DETAILS OF AGREEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 32, 8 February 1922, Page 8

DETAILS OF AGREEMENT

LEGISLATION REQUIRED,

Before the proposed Gas Board can be brought into being, it will be necessary to pass certain empowering legislation, but for the present the two councils have ratified an agreement providing that a joint committee, consisting of three members appointed by each corporation, together with a pereon selected from outside, shall act in an advisory capacity to the two local'bodies so far as the lighting of their respective boroughs by gas is concerned. COST PRICE OF GAS. The agreement stipulates that the joint committee shall decide, from information supplied by the; officers of. each local body, what is the actual cost of producing the gas made at the Petone Borough. Council's gasworks, which are to be retained for the supply of gas to Hutt and Petone, as at present.1 As from Ist March, 1922, the Hutt Borough Council is to purchase from the Petone Corporation all the gas required for consumption in the Lower Hutt at the price ascertained by the joint committee, in lieu of the price fixed by the agreement entered into on 4th November, 1913. The cost price is to be reviewed at intervals' considered by the joint committee to be fair and equitable, but the actual cost price for the month of January ie to be taken as the cost price until the review is made. Both parties to the agreement immedi- . ately undertake to promote a local Bill providing for the constitution of the Petone and Hutt Gas Board, for'the purpose of commencing manufacture and supply of gas within the area in which at, present either borougli council hag the right to supply gas. The Bill is to provide for the Board taking over the whole- of the gas-producing and distribufc-' ing plaDt, land, buildings, and stocks owned by both corporations. If Parliament or the Local Bills Committee makes amendments to the Bill, or adds fresh clauses, the joint committee is to decide whether the amendments or alterations will be acceptable to the parties concerned. '

CONSTITUTION OF THE BOARD. Tile Gas Board is. to consist of seven members. Three will be elected by fchs electors.ol Petone, and three by" the electors of Lower Hutt, and the election will take place on the day of the ordinary borough council polls. The seventh ■ member will be appointed by the elected members, but, in the case of a disagreement, the appointment is to 'be made by the Governor-General-in-Council." Until the day of the next local body elections following the constitution of the board, however, the Lower Hutt arid Petone Borough Councils shall ' appoint ' six members of the board, the seventh being elected by a majority of the votes of the other six.. The Govevnor-G-eneral-in-Council is to make the seventh, appointment in the event of no agreement being reached by the other members. The board will hold office for the same terra as, borough councillors (two years); retiring members will be eligible for reelection, ami the board will elect its own chairman, who will ]ia.ve a casting-vote, as" well as a deliberative vote. Rating powers are to be conferred on the boxi'd' as under the Local 'Bodies Loans Act, 1913. and its amendments, over the whole of the boroughs of Petono and Lower Hutt, and, after its constitution, neither of the borough councils shall exercise any authority for the manufacture of gas. Anyone eligible for election as a borough, councillor may contest a seat on the Gas

Board, the elected members of which shall make no restriction or qualification for the. seventh appointed member.

Immediately after its appointment, the joint committee shall arrange for a valuation d the plant, land, and buildings of tho two councils, to bo made by Mr. M. J. Kennedy, general manager of the Wellington Gas Company, or, if he is unable to act, by some other person. Such valuation, less the ascertained special loans and other liabilities of each council in respect of the same assets, shall be the price at which the board is to take over the plant and buildings. The board is to have pow«r to issue 5£ per cent, debentures to each council in respect of the purchase money, with a. currency of thirty years, but the debentures may be redeemed at any time by th 0 board on six months' notice. PAYMENT OF MEMBERS. The local Bill is to contain a provision giving authority to vote ordinary members of the board a fee of 10s 6dffor each meeting, and to vote the chairman £50 per annum. In the event of the amalgamation of the boroughs of Hutt and Petone the Gas Board shall cease to exist; and all its assets and liabilities, powers and authorities, shall, ipso facto, become vested in the council of the amalgamated boroughs.