UPPER AFFAIRS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 40, 17 February 1939, Page 18

UPPER AFFAIRS

The fortnightly meeting of the Upper Hutt Borough Council was held last evening. There were present Mr. P. Robertson (Mayor) and Councillors T. C. A. Rendle, W. W. Greig, H. Poison, J. Blewman, P. Gray, H. Lancaster, V. Richardson, and T. Clyma. >

The council declined a request from the Waiwhetu Golf Club for a reduction in the rates.

Mr. J. E. F. Vogel, on behalf of the Scout movement, thanked the council for the courtesy displayed in regard to the site for the Centennial jamboree.

Provided the total cost was not over £1000, the council agreed to pay 2.38 per cent, of the cost of a survey for a water supply to be made by the City and Suburban Water Board. Councillor Rendle remarked that their own water supply was not entirely satisfactory and the council would have to consider the board's scheme.

The Ratepayers' Association asked that the council should review the existing contract to supply residents of Heretaunga (outside the borough) with water, with a view to increasing the charge owing to the fact that ratepayers were now paying a higher rate. The Mayor stated that the amount paid by ratepayers had now been brought back to the same amount as was being paid when the contract was made and there was no unfairness. He moved that the association be so informed. The motion was carried, Councillor Rendle remarking that he would like the matter reviewed when the council was striking the rates. He would like to be assured that the contract was fair to the council. He was led to believe that it was more than fair to the council.

The Mayor: That is so. It was decided to meet a joint deputation from the Hutt Valley Cricket Association and the Upper Hutt Association to consider complaints regarding the wickets on Maidstone Park. The council overseer stated that the reports of bad wickets were misleading and that perfect wickets were not possible unless special soil was imported from outside the borough. The Fire Brigade thanked the council for a good water supply for practice purposes and for financial aid to attend the Wanganui competitions. The support of the council was given to regional planning -and councillors decided to attend a conference on March 1. The Mayor remarked however, that the bottle-neck at Taita Gorge effectively divided the lower from the upper valley. The Mayor reported that he was agreeably surprised that after the dry spell water was coming over the spillway at the dam. The Automobile Association approved the site for a camping ground.

"Ex-soldiers of Great Britain and France, Germany and Italy have done, are doing, and will do, their utmost to restrain—as far as they can—the inexperienced and thoughtless sections ot their fellow-citizens who lightly clamour for a solution of international disputes by means of war," said Mr Ramsbotham, the Pensions Minister, at Reigate, Surrey. "I have at the moment —20 years after the Great War—still on the books of my Ministry 420,000 pensioners, and 500,000 dependants. There are on any day in the year about 2000 patients in my hospitals," he added. "Had there been war recently it would have been a long one. By the time we had finished I should have wanted a very large share indeed in the total proceeds of the income tax to have discharged my obligations to the new pensioners."