Blenheim Borought Council.

Marlborough Express, Volume XI, Issue 875, 13 December 1876, Page 6

Blenheim Borought Council.

An ordinary meeting of the B >rough Council was held on Monday evening at the Literary Institute. 'There were present, his Worship the Mayor (iv the chair) and Councillors J. T. Robinson, Nos worthy, Parmar, Parker, and Weyniss. Cr Rogers, having mado the usual declaration, also took his seat. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed. Valuer. A circular was read from the Colonial Secretary, drawing attention to the most important features of the Rating Act, the Regulation of Local Elections Act, the Public Works .Act, and the Financial Arrangements Act passed during the lata session. The letter also pointed, out that a new valuation would have to be made and completed before the 15th January next. The Mayor said he had spoken to Mr Griffiths who had made the last valuation, and that gentleman had informed him that he would require more substantial remuneration for any future valuation he might be called upon to make. He (the Mayor) asked the Council to state what sum they thought sufficient remuneration. Cr Parker moved " that the salary of the valuer be L 25, and that the post be offered to Mr Griffiths." All the records Were destroyed and the work of the valuer would be very arduous ; thereforo he did not think the Council shonl'l offer le«s than the sum he had named. Cr Nosworthy seconded the motion. The Mayor said it was absolutely necessary that the valuation should be made Sy the 15th January and that the list should be on view for a month. He thought, considering all things, that the sum proposed by Cr Parker was hardly sufficient payment 'for the work which would have to be done by the valuer. In his opinion it would be better to make the sum £30. Of course it would not do for the Council to pay exorbitantly for tho work, yet they must pay their valuer a fair salary. Ho asked Cr Parker to amend his motion by substituting " £30" for " £25." If Mr Griffiths would not do the work for that sum they would have to advertise for somebody else. Cr Parker amended his motion m the manner proposed by the Mayor, and it was carried unanimously. It was also resolved that provided Mr Griffiths declined to do the work, an advertisement calling for applications from persons willing to do it should be inserted m the Express ; the applications to be sent m by Friday next. LETTER FROM 'I HE AUDITORS. The following letter from tlfo Auditors was read : — Sir and Gentlemen, — The disastrous tire which occurrtd on the 2nd November ult., having destroyed the books, vouchers, and other documents of the Borough Council, your auditors anticipated considerable difficulty m the task assigned to them. They have much pleasure m taking this opportunity of thanking Mr John Tucker Robinson, the Town Clerk, for the facilities he afforded them m prosecuting their enquiry, and for the care and ability displayed m preparing from very slight material the statement of accounts which m connection with this report will be laid before you, and which under the circumstances we consider very satisfactory. In the absence of the usual books and documents we have only examined the bank accounts, and from them and from such information as we could ebtaiu from the Town Clerk, and the Collector we are satisfied that the balance sheets to which we have attached our signatures, present a correct summary of the income and expenditure of the past year tha details of which it is impossible to obtain. In examining the accounts we found that two cheques had been erroruously charged by the bank as will be seen by the statement of accounts.—We are &c, R. D. Nosworthv, Chas. J. Rae, Auditors." The letter was laid on the table. Election of Mayor. The Town Clerk read the following letter which had been received from the Mayor : — "Gentlemen, — Two Candidate* are nominated

for the office of Mayor at the election to be held on the 20th inst. A serious difficulty has arisen m consequence of the burgess rolls having been destroyed by fire on 2nd November. I instructed the Town Clerk to write to Mr Conolly for advice m the matter ; you will see by his letter there is no legal cure for it and he cannot advise u», wa lire therefore left to act on our own responsibility. I am anxious that no burgess shall be deprived of his vote, and that no one shall vote who is not qualified ; to make a correct roll is impossible but a- near approximation to the one destroyed can be acted upon. The Town Clerk and Collector can only be p6sitive of four defaulters who were not on the roll through nonpayment of rates. I propose to take the Education Kate as advertised m the Express of 25th August 1875 and a copy of the voters of the West Ward obtained from Councillor Nosworthy (the latter having been made out be'ore the last election for that Ward. This course will omit a large number of burgesses as the addition to the Town has been made since the Education Rate was advertised, and a number of persons were qualified ancl on the roll on the 20th June last who were not ratepayers m 1875. I therefore propose that the right of any person to vote who is not on the lists mentioned (excluding the defaulters) shall be by the production of the noticetferved on them by the Collector m October last for the recovery of rates, as these notices were copies of the valuation from which the last roll was formed. This course lam aware will deprive those persons of vote« whose names do not appear on either list and have not been served with or have lost their notices, but I hope these will be very few, if auy. As no pains have been spared to do What ia right m this matter I ask the Council to indemnify the Returning officer and myself against any action that may be taken m the Law Courts arising out of the election, as I think there is a doubt as to the legality of holding an election m the absence of a burgess roll.

I hope the Proprietor of the Express (with his usual courtesy) will make this letter puhlic, so thab no disappointment may b« felt on the day of the poll. I have &c,

Jas. Hodson, (Mayor.) The Ma.yor stated that as the r«ll had been lost he had written to Mr, Conolly, from whom he'had received the following reply : —

Picton,22Nov., 1876. Sir, — I have given much time and attention to the questions raised m your letter of the 17th inst , and feel much difficulty m arriving at any conclusion upon them; such a contingency as the destruction of all the documents of a borough not appearing ever to have been contemplated by law.

The rates due and the balance sheet must to a great extent be matters of guesswork, and the auditors will have to make a special report. With regard to the elections, I think that the burgess roll, although lost must be considered to be m force ; since it is by being upon such a roll that the burgesses acquire their right to vote (sec. 48 of Act of 1867) ; and there being no question but that rolls were made out and delivered to the Mayor. (Sec. 66. )

This being die case 1 fail to see how sections 30, 31, 32, and 35 can be complied with. As to the manner m which a Returning Officer should act under the circumstances, I feel that I should lie wrong m "giving any opinion. Siice it is impossible that he should act strictly legally, my opinion as to matters of discretion ia worth no more than that of any unprofessional person. All the formalities mentioned m the abovenamed sections might be considered essential if practicable, but I do not think that it could be &aid that when they cannot he complied with there must be no election. — I have,-&c,

Edward T. Conolly. John T. Robinson, Esq., Town Clerk, Blenheim,

His Worship thought the best thing they could do under the circumstances was to take the Education Rate roll of 1875 and the list of voters m the West Ward as prepared by Cr Nosworthy as the roll of persons who were entitled to vote m the election of Mayor. If this were done a few persons might lose their votes, but there was no other way of getting over the difficulty. If the Council agreed to his proposition he hoped they would indemnify him and the Returning Officer against any action that might be taken against them.

Cr Robinson was of opinion that the couraa suggested by the Mayor was a wise one to p.ursue. He did not believe that half a dozen people would be deprived of their rotes, as most of the electors possessed their notices that they were liable for rates. He was quite willing to indemnify th« Mayor and Returning Officer against any action, but be did not think that any such action would be taken. He moved " That the proposal contained m the Mayor's letter be adopted ; the Mayor and Returning Officer being indemnified against any action." Cr Nosworthy seconded the motion. He suggested that tho new Mayor when elected should also sign the agreement to indemnify the gentlemen referred to. The motion was.' carried unanimously. mr 'Carter's verandah. A letter was read from Mr George Carter, asking permission to erect a verandah m front of his business premises. Cr Parker moved that the request b» granted. " Or Rogers seconded. Cr Robinson thought it advisable now for tho Council to put a stop to the erection of verandahs with wooden posts. In his opinion all verandahs should be erected with iron posts m future. Cr Wevmss was of the same opinion as the last speaker. Iron posts did not take up so much room and looked much neater than wooden ones. Cr Parker's motion was carried. On the motion of Cr Robinson seconded by CrWEYMSS it was resolved " That it be an instruction to the Inspector of Works that m future all verandah posts be of iron, unless special orders to the contrary are given by th« Council." . SHINGLED ROOF 3. Letters were received from Mr Bythell and Mr Eyles asking permission two shingle two cottages . The Mayor moved "That leave be granted to Mr Bythell and Mr Eyles to shingle the cottages subject to the same conditions as were imposed on Mr Davis at the last meeting of th« Council,

namely, that they be removed or covered with iron at the Council's pleasure." Cr "Rogers seconded the motion, which was agreed to. LOWERING THE FOOTPATH. Messrs .Litchfield'and Sons wrote asking permission to lywer the pathway m front of their late premises, or requesting that the {Borough Council would do the work. If they did the work themselves thej' claimed to be allowed the use of the material removed by them. Cr Robinson moved "That Messrs Litchfield and Son have permission to remove the earth and to make use of it." They had put the earth there and they had a right to take it away again subject, of course, to the approval of the Inspector of Works. Cr Parker the motion, which was agraed to. KOAD FORMING. Mr Tissiman, Secretary to the Omaka Road Board, wrote asking the Council to assist m formingjabout twenty cbains^of Redwood Street and the Alabama Road. It was resolved on the'motion of Cr Robinson that the Inspector of Works should report to the Council on the matterat its next meetings. FIRE POLICE. Mr C. J. Rae, as Secretary to tlie Blenheim Volunteer Fire Brigade, wrote forwarding a copy of the following resolution which had been passed at the last meeting of the Brigade :— "That m the opinion of this Brigade it is desirable that a fire police should be established m this town, to assist the regular police m preventing pillage at fires." The Mayor said he understood that the dnties of the fire police would be to protect property while fires are burning. He believed that m Nelson the Volunteers did this work m a moat satisfactory manner, He might' mention that after the late fire he had a conversation with Mr Seymour about appointing a night policeman, an 1 that gentleman had said he would see what could be done m regard to the matter. Ha thought it would be better to refer this letter to Mr Seymour as the Executive Officer, and he moved a motion to that effect. CrNoswoRTHY seconded the motion, which was agreed to. RATES. The Rate Collector wrote to the effect that m consequence of all the records having been destroyed m the lato fire he was unable to take the rates from those who had lost theirnotices. Of course there would be no difficulty with those •who had their notices, but it would be different with the others, and he would like to know how he should act with regard to them. He intimated his intention of going round to the various ratepayers during the ensuing week. The Mayor thought the matter might with advantage be allowed to stand over till next meeting, and on his motion this course was agreed upon. TOWN PLAN. A memorandum from Mr Carey was read. It was to the effect that the Town Plan would be prepared by tho next meeting of the Council. EDUCATION RATE. A letter was read from Mr Seymour, as Chairman of the Education Board, requesting the Council to pay m all - moneys belonging to the Board which they held. . The Town Clerk was instructed to attend to the matter. WIDENING OF HIGH STREET. Letters were received from Mr W. H. Hull; on behalf of the Bank of New Zealand, and Mr W. Blick, m reply to the Council's request that they would give ten feet of their laud for the purpose of widening High-street. Mr B'ick stated that if the other residents were willing to give a similar quantity of their land lor the purpose mentioned, he would do the same. Mr Hull stated that if the Council made arrangements for widening the street he would recommend fait, directors to jzive the 10 feet of land asked for. A similar request had been made to Messrs N. Edwards and Co, but before giving any answer they had written for further information. It was resolved that the matter should be considered at the next meeting. STREETS TO BE FORMED. Cr Robinson, without notice, moved "That the Town Clerk be instructed to call for tenders for forming and metaling two small streets off H.gh-street." Cr Nosworthy seconded. Motion agreed to. This was all the business, and the Council adjourned till Fridry evening next.