Municipal Council

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3714, 12 October 1926, Page 5

Municipal Council

The morthily meeitinig' of the Queenstown Borough ■Umneiil was held in the Libra y o i," Thursday evening. Preb’ent: HA Wo is hip the Mayor (A. Sknson, Esq.) Crs. J. Salmond, H. S Bishop, H. Louden, J. P. Fix, A. E|. Bryant, H. Overton, T. Bother for dj, T .H. Tal lent ire and D, F, Sutherland.

Tire minutes of last; meeting wore read and confirmed, and precis of outward 1 co' respond cnee approved. —lnward Co: respondenoe. —

\V. H. Nelson, Borough wire.small, made application for a light 18ft ladder for the fixing of the street lamps.. —Agreed to, pud enquiries to be made. The secretary. Railway Board, Wellington, wrote. stating that inisitiraetiipns had been issued permitting the. Council to take control ef the old towns wharf.—A letter was also received from the District Engineer, Invercargill, in. regard to this matter. It was understood the P regressive! League had undertakeln. to carry out the necieisisaiy repairs to. the structure. The condition!s under which the. Department would hand over control of the wharf were these;

1. That so -long (as l|hc wharf is in} existence the Railway Department shall be granted the tight litres of charge to maintain the guiding light now placed thereon and to use the wharf for purposes of mooring and for navigating vessels. 2. That the Railway • Department shall be permitted to continue to make and collect and retain for itself a change f om persons owning launches plying for hire on "the. lake, and using the. landing stage on this wharf. 3. That the Borough Council will undertake ail responsibility for the maintenance and repair of the. wharf. -1. The object and intent of this arrangement is that the Council be at liberty to open the wharf for use as a public walk or promenade and for no other purpose, the Council fully indemnifying the Department against any changes for putting the wharf in a suitable condition' for such purpose and so maintaining it and' also indemnifying the Dept, against any claims, damages or cxpemsels of any kind arising directly or indirectly opt of opening and or use of the wharf as a promenade as herein mentioned.

Writer would be glad to have) thei Council’s confirmation of the arrangement so that the necessary agreement might be prepared for execution by the Council. ’ Some little discussion to lowed on the import of clause 3 and it wasi finally decided that the Railway Department be written to asking whether the Council would be free to give up or abandon the wharf should the structure become decayed and the upkeep be. too onerous. M. A. McCarthy applied _ for permisssion to put in a -septic tank on her property, Mountaineer Hotel.— Granted, tank to be installed to. satisfaction of Health Inspector Varney. The Mt. Cook Motor Co. applied for permission to install a petrol tank and pump on their property in Rees St. It was proposed to put the whole outfit within their own boundaries, and lit would be inis tailed in conformity with the Government Dangerous Goods regulation's.' J. Dagg, proprietor Wakatipu Motor Garage, also wrote asking to be. allowed to. erect a kerbside pump in. Promt of his jgtarage, A letter was (received tfirolm Rob|t‘ Giilkisou, jun., borough (solicitor'. giv r Lnigi his legal on the matter of bowser pumps. He stated that if the tank or 'container were put on private property the (risk to the Borough would lie small, but the Council should give n/> per mission to. put such tanks on private land. In issuing a permit for the pump itself to be .put on the roadside care should be taken that, it did not interfere with traffic, thus constituting a danger of another kind. It should be. quite clear that though most of the. liability was avoided by tire tank being put on private property there was still a modicum of liability through the pump itself being 1 put oni the road.

Definite action was again deferred until the position .was made clearer to the Council by £he Borough -Solicitor, the Mayor and chairman of Works Committee to con for with hj im.

Miss E. Templeton, secretary to the ‘‘Franlkton Hustlers,” wrote jaskin-g for a rotate of irteiub paid for the Garrison Hall and piano on September 17; or for a donation—Hal Fa-go i n e a. rebate granted. The Clerk, Lake County Council, wrote stating' that ,tihe Borough Council’s request for ,a refund' of £ls granted toward the pii'oetioin, of ,tihc. Kawarau Falls bridge would be considered when the bridge and approaches thereto were completed. Jas. Horn, M.P., advised that the payment of interest on certain overdue accounts had been duly validated by special legislation. —Mr Horn to lie thanked for his e Herts. The chairman of the Southland 1 Proviiiicial Court at the Exhibition wrote intimating that it was proposed to hold a meeting at .Invercargill b) arrange final settlement of matters in connection with the Oourt.—To lie informed that owing to the visn’t, oh the Governor-General to Queenstown wr that date lit would be impossible for the Mayor* (to he present. Messrs Cuthbertson and Wchb, Invercargill, wrote stating that, at a meeting of Hie Southland Drapers and Clothiers’ Association it was decided to make enquiries as to what attitude the Council look in regard to itinerant traders operating in Queenstown for a short period.—To he informed! of .the (charges made. The manager of the South Dunedin Gramophone Parlours informed the Council that the representative who opened up in Queenstown, a short time ago was only a commission agent, hence writer did not hold himself in any way responsible for any debts he inlay have incurred In respect of the Council’s itinerant traders’ license tec .—Solicitor to lie, asked to recover, E. tV. George, Vincent County Enj-giineer-Cierk, forwarded a voucher for Is ltd, being the Council’s proportion of tlie heavy Gallic license fees for 1U35-26 collected by V.C,C 'and allloc catedi on the mileage /basis. Mrs A. Green asked pcrinisaion to

run her cow on 4 the commonage, 2s fid beiinig* e.nci’oseicl. —No charge made. Dr. Anderson applied for permission to install a septic tank pnd inside lavatory on his property.—Granted pm usual conditions. J. P. White, secretary «o( the Queenis-t-own Progressive Leiagde, wrote asking that street sweepings, asdics, pte. lie dumped along the One .Mile reserve i'll future in order to assist the League in filling in the. hollows. This might be ddii'C under the supervision O’/'the Olnairmiap (of djlre Works Committee . —Agi eed to.

The League. Executive jai'iso wrote asking the Council ito take. over the Children’« Playground as ,a gift from the League.. The municipal .authorities in aM other •cities pud towns wore invariably in, charge of playgrounds 0.1 this kind. ■

The Mayor said (thlfj) 'Council had al ready twice turned 'this down.

Cr. Overton supported 'the (proposal He considered it (most unreasonable that after the League .had spent so much money in providing something that the Council itself had talked of doing but had never dome, that it should refuse, the playground as a- giiflj. It was air unheard of thing. He would move that the Council ~Ja>ko over the playground and thank thO League for it. Seconded by Or London,

Cl's Fix and Sutherland moved an amendment that the Council linst find out the Council’s liability in the matter. Two or three claims had been made in res pact of accidents which had occurred on the amusement devices at the recent Exhibition and judgment had been given against lire Ex hi bi ti ou a uthorit ies.

Cr Bishop said that in oilier towns no liability attached to the local authorities. No charge, was _ made children for using the playing .devices and parents wore respoulsible. _ The League was aSooiety but not incorporated. Its whole, object was to help forward the town, and if it were not supported it would go out of existence. The. playground was a great boon to the children of the town as well as to those of people visiting QueenMlowin, a foil ijt{ seemed quite the. right and proper thing that the Council should keep the apparatus' in order.

The amendment was carried by 5 :o I.

The Health Inspector wrote stating that hie had been instructed to arrange to meet the Council in order to discuss various sanitary matters concerning the Borough. —Council to meet Inspector Varney at 3 p.m. on the 13th inst. in the Council Chambers.

R'O'bt. Gil bison, jam'., borough soHcd'tor, wrote enclosing transfer of lease ol 'section from A. Sim son to F. Gavin. The Council’s consent to same was asked, also the affixing of the Council’s seal.

It was resolved that householders bo notified by advertisement in the L.W Mail that all empty tins for removal to the dumps, whether carted by the Borough or by private arrangement, must first be flattened out.

WORKS COMMITTEE REPORT. Or Borden, chairman of the Works Committee, imported that ihe waiter channels in Kent, Sydney and Melbourne- streets' had been cleaned out, and gravelling done In Shotover St. and at the junction of Sydney and Shotover streets. The Library fence, etc. had bean attended to, and a motor sign placed at the corner ot Ballarat and Stanley Sts.. The war trophy gun- had been placed on a concrete base in the Park; and water had been laid on Ito section) block XI, as authorised. Arbor Day was successfully carried out, 750 trees being planted, mostly by the borough employees. The nursery was choked with couch grass- and it required summer fallowing before the planting therein of any more, trees. --Report adopted. The Mayor asked that he and the Works Chairman be empowered to employ a man and a- boy to transplant a number of small Douglas firs from the Park into the nursery.—Agreed to*. On the motion of Grs. Sutherland and Rutherford the Clerk _ was given authority to order the supply of pipes, etc., required for Borough works 'FINANCE COMMITTEE. The Mayor submitted a report of the special meeting of the Finance Committee held during the month to deal with certain proposed enterprises-: (.1) REVALUATION OF BOROUGH. The matter ol' the suggested valuation of the .Borough had (been reforred to the Borough solicitor and his reply was now before, the meetling. Mr Gilkison was of opinion, that alleged existing anomalies could not be removed from the roll while same remained in force. Sec, 33 of the Rating Act, 1908, gave the Ooun|ciL power to make alterations where a property had been accidentally omitted from the roll, or 1 -' where pew buildings had been erected. Should the Council think it. advisable to alter the system, of rating in the. Borough to rating on capital value writer thought, the new; system could he brought in at. oukt, tuui a new vain-, ation of all properties in the Borough would have to be made. Further, If the Council retained thei system of rating on annual, value limit desired that the roll should be revised annually it might be possible to prepare- the first annual roll in January next. It was somewhat doubtful, however, whether this course could- be properly adopted. See. (5 of the Act was not very clear and it might be that the- biennial valuation must stand till the end of 3 yeans. Writer suggested that the Council write to Mr T. F. Martin, solicitor, to the Municipal Association. Welilingiton. for his opinion on this point,.-—Mr Martin to be appealed to. C2) FIRF. BRIGADE STATION. The plans submitted 1 by the Brigade for a new fire station' had I icon handed -to Mi- Sulmond. The latter informed the Council that he- had gone carefully into the matter and he had estimated the co-st of the building at £7OO. He did not know that the town was big enough to- 'Warrant aj building of the dimensions suggested. The men’s sleeping quarters, for example, might be cut out, and the social room and garage lie erected ais a one-sitoiiiioid building. This would eni'H down- the cost, considerably. Or. Sutherland thought £7OO was beyond the means of the Council, and the building suggested more suited to a town of five to ten times the

population' of Queenstown. He quite agreed that sonieithiing should be done to provide deaent accommodation tor the brigade, and 'possibly t/hc plain submitted might be modified. Or. Bishop w in agreement on this matter, amt lie. suggested that the lower portion of the building might be enacted now anjd a, promise be given, the brigade to. add to it at some future time.

Or. Borden -said there was no one more anxious than, he Avas to help the Brigade-, but the cost, did seem ex-cess-si ve.

Or. Overton considered the Council should get Mr Sa lino ml to draw up plahs and specifications on a modified scale. If the Council went to the ratepayers over •the matter they would require to have something (piite definite, to. place before them. • Finally, it was resolved on t.hei motion of Crs. Rutherford apd Sutherland; that the Mayor and Or. Salmonrt meet the .superintendent, deputy-wuper'-intcndeint and secretary of the !Briigla.de ami see if <3-01110 agreement could he come to that Avould render the sch erne praeti cable.

PUBLIC CO N V ENT ENC ES. Ci 1 . Bishop asked what the Council was going to do in regard to ihe vfcxed’- qtwwbi.Pl.Uti-ic con von ie 1 nt-es. Or. Salmon, d solid ' IVfs estimateis as submitted by eorres-jromle-nec to the Council were these: A building in. wood and iron, with slot machine, £110; in concrete, £IBO.

Cr. Bishop said he would be glad to move that the Council erect conveniences in concrete at a cost not to exceed! £250. Seconded by Or. Borden. Both stressed the desirability of the building being in coucirOte. Cr, Rutherford moved that the Brigiad-e ’is 11 cedis 1 eoeiv© first often t i on. Cr. Overton considered the cost of the conveniences not great, hence they might be done out of revenue. They should be erected in concrete to. be in keeping with the- importance of Queenstown as a tourist resort. Cns. Sutherland and Fix moved an amendment that the- convcnienco-s he! built of wood and iron at a cost of £llO. The amendment was carried, only Crs. Overton, Bishop. Borden and Tu.llentire supporting the proposal to build in concrete. Other Matters. Eire Alarm —The matter of a fire alarm for the Eastern Terrace was referred to the • sub-committee appointed to meet officers of the Brigade. Accounts. —Accounts as follows were passed for 'payment: D-istj-ict. Fund account: £ll2 His sd; hydro-electric account £2l 4s Id. The meeting terminated with the customary vote to the chair.