THE TOWN HALL.

Grey River Argus, Volume LVII, Issue 10520, 29 January 1903, Page 4

THE TOWN HALL.

(To the Editor.) Sir, — In common, I suppose, with most ©tlier folks, I was astounded at the facts, figures, and fancies presented at the last meeting of our Municipal .Council. Probably nor. one in a hundred of our population knows what s«rt «f a building is proposed. Here is a brief, bald description : One hundred and sixty feet leng, one hundied and four feet deep, forty four feet high with a clock tower seventy two feet high. It contains the following rooms :— *Mus»unv42ft by 27ft. Ladies' room, 20ft by 17ft. Corridor. Library and reading room, 32ft by 17ft. Gallery. Ladies, dressing r«om, 15ft by 15ft. Spare room, 24ft by 15ft. Committee room, 40ft by 18ffc. | Vestibule and cloak room. Contractors' room, 18ft by 12ft. Streug room, 14ft by Bft. Map room, 24fc by Bft. Draftsman's room, 21 ft by 17ft. Borough Engineer's room, 18ft by 17ft. Tower room, 10ft by 10ft. ■ Public reading room, 34fb by 17ft. Coals, lavatory, etc. Librarian's room, 20ft by 17ft. Stage, 47ft by 25fb. TowaHall, 50ft by 47ft. .' (Let mo draw my breath said, Pantagruel. Go on, said Gargantua). ' Ticket room. Another vestibule Mayors room 15ft by 15ft Committee room, 24fb by 15ft. Council chamber, 40ft by 17ft. Strong room, (Da Capo) 14f b by Bft. Corridor. Town Clerk's ro:>m, 18ft by 17fc. Assistant Town Clark's room, 21ft by 17ft Lavatory, coals f tc, (Da Capo). Sundry corridors, nooks, oddments and easements. Employment of thefol'owingoffici-ls, } appears to'be contemplated, Draftsman | Borough Engineer, Librarian, Town Clerk, Assistant Town Clerk, who together with their messenger, etc, should form a staff which na*y vaguely be set down as costing anything frora two thousand ayiar and upward. The various reading rooms and library rooms cannot possibly be intended to accommodate the collection of books at present in our athenaeum, and its readers: such an idea is absolutely laughable. A sober moderate estimate of tho cost of an appropriate supply of literal ture is, say L 2,000, A clock worthy of the tower and worthy of telling the time to our Town Clerk and his fellow officials, may be set down as costing four hundred or five hundred pounds, — I approached this item with ignorance and awe ; but my guess my nob be far out. I Also probably, it would cost a pound a wei'k to wind uu, regulate and repair that is if ib is not struck by lightning and desu-oyed. tVe know that the Lord in His wrath smote Sodom and Gomorrha, and can an impudently extravagant and impecunious Borough escape altogether? The spare room is a peculiar item, and may be a bedroom for distinguished visitors, or merely the byeproduct of an exuberant imagination. After ' providing the library and

clock, there remain aboub thirty rooms to furnish. Will any one seriously quarrel with my estimate of one hundred pounds per room? Also, j what will be the cost of cleaning, j keeping in order and repair this huge caravanserai % And finally, who in the name of goodness is going to use it all? The original estimate and loan for the hall was, if I remember right, five thousand /pounds, including purchase and preparation of ground; Then the estimate was raised to seven thousand, and now the Town Clerk, authorised apparently by nobody at all, opens an envelope and out pops, like a jack-in-the-box, nine thousand pounds. And then .the tenders. Well might I Councillor Petrie stand aghasbj one could laugh were the situation nob so serious. Alaost insensibly, step by step, blindfold, we Lave beea led to the brink of a precipice. While really useful works are left undone, or unfinisiied, we are asked to sanction this almost criminal extravagance. At last meeting of the Council it was stated a final payment is due oh High Street bridge. Is it finished? Mauy a time and oft have I — not on the Rial to, but on the gloriously beautiful footpath of that bridge — plunged ancle de 'p in water. And how about that fifty pouruls that seem simply to have been ladled out in a fit of bonhomie, as it were? Our Mayor was wont to be caution?, levelheaded, and firm, and is so still, perhaps. No one has a greater respect for him than myself. Let him shake himself free from an extravagant, un>- • easooing, spectacular entourage, which seems to think we are a set of children pleased with pretty things and fireworks and damn the expense. He will have plenty of backers. I appeal to a!l^ sober-minded people to indicate unmistakeably that they will have none of this ruinous nonsense and reckless expenditure, but will on the contrary convert to their | vinws all and sundry at present engaged in borough expenditure, and if thrse a>e not amenable to reason then apply with rigor the pruning j knife. — I am, etc, Rody Etan.