THORNDON CLAIM

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 187, 6 May 1931, Page 6

THORNDON CLAIM

City Council and Esplanade

MR. STEVWRIGHTS REPLY Statements made in yeeteixlay’s “Dominion,” by the Mayor, Mr. G. A- Troup, and 1 “Ex-Councillor” regarding the> City Council’s claim on the Hanbour Boai for the taking over of the old Thorndon Esplanade were referred to by Mr. J- n. Sievwright at a meeting at Miramar last eV The S City Council had sacrificed Die interests of citizens for a mess of pottage, and the Mayor and retiring counml lors knew it, said Mr. Sievwright.. Mr. Troup now states that the city will be paid compensation for the When the Act stipulated that the com nensation to be paid by the Government was to be the cost of filling m a “ eoual to the seven acres, and whatever that compensation was it wa® to be I»>4 into a separate account and expended on other lands to provide a recreation for the people. The City Council in Mr. Troup’s time hypothecated that money, o some of it, for street-widening PJ’nwses. Mr. Sievwright said he never said there was any mystery about the transaction. It was the M.P. city councillor who said it was news to him and that ne had never known anything about it. , “Ex-Councillor” says there was no mystery or secret about the business,. Mr. Sievwright continued. But not one ..in a thousand of the ratepayers knew that the City Council had hypothecated . the money for the Esplanade and Spent it on street-widening, contrary to the act under which the reclamation was earned ° U Mr. Sievwright said his charge against the Council for hypothecating the money for recreation purposes to some other purposes not sanctioned by the Act referred to, still stood unrefuted to the satisfaction of anyone who had read the Act.