DEPUTATION TO THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2685, 25 September 1871, Page 2

DEPUTATION TO THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL.

This afternoon a deputation, consisting of Messrs Walter, A. R. Hay, Brown (of Brown, Ewing, and Co.), and Lowry, waited upon the Mayor and City Council, to present the following petition from the ratepayers : “That at a public meeting held at the Masonic Hall on the 11th hist., convened by the Mayor, at the request of 250 of the ratepayers, the following resolutions were passed, viz. : “1, That the present monopoly of the supply of gas to the City of Dunedin, without statutory protection to the consumers in regard to the regulation of price, efficiency, and purity of supply, is detrimental to the public interest. “2. That it is expedigpt tjie supply of gas to the City of Dunediu be undertaken by the Corporation. “3. That a committee, consisting of Messrs Barker, Hay, Walter, Lowry, Watson, and Brown, be now formed for the purpose of preparing a petition to the City Council, and getting the' same signed by the citizens, praying that the Council give immediate effect to the foregoing resolutions in such manner as, iu their wisdom, they may deem fit. ” Mr Walter said the deputation waited on his Worship and the Council at the request of a large number of ratepayers to present a petition signed by no less than eight hundred persons, requesting the Corporation to take the supplying the City with gas into their hands. He wished the Corporation to look upon them as ratepayers, not as private consumers, for as much as one-third of the City revenue was paid for lighting, which wasnotoriously badly done. Asa case in point iu consequence of the bad lighting of the streets and waste, the Corporation offices cost 20s a thousand feet of gag to light. Thp object of the deputation was to ask the Corporation to take the matter into consideration ; and though a magnanimous offer was made to private consumers, that ought not to alter the determination of the Corporation.

On tls' motion of Mr Livingston, the petition waareceived andxeferred to the Light* ing Committee, with Instructions to report as possible.