power Boat Club. Picture Purchase. — "Tomatoes.” a pastel by by Julie* Peter, was bought by the council for the Robert McDougall Art Gallery for 15 guineas. It was displayed in the annual autumn exhibition of the Canterbury Society of Arts

Street Sweepers. Two sweepers at a cost of £4999 each were bought by the council One will be used for street and channel sweeping and the other for the sweeping of runways at the Christchurch airport. M.E.D. Manager.— Tributes to the work of Mr G. H Battersby, who is retiring from the position of general manager of the Municipal Electricity Department, were paid by councillors Although it was the last council meeting Mr Battersby will attend, he will have an official farewell early next month School Instruction.— The council decided to ask the Commissioner of Transport <Mr A E. Forsyth) for his views on the Transport Department taking over the whole of school instruction work in the city At present classroom instruction is given by the Transport Department and cycle inspections are made by the council’s traffic staff. As the two forms of education were so closely allied, the traffic committee said they should fall into one category. The practice in other centres was that the department provided all the school instruction.

Testing Station.— Mr H. J Macdonald, a member of the staff of the council’s vehicle testing station for 14 years

and senior vehicle inspector for the last five, was appointed supervisor of the new testing station in Cranford street. The traffic committee reported that it was expected that the station would begin operations about the middle of July.

Noxious Weeds. — As a result of the work of one officer, 1517 notices were served on land owners under the Noxious Weeds Act and the Municipal Corporations Act between October and April. 579 requiring the clearance of fire hazards and the other 988 requiring the eradication of noxious weeds, the chief city health inspector (Mr A. P. Millthorpe) reported. Tax-free Shop.—A sketch of the duty-free shop and store approved for the Christchurch airport was being prepared by Mr Paul Pascoe, the consulting architect, the airport committee reported. The cost of the alterations and additions was estimated at £l5OO to £2OOO.