LOCAL MATTERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 137, 11 June 1909, Page 4

LOCAL MATTERS.

CITY COUNCIL BUSINESS. The City Council met last evening for special purposes, and also for the disposal of ordinary business which Avas held over from last week. There were present : The Mayor (Dr. Newman), Councillors W. H. Morrah, G. Shirteliffe, R. Fletcher, T. Carmichael, J. E. Fitzgerald, J. J. Devine, A. R. Atkinson, J. 'Trevori D. M'Laren, G. Frost, T. Ballinger, F. Cohen, J. Smith, and J. P. Luke. FINANCE AND PROPERTY. The Finance and Property Committee recommended : (1) That the request ot the Wellington Technical Education Board for tho grant of £100 towards the purchase of apparatus for the electrical classes at tha Technical School, and an increase of £50 per annum in the council subsidy, be granted. (2) That the further application of a person for a loan to can-} out drainage to his premises, be not granted. (3) That the request of Mr. W. A. Alexander for a series of Sunday evening organ recitals on the Town Hall organ be not acceded to. (4j That the recommendations of the City Engineer with reference to the disposal of household and trade refuse at the destructor, and the proposed schedule oi lees for such services, be adopted, the date on which accounts for the disposal of trade refuse shall be paid to be altered from 15th to 20th of each succeeding month. (5) That the recommendations ot the City Engineer with respect to the disposal of dead horses be adopted (the New Zealand Candle Company, at Kaiwarra, agree to receive and kill all derelict horses and receive the. remains ot dead horses)-. (6) That the recommendation 'of the' City Engineer with respect to the disposal of fish offaJ to the New Zealand Candle, Company be adopted. (7) That the council return' the "deposit ot £500, which was lodged with O'Donnell "and Co. 's tender, for the erection of the W&inui dam. (8) That the floors of the rooms in which the Town Hall organ bellows are situated be strengthened in accordance with the City Engineer's report, at an estimated cost of £5 or £6. Regarding clause 5, Councillor Fletcher objected to the 'proposal that the council should be asked to confirm a scale of charges that never had been submitted to it. The Mayor remarked that the proposed fees were very small. Tho list was handed to Councillor Fletcher, and he remarked, after perusal of it, that the charges were only nominal Councillor Shirtcliffe thought that shopkeepers should be treated the same as householders were ; it< was unfair to make them pay for what householders got free. Councillor Cohen moved, as an amendment, that the word "household" be struck out of clause 5, but this failed to find a seconder. Councillor M'Laren commented that the disposal of trade refuse was part and parcel of a business, and the customers were the ones who really did the paying. Councillor Smith said that ordinary sweepings of a room were not objected to : it was the case of cartloads of trade refuse that was in view. Regarding clause 8, he commented that very good reasons should be advanced for refunding £500 to any contractor who failed to carry out his undertaking. The Mayor remarked that there was the very good reason that the council had the best of legal advice that it had no right, under the special circumstances of the case, to retain the deposit. The report was adopted. OUTLYING DISTRICTS. The Outlying Districts Committee recommended :—(1): — (1) That the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals be informed thct the council cannot see its way clear to accede to its request to make a road at the "Run Round," in Happy Valley, and that it be pointed out to the society that, as the Marine Department is receiving all the royalties from the carters, the society should communicate with the department. (2) That the council takes no further action in reference to the complaint >of Mr. Luff, of Vogeltown, with respect to the formation of Short-street, as all the filling on his sections agreed upon by the City Engineer has been carried out. It was proposed, as an amendment, that clause 2 be referred back to the committee, but on a division this was rejected. The report was adopted. The Engineer approved of the Kel-biu-ne Estate-road being taken over, a certain barrier having been removed. POWER STATIONS AND TRAMWAYS. This committee recommended :—(1): — (1) That the City Engineer be instructed to j proceed with the erection of the sheltershed on the footpath on the south side of Lambton-quay, alongside the Public Works Department workshops. (2) That | the request of Mr. W. H. Fordham, for the erection of a tramway shelter-shed at the city boundary at Miramar be not acceded to. (3) That the Commissioner of Police be asked whether his department will undertake the regulation of the vehicular traffic of the city at the main streets and junctions. (4) That the decision of the committee somo time ago, to allow only those teachers' at the Training College who are receiving a salary or allowance of under £25 per annum concession tram tickets, be reaffirmed. (5) That accounts amounting to £2943 8s lOd bo passed for payment. The committee reported that they had fully considered tho claim of Mr. Amos in connection with his patent trolleyheads and ear-protector, and had heard the statement of the claimant and the officers of the department. They recommended that the claim be not entertained. — Agreed to. LIBRARIES. The Libraries Committee recommended :—(1): — (1) That authority be given for the payment of accounts, amounting to £42, for special fittings at the Newtown Library. (2) That tenders be called for the bookbinding work of the libraries for a period of one year. (3) That the committee had gone carefully into an account received from tho Tramways Department for £454, for the installation of electric light at the Newtown library, and now recommended that the account be ppttled by a payment of £3893s 9d, which the EJectrical Engineer recommended as being a fair charge.-— Agreed to.