THE DRAINAGE SCHEME.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume II, Issue 104, 13 April 1881, Page 4

THE DRAINAGE SCHEME.

(concluded from third page.)

that Mr. Miller had proposed had since been done. As a ratepayer of Hawera, he (Mr. Claridge) thought it the wisest thing the Board could nave done was to appoint Mr. Foy. They had only to look for an illustration of the folly of the present method of doing things by taking a glance, after a fall of rain, at the street where ,he lived himself (Eegent street.) Mr. Foy said, as he pointed out in a paragraph in the report, it was not necessary to do all the work at once ; "but it was well to have the plans whenever they were required. Mr. Lynch did not see what ratepayers had to do with the matter. The members of the Town Board "were placed in that position by the ratepayers, and if they employed an engineer, they ought to pay him. Mr. iFoy had done his work, and he ought to be paid for it. But the new members of the Board should know all about the agreement. Nothing ought to be kept back from them. There appeared to be some hole-and-corner work, and it should be explained. Mr. Foy — Whoever says that there might be a hole-in-the-comer, I can assure this meeting that I know nothing of it. Mr. Lynch replied that no person would think Mr. Foy guilty of doing anything wrong, but there was something that had not been made plain, and the Chairman of the Town Board ought not to keep anything back from the racepayers. The Chairman said there was nothing hidden, nothing wrong. If there was any blame attached to the appointment of Mr. Foy, he was quite prepared to take his share of it. If there was, on the other hand, any honor, it would have to be shared by others. His stay amongst them would probably not be very long, and "he was sorry to find that there was an attempt to place a slur upon his public character. He was sure that, as long as lie lived, lie would see no cause to regret having made the appointment. He could pity those who attributed motives to him. At first he (the chairman) had been Warned for the appointment of Mr. Foy ; but the parties who said so had been foiled when they found that Messrs. W. Dingle and Duffill, who Lad always the welfare of the town at heart, had gone with him. When Mr. Foy was appointed, it was necessary to lay off two streets, and the expense was saved by making the appointment. (Applause.) Mr. McCutchan said that no one for a moment ever imagined that Mr. Foy acted in any other way than that of an honorable man. It was not so much to the appointment, as to the manner in which it was brought about, that he (Mr. McCutchan) objected. If the ratepayers would allow him to speak, he would tell them all about it, and they could then judge for themselves whether he was right or not. On the 6th of December, Mr. Duffill said he thought a consulting Engineer should be appointed, and lie proposed a resolution to that effect. He (Mr. McCutchan) had asked Mr. King to produce the minute-book, but he had not done so. However, he (the speaker) had gone to the trouble of taking some extracts from the minute-book, so as to throw some light upon the matter. Mr. King here laid the minutebook, together with the agreement made by the Board with Mr. Foy, upon the table, stating as he did so that they had nothing to hide. Mr. McCutchan continued — On the 11th December, Mr. Foy sent in his statement. He (the speaker) had called it a " report," but would now call it a "statement," as that appeared to be the proper term. On the 13th of December, there was a special meeting of the Board, and a resolution was proposed then and there by Mr. Cockburn, that Mr. Foy should be appointed, provided he was willing to accept the Board's terms. Considering that the whole revenue of Hawera was only £600 per annum, and that out of that £142 received from the lessees of the Town Acre would have to be devoted towards building offices for the BoaTd, as it was upon that condition that the reserve had been granted by the Government, the proper course would nave been to adjourn for a month, and allow the ratepayers to talk the matter over. At the end of the financial year the Board had only £5 10s. 4d. to its credit, and in the face of that, Tie thought the members were hardly justified in voting away one-fourth of their year's income without due consideration. They might all be engineers, but he doubted whether they were justified in spending £150 on a drainage scheme which would not be required for the next fifty years. He believed Mr. Foy to be a thorough gentleman, and incapable of doing anything wrong. But he objected to toe Town Board acting in the manner they did. That was the true state of the case. The Chairman said it mattered not how little the Board had in hand at the time ; they had paid £132 for gravelling Princes street since. Mr. McCutchan was new to politics, and did not understand finance. The main question was whether they had got value for their money. Mr, McCutchan admitted that he was not such an adept at finance as Mr. King, but the fact remained that at the end of the financial year they

had only £5 10s. 4d. in hand. That .was the reason why he had said at the Board that there was an attempt to throw dust in the eyes of the ratepayers. The proper course would nave been, when they received Mr. Foy's statement, to call for tenders. Mr. Foy was not the only Civil Engineer in New Zealand.

Mr. Foy — That is -perfectly true. But I am a professional man, and I have a professional reputation, even in New Zealand, and I got £600 a year from the Government for six years. It is not the usual course to call in a doctor to attend to a sick child. Neither is it usual to call for tenders to do work such as 1 have done for the Board.

Mr. McCutchan said it was usual to do it in connection with public bodies.

Mr. Foy said it was not usual to apply for tenders from engineers to carry out a drainage scheme. Mr. McCutchan said the appointment was made at about the time when Mr. Winks had resigned, because a contract had been let without calling for tenders ; and just after a resolution had been passed by the Board that anything over £2 should be tendered for.

Mr. Foy said some person had stated at a meeting of the Board that he had been appointed Consulting Engineer. That was wrong.

Mr. McCutchan said that a reporter from the Stab was not present at the meeting. He believed the report of the meeting had been furnished by the Town Clerk. Mr. McCutehan then proceeded to read from the statement furnished to the Board by Mr. Foy previous to the appointment ; but Mr. Foy volunteered to read it himself. After a little " sparring," during which Mr. McCutchan urged upon Mr. Foy to continue the reading up to a certain point, where it was recommended that the "Board should only act after mature deliberation,"

Mr. McCutchan said — Ton recommended that the appointment should only be marie after mature deliberation. That was not done. That is what I objected to all along. Mr. King asked Mr. Foy if the Board called for tenders for an engineer to do the work, would it not be necessary to prepare specifications ? As the members of the Board could not draw them up, they would have to employ some person to do so. What would be the cost ?

After several ineffectual attempts — which caused roars of laughter — to catch the gist of the question put by the Chairman,

Mr. Foy stated that such a thing had never been heard of, and it would be almost impossible to prepare a specification. The Chairman said they might get some man from the South, with C.E. to his name, who might tender to do the work for £100. Had they tendered, they would have been at the mercy of a lot of professional quacks. They had an instance of that at New Plymouth, where a man had been appointed by the Harbor Board who could not even take out quantities and it had been found necessary to dispense with his services. There were several things which had not been tendered for — such as advertising — since Mr. McCutchan had been a member of the Board, and yet he had not objected. Mr. McCutchan pleaded guilty to passing some accounts for works that had not been tendered for. Some were old, and some were of recent date ; and some accounts were for contracts that had been advertised. Had that not been done, no person outside of the Board would know anything about whether there were contracts or not, and they could then be let to a few individuals, as had previously been the case. He then quoted a paragraph from the first statement sent in by Mr. Toy to the Board, to the effect that the work could be done in two months ; yet, after an experience of 35 or 40 years, Mr. Foy had told them that night that it had taken him four months.

Mr. Foy — Have some common sense, for goodness' sake. I was subject to the weather, and ctfuld not be at work every day. Mr. McCutchan — You stated in your preliminary report, or statement, that it would cost £150 to do the work. I say it was for the Board to ask some professional engineer as to whether or not that was a fair charge.

Mr. Foy replied that that was the business of the Town Board, and not his. If he had asked £500, and the Town Board chose to accept his offer, that was a matter for them to decide. All he knew was, that the work had been done very cheaply. Mr. McCutchan — I propose a vote of thanks to the Chairman for his dignified conduct in the chair this evening.

The Chairman — I am astonished at Mr. McCutchan endeavoring to stifle the discussion in this manner, but I shall not permit him to do so. If the meeting wishes to propose any resolution — either of approval or censure — it can do so, and we are prepared for the result. If not, I must declare the meeting closed. After a pause, and no person coming forward to propose anything further than the vote of thanks, the meeting broke up at 10 p.m. It was very good-humored and orderly throughout, and there were about 30 to 40 persons present during the greater portion of the time.