THE PROPOSED NEW WORKS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 88, 11 October 1921, Page 2

THE PROPOSED NEW WORKS

MATTER BEFORE LOWER HUTT

COUNCIL

RECONSIDERATION REFUSED-

The Lower Hutt Borough Council had before it last evening a "letter fiom the Hutt Ratepayers' Association concerning a resolution, stated to have been carried at a public meeting, asking that the whole question of erecting gasworks be reconsidered. The letter stated that the association proposed to wait upon, the council on 24th October for the purpose of presenting a petition praying that the erection of works be stopped, with a view to entering upon a new agreement with Potone. The Mayor (Mr. E. P. Rishworth) said that no resolution had been passed at the public meeting. ! Councillor Meldrum moved that the letter be held over until the-24th inst., when the council would have the petition before it. Councillor. M'Bain moved as an amendment: — That the council has given every consideration to the question, and gone into the matter very fully, and sees now no reason to pause in the erection of its gasworks. Councillor Hobbs said he would support the motion. The opposition to tne\ gasworks was going to be very solid, and some notice should be taken of the petition. The Mayor said reflections had been cast on the. council and the Mayor that' they had not brains enough to give the question full consideration, and also that the expert was not capable. The position was being grossly misrepresented by persons who did not know anything about it. He took strong exception to the. present campaign, and would take the opportunity of stating that opinion to the deputation. It was most unfitting that the Mayor of Petone and the Petone Borough Solicitor should come into the borough and start a detraction of the work of. past Mayors, some of whom were dead; and it was disgraceful • that after the Mayor of Petone had been allowed to speak at the public meeting the Mayor of Lower Hutt should not have been allowed a failhearing. . Councillor Cotton said he had been accused of shuffling on the gas question, but he had been quite satisfied for months past that it was impossible to come to, an arrangement with Petone. Petone had been too late in making its offer. He was now in favour of erecting their own works. ~% The Mayor then dealt with several phases of the question as reported in Saturday's Post, stating that someone had been contemptible enough to assert " that somebody had found it good business to raise the, money." He desired to say that no brokerage was' paid on the loan. In connection with Councillor Anderson's statement, which he alleged was misleading, he said the voice was the voice of Jacob, but the hand was the hand of Esau. Petone had said it was looking at the matter from a different angle now, and that\was true. ' Why were they now so anxious for Lower Hutt's welfare? The truth was they were concerned because they were losing the business. Councillor M'Baiii's amendment . was carried, the voting being:.. For. the amendment — The Mayor, Councillors Dcmpsey; West, Cotton, Brasell, and "M'Bain, Against—Councillors Hobbs, Strand, Mitchell, and Meldrum.