CROMWELL BOROUGH ENDOWMENT

Evening Star, Issue 21821, 10 September 1934, Page 2

CROMWELL BOROUGH ENDOWMENT

THE LEASE NEGOTIATIONS A further step forward iu negotiations in connection with the lease of the Cromwell Borough Endowment was made at the monthly meeting of the Cromwell Borough Council, held on Thursday evening, A considerable amount of correspondence on the subject had lain on the table for two meetings, and in the interim Mr P. R. Sargood met the council at an informal meeting, when he outlined the whole history of the Cromwell Development Company, reading press reports of meetings in Cromwell twenty-one years ago, and suggesting the desirability of a special committee to go into the whole position. Mr Sargood also stated Jus company would abide by the finding of such a committee. When the matter of the renewal of the lease was introduced by a further letter from the Cromwell Development Company Ltd. the subject provoked quite a lively discussion, finishing with a victory for a section of the council representative of mining interests. Cr J. L, Stewart Wright moved that the whole of the correspondence on the matter be handed over to the council’s solicitors, and that the company be advised to that effect. In doing so, Cr Wright said it was an old axiom that the man who was his own solicitor had a fool for a client, and there were legal aspects of the situation that.he, for one, did not feel competent to deal with. He was pleased at the attitude taken'up by the Minister of Mines in insisting on further stipulations before it was considered proper to advise His Excellency to consent to a disposition of Endowment Lands, which, on the face of it, appeared to be ultra vires. Cr Wright contended that because a council twenty-one years ago acted contrary to the public interest it was no reason why the error should be carried on in perpetuity. The borough lands now, he contended, had assumed a high prospective value, because of the observations of the geophysical survey, and at the present moment the Cromwell Flat was merely a camouflaged, scheme of land aggregation. Cr Wm, Murray, in seconding the motion, said he thought the council j having already. instructed the solicitor in the matter, should leave issue inhis hands. : The proposal evoked a good deal oif lively discussion, during which Cr Yeoman suggested that the Government should be urged to bore Cromwell Flat and determine once and for all the gold content. Cr Brown ridiculed the idea of gold, and said that if mining interests were anxious to get the endowment, why did they not attend the sale and bid for it. There had been movements since then,” replied Cr Wright, and further he urged that the fear of the endowment being thrown back'on the council’s hands was a mere bogey. If the way was clear there would be no difficulty in getting private interests to bore the flat. The motion to refer the correspondence to the solicitors was carried, Cr W. Brown dissenting.