WORKSHOPS NOT A PUBLIC BUILDING, COUNCILLORS SAY

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 July 1950, Page 2

WORKSHOPS NOT A PUBLIC BUILDING, COUNCILLORS SAY

[SPECIAL REPORTER] REEFTON, This Day.—Although councillors were opposed to the Minister’s decision to continue with the proposal to erect a workshops for the Mines. Department in the township, they were of the opinion that he had not yet received a petition that had been signed by--most of the ratepayers in the township, requesting that the proposal be not gone on with. Because of this, they were prepared to leave the matter in abeyance until such time as the Minister had received the petition, at which time they would renew their objections, if deemed advisable. This was the text of a decision reached by the Inangahua County Council when it received a letter from the Minister of Lands (Mr E. Corbett) pointing out that the council’s objection to the erection of a workshops on two sections in the town could not be upheld. The council also received a . letter from the member for the district, Mr C. F. Skinner, in which he stated that he would interview the Minister of Mines in an endeavour to see if some alternative site could not be found.

Not Education Reserve

in his letter, the Minister of Lands, said that the two sections on which it was intended to build _ the workshops were not education reserve. The areas had been permanently reserved for a site for a public building by a gazette notice issued in 1892, the letter stated. The council, therefore, had no right to object to the proposal. “It is a long 'stretch of the imagination to say that a workshops is a public building,” commented Cr P. J. O’Regan. The Minister had apparently not received a petition which had been forwarded, through the council, by ratepayers in the town, stated Cr J. Etheridge, adding that he did not think the Minister’s letter was a reply to the petition. “English Language Strained” “The department was instrumental in the closing of two tinsmith shops in this town,” Cr O’Regan asserted. “It would have been better if the department had allowed one of those men to remain in operation and its superfluity of trucks could have been serviced there. It is straining the English language to say that a workshops is a public building and the council should inform the Minister that it does not agree in the matter. There are about 300 acres available ‘at Burke’s Creek on which the department could have built its workshops without cluttering up the town.” The view that the Minister might reconsider the position after he had received the petition was expressed by the chairman, Cr C. Coxall, who went on to suggest the matter be left in abeyance until the Minister had an opportunity of receiving the petition. After further discussion, the chairman’s suggestion was adopted and no further action is to be taken in the meantime. Assistance Not Justified

A letter was received by the council from 1 the Under-Secretary of Mines, Mr C. H. Benney, in which he stated that there did not seem to be any justification for financial assistance from the Mines Vote for _ the construction of the proposed bridge over the Inangahua river to give access to a stand of timber, which could be used as mining timber. The letter was referred to Cr P. J. O’Regan, who is to frame a suitable reply.