CITY COUNCIL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 10466, 2 October 1894, Page 3

CITY COUNCIL.

ORDINARY MEETING. An ordinary meeting of the Christchurch City Council was held at 7.30 p.m. yesterdays present The Mayor and Councillors Cooper, Bonnington, Wood, E. Smith, Swann, Widdowson, Gray, Stewart, Cuff, Boswick, Connal, Prudhoe, Buntin, Payling and J. T. Smith. FINANCE, Items of finance were reported as follow: —Debit balance at the bank, £6296 18s Id. Receipts since last meeting: General account, £453 2s Id; cemetery account, £43 5s 5 suspense account, £l9 Os 6d; interest account, £316 Os 10d. Expenditure: General account, £1603 8b; suspense account, £8 6s 8d; interest account, £462. Rates collected for the fortnight, £435 5s Id. The accounts presented were passed for payment. miscellaneous. Councillor Cooper presented a petition signed by ten residents in and around Lyttelton Street, praying that its name might be altered to Gladstone Street; and the matter was referred to the By-law Committee to report. A letter was read from Mrs WycliffaGoodwin, Glenroy, applying to purchase a pair of the black swans on the Avon. The Mayor remarked that he was endeavouring to obtain some white swans to place on the river. The Council now had twenty-two black awans. It was decided to sell a pair of swans to Mrs Goodwin, as requested. A letter was read from Mr C. Read, asking the Council’s patronage to the concert to be given to him at the theatre on Oct. 15, on his departure for Sydney to obtain a course of training for his voice. It was decided to grant the request. An application from Mr J. S. Roberts, for permission to erect a merry-go-round near the East Belt footbridge on Saturday next was refused. CITT surveyor’s REPORT. The City Surveyor’s report stated—(l) That the contract for removal and reerection of the band rotunda had b*on cancelled, as the contractor had failed to put materials and men on the ground within the time specified, after having received forty-eight hours’ notice to do so. The Works Committee recommended that the City Surveyor should be instructed to complete, the building. (2) The work of painting the Lichfield Street Eire Brigade Station, provided for in the estimates, had been let to Mr Bush, and would be commenced immediately. (3) The schemes submitted by Dr Russell to the Council had been considered by the Sanitary Committee, which recommended that Dt Russell should be thanked for his suggestions, and informed that at present it was not feasible to move in the matter. (4) The question of fencing the reserve opposite Dr Irving’s, on the Market Square, had been fully considered by the Works Committee, and a resolution passed that the work should be carried out in accordance with the Surveyor’s second sketch plan. A letter was read from the contractor for the removal of the hand rotunda, asking whether he would be allowed any payment for the work he had already done, and also requesting to be allowed to complete the contract. The Town Clerk asserted that ho bad received two claims, one for £2 10s 9d and the other for £l, under the Workmen’s Lien Act, for wages due by the contractor. Councillor Prudhoe moved “That Clausa l of the report be approved, and that the contractor’s letter be referred to the Works Committee to report.” Councillor Gray seconded the motion.

The City Surveyor, in answer to a question, said that the contract time would expire on Oct. 10. It was impossible for the contractor to finish the work in time. After soma discussion the motion was carried. Glauses 2 and 3 of the report were adopted. In reference to Clause 4 it was stated that the coat of the fencing proposed would be about £5 10s a chain. Council Connal moved, as an amendment —“ That the work of fencing the reserve opposite Dr Irving’s house be deferred sine die.” Councillor Wood seconded the amendment, which waa carried by eight votes to seven. The report, as amended, waa adopted. FIRE BRIGADE. Mr Superintendent Turton’s quarterly report stated that during the last three months the Fire Brigade had responded to fourteen alarms, seven of which had been false alarms. The report was adopted. FINANCE COMMITTEE. The Finance Committee reported that it had obtained a legal opinion relative to the application of Messrs Ward and Co., for a reduction on the rates on houses closed by the Licensing Bench, and had found that the Council had no power to accede to the request. The report was adopted. CHARITABLE AID.

Councillor Stewart said that he thought that the Council might very well take into consideration the question of the administration, or rather the mal-adminiatration of charitable aid. From his own personal knowledge he knew that the charges made in the Star were true and more than true. The complaints referred not so much to the management by the Board as to that of the officials. There seemed, however, to be a select circle of members by whom the business was managed, and he thought that the Council’s representatives on tho Board had not been admitted to it. It appeared that, while the salaries of the officers were going up by leaps and bounds, the doles to the poor had been contracted almost to the vanishing point; some poor people were getting la 9d a week, or at the rate of a penny a meal, which was disgraceful. Another very grave charge brought against tho officials was that they treated the poor .unfortunates like brutes. He had been told over and over again that the poor applicants for aid had been talked to like doge. Only last week a very respectable woman had told him that she would rather die, and see her husband and children die, than apply for charitable aid. He had not heard a single soul say a good word for the officials; and he thought it a very serious matter when people were frightened to apply at the office for aid and terrified if the officials came into their homes. One member of the Board had told him that the office was a sort of club house for certain members who went there, loafed and smoked and attended to correspondence—wrote their own correspondence there perhaps. Whether there were any medical comforts going round, he (Dr Stewart) could not tell. If any members put themselves under an obligation to the Secretary, they must be subservient to him. He (Dr Stewart) had been several times asked by ratepayers to bring this matter before the Council, and he hoped that Councillors would give their opinion on it, for it waa a very serious one indeed. Councillor Gray suggested that Councillor Stewart should give notice of a motion dealing with the subject, so that Councillors could coma prepared to discuss it at next meeting. Councillor Prudhoe asked the Mayor if the Council was competent to judge the actions of another independent Board. The Mayor said that he failed to see how the Council could do it under the present position. The Council, however, contributed to the funds of the Board, and could discuss the question of the expenditure. Councillor Stewart said that he would like to ask the representatives of the Council on the Board if they made any report. Councillor Cooper said that as a member of the Board he was greatly averse to the Is 9d a week dole, which he looked upon as disgraceful, and he had fought to have the large salaries reduced. It was a disgrace that any man should be paid £350 a year out of a charitable aid institution. Ho also objected very strongly io tho salary paid to the inspector. Councillor Smith said that he had represented the Council on the Board for three years, but was not a member of tho

Charitable Aid Committee, and could not speak with authority as to its work, but he was a member of the Finance Committee and chairman of the Institutions Committee. He was prepared to meet any man or woman who wanted to discuss the institutions—the Orphanage, the Jubilee Home or the Refuge—and also the financial arrangements of tho Board, He looked carefully into all contracts for supplies to the institutions, and hacl given every attention to the matters which came before the full Board, and he did not know that he was lacking in courage in exposing any wilful waste, extravagance or oppression. He did not know that the gentlemen composing the Board were inferior in courage, honesty or integrity to the members of any other Board—(hear, hear)—and he had told people who made complaints that if they would bring their charges forward he would have them inquired into, and would see that justice was done, but he had always been told, “Oh, I don’t want my same mentioned.” Their , statements seamed to be mere rumours, and those of the Star were of the same kind. He was satisfied that if charges were formulated, the members of tho Board were honest enough to inquire into them, and if it were found that any person had been unjustly treated, or imposed upon, or wronged in any way, he was sura that the gentlemen composing the Board would right it. In the administration of charitable aid there would be hardships. If aid were given to all who asked for it, the rates would have to be trebled. (Hear, hear.) With regard to what Dr Stewart had said as to members of the Board occupying the Board room for their own private purposes, ho (Councillor Smith) did not believe one word of it. It was easy enough to trump up charges of that kind, but when men gave their time and attention for nothing, and did this for the public, they ought to be trusted until they could be convicted of doing something wrong. (Hear, hear.)

Councillor Wood asked if Councillor Stewart’s reference to medical comforts implied that members of the Board consumed the medical comforts provided for the poor.

Councillor Stewart said he did not mean that.

Councillor Gray said that he hoped Councillor Stewart would give notice of a motion, so as to allow members an oppoi*tunity of expressing their opinions on the subject. He (Councillor Gray) had opinions thereon, though ho did not hold the views enunciated by the editor of the Star, who, f ha considered, had been wrongly informed. He remembered one [statement of tho Star dealing with tho expenditure in salaries of the Charitable Aid Boards in Dunedin and Christchurch. Now, anyone who knew anything about the matter must know that there were certain institutions managed by the Christchurch Board; and he believed that in Dunedin the only salaries were incurred in running the office. He would admit that the head clerk and the inspector of tho Canterbury Board were paid too highly; but with regard to the rest of the salaries, he would point out that a salary was paid to a caretaker at the Lyttelton Orphanage, that £220 was spent for salaries and wages at the Old Men’s Home, Ashburton, and that salaries were paid in respect of the Female Refuge and the Queen’s Jubilee Home. He agreed with Councillor Smith that the difficulties concerning the administration of charitable aid were almost insuperable. With regard to people who applied for assistance, they met with more cases of imposture than of real want; and, therefore, it would bo a good thing if this matter were threshed out. The Council certainly had a right to discuss the subject, and he would be pleased if Councillor Stewart would table something definite, not those vague sort of things in the Star, which everybody knew were bunkum. In that salary article, if the table of salaries were taken away, there was nothing but sound and fury, signifying nothing. Councillor Stewart said that the question of salaries did not concern him. Councillor Smith did : not know what was going on. What he (Councillor Stewart) looked at was the treatment of applicants. He was not going to make any specific charges; those in the Star were clear enough and true enough, despite what Councillor Gray had said. When all the people who applied agreed, with a unanimous voice, about the treatment they received, there must be something in it. Those at the bead of affairs were not fit for the position. Ha would give notice of a motion for discussing the subject of the administration of charitable aid at the next meeting. INSURING THE COUNCIL’S WORKMEN. On the motion of Councillor Gray, seconded by Councillor Prudhoe, the Works Committee was instructed to consider the question of insuring the Council’s workmen against accident. The meeting then closed.