HUTT BOROUGH AFFAIRS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 557, 12 July 1909, Page 6

HUTT BOROUGH AFFAIRS.

MR. W. H. RUSSELL'S VIEWS. THE QUESTION. OF DIVERSION. • ANOTHER ENGINEER;TO BE CALLED IN In view of the fact;that Mr. W. H. Rus-sell-was for tlie past two years a mombor of the Hutt Borough Council and DeputyMayor for the'last' fow months of tho term, as well as a candidate for tho Mayoralty, a reporter called on him to obtain his statement regarding certain borough financial and engineering-questions which seem to bo tho topic of the day at Hutt just now. Mr. Russell was somewhat diffident in expressing an opinion, in viow'of tho fact that ho was a defeated candidate at tho recent Mayoral election; which largely turned en tho question of tho loan works now being earned Out, but as tho Mayor (Mr. E. P. Bunny) had mentioned at a former meeting that ho (Mr. Russell) had ■ made'a statement that tho amount required to complete tho scwerago system would bo about £2500 ho consented to say something. " " Ho stated that/ho was vory gratified to seo that.tho report of the borough engineer camo out in tho. neighbourhood of £300 of tho estimate ho gave tho ratepayovs at a public mooting,, namely. £2803. Ifi all his dealings with tbo borougn engineer ho'(Mr. Russell) had found his estimates to bo invariably reliable, and he.hod no reason in this caso to: .doubt tho correctness of the figures. It must bo' borne in mind 'that tho amount allocated out of loan for drainage, sewerago, and sanitation was £20,400,'' which included an item of £3500 for tho diversion of tbo creeks north of the railway station, £3100 for the diversion of Everest's Crock, and £930 for surface drainage. There was also a contingency fund attached to that portion of tbo loan for engineering expenses and survoys in connection with tho Wholo of the loan proposals of £4000, leaving a sum to be devoted to sowago proper of about £18.000. It was admitted (ho said) that the creek diversion north of tho station was carried out within tho estimates, and in that connection, as that was tho first work inaugurated under day labour in connection with the loan proposals, it was interesting to note that it.was.at that, stage that the departure .was made by the then Mayor .(Major M'Donald)' and his council' from'contract to day labour. The consulting engineers said that their estimates were, based all through On the assumption that tho work .would be carried out .: by contract. I Speaking after the.completion of the divcri sion- of tho creeks' in September,: 1906, Majon M'Donald congratulated his council on tho successful completion of that portion of the ' work'in these : terms:—' ;'.-;' * . "Our own'engineer, Mr. Rix-Trott, is . the- person who supervised the building of these works, and it is to him that.the . .-.greatest credit is due. for this very efficient work; A meed of praise isalso duo •) ..to the consulting engineers, who .have .worked'in harmony with our engineer in tho matter.; -The work has been done by day labour." : Ho (Mr. Russell) would like to.know if, at, that date, the cdnsnltin'g engineei-s wore in. harmony with Mr.:,Rix-Trott over the construction of that .portion of tho work which was' done by .day labour,' how it came they had Bfiibo diverged in their opinion' with regard 'to ; 'that system as .'relating to the rest of'the'works ?■ .'-. - '•'"■.'■■'.■■■.'■ ■': ' •Exception, was -taken the of the -money supposed' to be ear-markod for Everest's; Creek,•.--' ..- 'That/matter; was reported .on .by...the consulting..engineers ]in January^BO&Vas followsi-^-'.'; ;•;'.; •-''>',' "The disposal, of the creeks south of '. the railway station. must ■, be considered. -At. present they did comparatively little harm as, after traversing the low-lying parts of the borough/ they flowed into ,; the ' Petono' Borough.; We understand . that' the Petono Council proposes to cut- '. an intersecting' drain parallel to-the: railway line from' 'White's 'LLin k to the ste, and .weare of opinion■■'that ■•'the' ex--•. /tension, of this dram northwards is the best' and onlyi practicable way-, to deal, with those Creoles. We therefore recbni- . mend" that the .two councils should co-' operate with" a view to arriving at an. equitable arrangement but, ,so far as Lower Hutt is- concerned, the matter is : not urgent, and*>riiay well ■be left in , abeyance for some years.".,: ... Although some £3100 was presumably set apart for the \divorsjon' of Everest's' Creek, it,.was quite clear in his ; (Mr.;RusselUs) opinion ;that the then Mayor .and' council had very little!intention of carrying out that wprki because tboy found that, on ijhe eve of. Major M'Donald's' leaving'. office: he ,set up a: coinmittee. to again go into the .question, : wHich brought down the following report, on March 12, ,1907:—'' •!.".', ■; ' "An inspection has been made of ; Everest's Qreek. The committee is of opinion that-before anything is done' the Petone.{ Council should be approached,:' ; .and.failing, a sohrbion they propose to • divert the creek: by means of a 'culvert . discharging at a/point in 'White's' Line ; West; and to utihso the balance of: the""• , money -.' in. draining the surrounding ■ dis- '?-. .tricV'- ."'.".-'.■ .;•;■ .. ' \ ... ;;.' ■; That;'was the first diversion of tho Everest Creek money, and' the'report'followed' the lines of the consulting engineers' report already - referred' to "': Thie incoming -council . Peterkin's) -.hold a conference with Petone without result, and in.his (Mr. EubseU'sJ'opinionthis'was a pity as, the money >having>beeh voted, tho work could" have been carried out on the same lines. ; Had the arTangeraent: been, arrived at, it would have :bcea; found, as it. was afterwards- found by his council, that the whole of the money proposed'to. be devoted to Everest!s Creek had .actually,' on ( March 31, 1907, been surface drainagb in other parts ?L n , •'''? ro - u g' i » .because the, accounts for 1906-7, the : last year of Major M!D6nald's oftw. showed that a sum • of no less than .£446j.had been spent on surface drainage, whereas, the/amount apportioned'in the loan was only £930. It was fair to assume that '■™° « xtra amount required was taken from the Everest's Creek inoney, and that the resolution which he had' referred to was passed by_ the-then council in order to' account for this excessive expenditure.' Had the conference been successful,! it would have been necessary for the council to have gone to the ratepayers for another loan for, the diversion of Everest's Creeks for the money was riot Thereto do the: work with. ' i - ,; '■'.;■ ,As to the statement : by'.- the consultins engineers that the balance-sheet did not represent tho correct state of' tho loan expenditure, he said that,' in both the balancesheets i for 190< and 1908, which bad been .duly passed by the. Auditor-General as correct, the loan expenditure was treated as one under the heading:'"£s2,ooo, drainage, '7o a n- » s " p £ ly > and improvement loan, •ti 'i i a PP ort ionment was made in either balance-sheet as to the various items which, it was stated,, appeared on the ballot paper, and in fact tho proposal! submitted to the ratepayers was a proposal to raise, the sum of £52,000, and the voting took place on that proposal. For the sako of conveni-ence,-the amount was set forth under the .various, headings.already mentioned, but, in his opinion, both Major M'Donald's' and the incoming council were quite justified in treating the whole of the loan as oriel as. it was evidently the opinion of tho Auditor-Gene-ral, and he bad no 'doubt that the, balancesheet, of the last year would also meet with his approval.; Y

Included in the.proposals the council took power to acquire'land for gravel and metal pits, but no money had been spent on this In.hi? opinion, there had been no diversion of moneys by his council at al[, and the cry raised had been nothing .but an election cry. , With regardto the sewage portion of the loan,' for which £17,800 was allocated ' hiß council;'when it went out of office, left a sum of nearly £11,000 in hand or uncalled up, The balance was represented by the work ;dono, and.he could not understand that, in yiow.of these figures, there could be anything liko the reported 'discrepancy of nearly £13,000. Either- tho consulting engineer's first estimate must have been inadequate or their present figures were misleading to explain this discrepancy in a ■work estimated to cost originally £17,800. An" increase, was ' granted ' by' Major ■M'Donald's council of Is. 'per day. to the employees at that time, which (according to illßonald}want an : amm. al' ovet.

£20 per week in tho cost of the work, Ho said that, at the timo of tho inoro&fto (January 16. 1007) thoro was no doubt that it would linVo a ncriotin effect on tho loan, as it> had boon estimated (it a Wage rate of Bs, per day. It would menn tlmt lliey would run short of money, and would hnvo to go to tho ratepayers for anolhor loan to llnish tho worltß. Jt wan always rontomplntod by him (Mr. IliiHsnll) that, at''tho end of tho loan, thoy would want a washing-up loan of between £2000 and £3000 on account of tho increase in tho wages, and also additions to tho pumping machinery and tho roscrvoir authorised by Major M'Donald, after consultation with tho engineers. Ho had tlio utmost confidenoo in tho worlt of tho borough engineer in his estimates; On tho question of day labour versus contract nobody who know tho history of certain works carried out in tho Hutt in recent years could have advocated a return, in.connection with drninngo works, to such a dangerous and expensive system as tho contract oystom had proved to tho Hutt ratepayers, Mr, Iliissoll also thought that a serious mistake had been mado in taking tbo discussion in committee, and in turning tho officers and tho press representatives out. Mr. Moason had asked him personally to give oridonco when tho inquiry began, but ho had declined unless tho inquiry was to bo open to tho public and tho press, _ "Needless to say," bo added, "Iheard nothing more f:om tho consulting onginoers on tho subject." Ae to supervision, Mr. Russell did n,ot caro to express an opinion, but ho would draw attention to tho fact that tho Hutt River Board's bakneo-sheot for 1908 showed an oxpendituro of £853 7s. Id. on protective works maintenance, whilo there was a charge of £163 16s. 6d. for survoys and engineering, and Mr. Mcason was tho engineer for the board that year. PROCEEDINGS IN THE .COUNCIL. Something of a "breeze" occurred at Friday night's meeting of tho Lower Hutt Borougn Council when tho reports.on the engineering department camo up for consideration. Councillor Baldwin considered that there had'boon a breach of privilcgo in banding Mr. Rix-Trott's report to Mr. Meaßon, as his (Councillor Baldwin's) copy was marked "confidential." , '~-.'■. : Tho Mayor replied that the understanding was that Mr. Rix-Trott would reply,early, bo that Mi. Moason would have an opportunity to reply further. , ' '• Councillor^Baldwin: I still consider it a breach of'privilege. Tho. Mayor; Do yon move a motion? , Councillor Baldwin: I move that the action adoptod is a breach of privilege. ; The Mayor: Get someone to second it. (A pans©.) Here is no seconder:it lapses. The question now ib : Shall wo deal with the. matter in. committee or shall I read it first?: I shall do so if - anyone wishes it. Councillor Macaskill moved, and Councillor Kcmptbome. seconded, that tho report be read.. ■• ■'. V'' , .;.'■.. The Mayor then proceeded to do } so. Ho also read a letter from Mr.. Marchant stating that he insisted on the -use of the artesian I water, and pumping it by. suction gas. With the'exception oi the engine-house; building, he. prepared all tho. plans and specifications for water supply, machinery, pipes, surface water disposal, septic tanks,. and sewerage details. Mr.. Rix-Trott countersigned ,and approved # these. Referring to the.drainage, work earned out by contractors, under supervision of his firm, he, points out that if. Mr. Rix-Trott's figures are correct'it would tako oloven months'to do'. 110 chajps. .Were tho remaining, twenty miles'of connections to be carried out at this rate, some thirteen years wouM elapse before they were completed. ; '.-. The,: Mayor moved that the-discussion proceed in" committee, as no : doubt many strong things would "be' said, and if was riot advisable that all shoiildib©:made public;' ' v • 'The motion to proceed; in committee was carried, Councillors Clere, Mowbray;'Anson, Pearce, and ■' Kemptho'rne voting in favour, and Councillors ■Baldwin,: Macaskill, Barlow, and Hayes against. ; ; \ - : \ ■' Messrs. Rix-Trott and Purser, the angineer; and town clerk, ;were'asked to leave lie council chamber. ' ■-■•-'•■■■" ■: ■_ : '•,, The discussion proceeded in ; committee, when'the council unanimously came -to a conclusion in, one; respect,'that the'expendi.ture. had been excossrve. '•'.- ; '■ . ; ' ," ' It was also decided to call in a fresh engineer to decide the'point' as to the cost of-excavating, the trenches. '" i, ' ■ ';/; "- •