ENGINEER FOR UPPER HUTT

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 74, 21 December 1937, Page 7

ENGINEER FOR UPPER HUTT

Proposal Unsupported

There was no seconder for a motion proposed at last night’s meeting of the Upper Hutt Borough Council by Cr. F, Castle that applications be invited for the position of borough engineer at a salary of £425 per annum, rising by three increments of £35 to £530, applicants to be registered engineers, hot over 40 years of age, and duties to commence April 1, 1938, or as soon after as possible. Cr. Castle said that costly blunders could be made or expensive delays result through lack of proper organisation. He was not inferring "that any serious trouble had occurred in-the past because there was no engineer or that the district had suffered through the absence of such a permanent officer. He knew the mayor and other councillors were entitled to a great deal of' credit for nursing the district from the infant stage to its present position. He did not introduce the motion in any critical spirit or with any implication that the present service was in any way incompetent. The district had arrived at a stage when it needed the services of a fully-qualified engineer or its permanent staff. The outside services of the borough which an engineer should handle were now under the control of several, men, none of which could be said to be borough engineers in the proper sense of the word. The council was obliged to carry on work involving considerable expenditure with the assistance of an outside consulting engineer to come to the borough when thought required. That position was not adequate to meet the need that now existed.

Last year, the council spent £OOOO on outside services; in the coming year it was going to continue the spending of £ll,OOO on kerbing and channelling works, of which sum £6OOO was a capital charge raised by loan and the balance of over £5OOO was Government subsidy. It was unfair to the State and to the ratepayers who had to foot the bill for the Joan moneys that money should be spent in a somewhat haphazard way. If a mayor or chairman of a committee was prepared to go along and undertake work involving a considerable amount of money without the direction of a fully-qualified engineer, then he was not doing his duty to the borough. It had been put to him that he should defer his proposal and leave it to the new council of next May, but it was a poor argument to suggest "passing the baby.” The mayor: It is a pretty general opinion through the borough. “I am glad to have had the opportunity of moving it,” said Cr. Castle, when there was no seconder to his motion