TRAMWAY EXTENSION

Gisborne Times, Volume L, Issue 5072, 15 January 1919, Page 6

TRAMWAY EXTENSION

MR. LYSNAR’S OFFER.

MEETING "OF PUBLIC COMMIT-

TEE.

BOROUGH COUNCIL’S ACTION CONDEMNED.

The Committee set up at the public meeting held in the Opera 'House, in March, 1918, in connection -with the .immediate extension of the trams, met yesterday to • consider the action by the Council at it)s meeting held on 17th December. 1918, in disregarding its prior arrangements with Mr. W. D. Lysnar. The following resolution was adopted unanimously:

“This Committee approves of the whole action of Mr. Lysnar in this matter, and also approves of the letter he is forwarding to the Council, and deplore the fact th \Jb the Council diid not complete the arrangements made with Mr.. Lysnar, and which the Council had specifically agreed to by their resolutions, and that in the opinion of this Committee until the burgesses of this town return a Council who will honor the basis of agreements come to, it is hopeless to expect any _ buisiness progress in the completion of the Tram system.”

MR. LYSNAR AND COUNCIL

NEGOTIATIONS REVIEWED.

The suggestion that Mr. W. D. Lysnar should carry out the tramway extensions ' and that the £27,000 set aside for the purpose should be utilised for the extension came to nothing as a result of the Council deciding not to go on with the negotiations. The matter was discussed at last night’s meeting of the Borough Council—the ' Mayor (Mr. W. G. Sherratt) presiding—when the following letter was received from Mr. Lysnar:— Dear Sir, —I was very much surprised on reading the press report of your last Council meeting regarding the above matter to see that in effees it had broken faith with the arrangementfe it had made with me and threw over all our past negotiations, and that you had decided to get your new Borough Engineer to draw up fresh specifications, aiid also that you personally, had suggested that if I so wished I could then tender for the work. Under these circumstances i have no alternative hut to state that I have ; . no intention whatever of tendering' as you suggest, and that it is quite useless for me to have any further negotiations with your Council irt'the matter. It is quite evident that there ar e some on the Council who are desirous of obstructing the proper completion of the tramway. In fairness both to myself and the Borough there are a few matters which in closing I wish to place ' on record '.showing that vour Council must shoulder th e full responsibility for the arrangements with myself not having bee?i carried through.. In response to vour Council’s letter dated 26th April. 1918, requesting me to make a specific offer regarding the extension of the tramway system I wrote on 15th May, 1918 setting out the full terms and conditions. Then on 22nd May at your Council’s request. I attended a special meeting of the Council and the following is an extract of your minute of that meeting- at page 491 the--resolutions being carried unanimously:— “Adjourned meeting of the Gisborne Borough Council held on Wednesday, 22nd May, 1918, at 2 p.m., there being present the Mayor and all the Councillors. “Th e meeting was held to consider toe question of Tramfi with Mr Lysnar. who was present to discuss the subject. “Mr. Lysnar stated that lie would lay all the rails in hand (about 4f miles) and purchase thenrolling stock as set out in liis offer for £27,000 and complete the whole of the work within ‘seven months to the satisfaction of the Public Works Department, also he would make up any loss on the running cost of the system for a term of three years (Sinking Fund not included). Mangapapa section to be the first undertaking. “Proposed by Or. Wauchop, seconded by Or. Tucker and carried. ‘That tin agreement be drawn up on the basis tys agreed upon abov e by the Borough Solicitors embodying clauP.es to protect the Council, such agreement to be approved by Mr. Lysnar’s Solicitors. “Proposed by Cr. Wauchop, seconded by Cr. Wildish and carried, ‘That Mr. Lysnar be thanked for his_ offer and "the whole Council assist in the projects. The matter was then passed over to the solicitors, certain difficulties were subsequently raised, and it again on 11th June, 1918. came l>efor e the Council, and a second time my term;* were agreed to, and so far as I understood. final completion was delayed owing to the refusal of the ActingMinister of Finance to give his consent to the work being proceeded with until 2nd December, when the Minister of Finance himself consent's you are aware, and the records also show, it was my desire and request that your Borough Engineer should draw the specifications, but ad he refused to do so. after a considerable amount of trouble and expense. .1 had them preoared with the aporoval . of the Counci’s Committee. An my. letter addressed to; you on this subieet when f "’-'•aiding you the spcci- • fontiohis on 19 th July last' I * follows : —“I would suggest that you ’ the Borough Engineer to go over these -drafts and settle them upon the

lines arranged in case there are any omissions or defects, then have them submitted to Mr. Armstrong for his approval upon the distinct understanding that the whole of these specifications are subject to any final alterations or conditions the Engineer-in-Cliief, Wellington, may direct and consider neceslsary.” So far as I am aware your Council carried out this suggestion, for in the- press report of your meeting of 30th July last the following appears: “Mr. Lysnar submitted' specifications for tram extension and it was decided the Engineer should go through same with Mr. Armstrong and Council’s Engineer to see that the Council’s interests are protected.’/ These specifications were submitted toy your Council to Mr. Armstrong, and he in turn submitted them to the Engineer-. in-Ghief, Wellington, who approved of all with _ the exception of extra . tie rods being provided in the case of the line filing laid down in concrete, which 1 bad no objection to whatever. I would alsk why the Council have all this work don e if- they intended to ignore it in the manner they did at their last meeting? I desire to place plainly on record that all along I have been prepared to conclude a strict binding contract in terms of my arrangements with the Council, as shown by its minutes, and on 23rd September last I specially wrote asking you to see that more energetic steps were taken to obtain the Minister’s consent, with the object of course of getting the contract proceeded with. In response to this I received a reply stating the I ram way Committee would take steps in the matter. , _ , -The extra rolling stock I was to provide comprised 2 large cars Uneluding one on order) and 2 small/ ones and if necessary an extra batterv’for on e of the existing cars, and if the £27,000 did not dp the stipulated minimum work specified I was to complete it at my own cost. —The Mangapapa route was _to be completed first and not the Wainui route, which you stated at your last Council meeting it was mv desire to see first done. While my minimum guarantee limited the length of new line to the extent of the rails m stocic I anticipated I could have completed the full length of line to within a few chains of the Haumanatua Creek at Wainui ah well as to Winter Street, Mangapapa. • Under these circumstances it shouia be quite plain vour Borough was not running any risk in the mattei, but that I was taking it all. especially as I was to maintain the whole work and service for three years after completion. Notwithstanding the fact that your Council twice agreed by resolutions to my proposals the. whole arrangements are now being ignored by it. and in the interests . of thi6 long-suffering Borough, which authorised this tramway construction as far back as the 20th December, 1909, just over ten years ago, I trust 'your Council will now see that some better result is obtained than would have been the. case with my proposals, which, I regret to say, have been turned down in such an unbusinesslike manner. I consider the negotiations so far as they have gone have given me more trouble than if I had carried the whole work through, which I say unquestionably would 1 have been an accomplished fact by now j*?d your Council adhered to its first decision in May last and again in June, and then given me a. free hand to negotiate for the Minister’s consent, as I specially stated and desired in my correspondence. I am. Tours faithfully. (Signed) W. DOUGLAS LYSNAR.

THE DISCUSSION.

COMMUNICATION “RECEIVED.”

The Mayor.: I am not going, to wade throiigh Mr. Lysnar’s letter. Cr. Wauchop moved that the letter should be received. . .‘ '

The Mayor said it was absurd to tliink that any borough should allow a contractor to draw u]f his own specifications.

Cr. Coleman said the Council had lost a really good opportunity. Cr. Wildish said lie felt sorry that they did not renew tlie negotiations with Mr. Lysnar. He believed that if Mr. Lysnar had got any assistance from the late 'engineer a good deal would have been done. The Council should go on with the extension immediately and he believed that the Mangapapa extension would be a route which would pay handsomely. He did not think the Council had treated Mr. Lysnor in a gentlemanly manner by breaking off the negotiations withont reference to Mr. Lysnar.

Cr. Mouat said that it was never intended that the Council should let Mr. Lysnar have the contract. The Mayor said it would offer it to .him but did riot say it would close with him.

Cr. Wildish said that tlie Councillors were sincere.

The Mayor said that if they could have made a binding contract with Mr. Lysnar he could have had the contract.

Mr. Wauchop said that Cr. Mount had distinctly mis-stated the farts when he said , the Council was not sincere in the matter. Ea<jh time the Committee got Mr. Lysnar to a certain point another one was raised. Mr. Lysnar abhorred tlie terms of the contract that the solicitors for the Council wanted to enforce in tlie interests of the ratepayers. The-motion that the. letter should be ‘’received” was carried.