PETONE AFFAIRS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1075, 14 March 1911, Page 6

PETONE AFFAIRS.

RATING RELIGIOUS PROPERTY. The ordinary meeting of the Petone Borough Council was heH last evening, there being present: The Mayor (Mr. J. W. M'Ewan), and Councillors Southgaie, Piper, Harding, Brocklebank, Young, and Jones. The borough engineer submitted a plan for the proposed new bathing shed, providing for 31 dressing boxes, shower baths, caretaker's room, and ladies' retiring room, at a cost of .£ISOO. It was estimated, on an average of 140 bathers per day for five months, at Id. each, that the revenue would lie .£BS 155.; interest at 41 per cent, would absorb ,£67 10s.; leaving ,£lB ss.- for caretalcing. Tho matter was deferred, for consideration by the incoming council. In reply to a question by the council as to whether certain properties adjoining tho Catholic School, acquired by tho Sisters of Notre Damo do Missions, and occupied by them for residential purposes, were exempt from rating on tho ground' that they formed part of a school not carried on exclusively for pecuniary gain, the borough solicitor (Mr. R. C. Kirk) gave it as his opinion, expressed at length, that the residential properties in question were not exempt from rates. On the motion of Councillor Piper it was resolved that tho Sisters of the Mission bo informed, with regret, that according to the opinion of its legal adviser the council had no power to grant the exemption in question. With reference to tho question, raised at a previous meeting, in connection with the basis of proportionate representation defined for contributory bodies in the control of tho Petone Technical School, which question was submitted to the Education Department for elucidation, the Department replied to tho effect that the number of managers representing, a body contributing to.the funds, of associated classes in any ono year was 'determined by the proportion which the contributions paid by that body . bore to those of other bodies. The contribution of the Petono Council was ,£25, while that of the Lower Hutt was .£3O. The contributions of the various bodies miglit, further, so vary in any particular year, as to alter the proportion of representation existing in, say, the previous year. Contributions to be taken into account for the determination of the proportion of representation of tho contributory bodies concerned must, it was added, have been received during the year ending December 31 of the year, previous to the date upon which the .elections were to beheld. The Mayor remarked, after he had read the letter, that it was rather vague. In fact, it had been a bit of a Chinese puzzle to him. The actual numerical basis of membership was not indicated. A councillor: The Hutt Council one year paid nothing by way of contribution, yet were given representation. The Mayor: That is so. It was generally, agreed that the whole question of representation on the Board of Managers called for revision, and that the Department should state more ■definitely how tho basis of representation should bo fixed. The council proposes to investigate the matter further. The Wellington Rugby Union, in a letter to the council, asked for a definite statement of the. position regarding the union's application for a lease of playing grounds. It was decided to inform* tho union that the draft lease had now been prepared, and that the Mayor and one of the councillors had been authorised to sign on behalf of the council.