PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 721, 7 March 1866, Page 4

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Our report of the proceedings of the Provincial Council shows that not a very large amount of work wr,s got through yesterday. A very long time was taken up in the discussion respecting the salary of the I.ugincer-in-Chief. Some "three or four hours were thus spent, and a very animated debate resulted in the voting of the" salary by a majority of twelve to eight. The objections raised were principally that there was no need for such an expensive officer, seeing that we had no extensive public works to carry out at present; that the salary ought not to be more than was given to the members of the Executive aud other heads of departments. The debate was also very largely personal; it was stated that the present occupant of the otlice was not particularly courteous to persons seeking information at his hands, instances of his superciliousness being given; that he was not that first-class man which would warrant a high salary being given to him—the misconstruction of Gore-street .Ictty and Custom-house* street Wharf, and the great " Sea Serpent" being alleged as evidences of this, by Mr. Swanson —that the 'J aniaki bridge was the only work requiring any engineering ability he had superintended—that the public buildings, as the Lunatic. Asvluin, the Supreme Court-house, ;! nd the Post-office and the Custom-house were each superintended by their own special architect—that the railway had its own eugineers, and that, in fact, the work of an iMigineer-iu-Cliief for for the coming year would be chiefly the superintendence of the ordinary repairs of the Great South Itoad. As proof that the Provincial money had been mis-spent by its being sent out of the Province for foreign timber used in the wharf> instead of our own excellent, heart of kauri, Mr. Swanson stated that members ot the Council might judge for themselves by going to the wharf and examining the planking there. Tllti Ilobavion timber recently laid down was extremely like the inside of a coeoanut, :i mass of fibrous matter, that looked exceedingly like oakum ready for mat-making. These things he had mentioned in the Council before. He had the late Superintendent and Mr. Carleton to see the Custom-house-street Wharf, and pointed out that for want of a sponson the rigging of the vessels lying alongside was chafed to pieces; that the proposed euro for this defect was one that would inevitably stave in the sides or bot- | toms of vessels, and was worse than the original disease, but that- at length his own recommendations were carried out. Other members had their objections of one sort or another. The Kxecntive and the gentlemen resident near the Tauiaki Bridge, of course, voted for the retention ot tkc ollicer and tin, salary, and these numbered somt) sc\on or oigh * The opinion of the (Council was vol'} near divide upon the question, as eight out of twenty members —very nearly one-half —voted for tlie salary being £400 per annum instead of £500, yhile some of the majority expressed tlieir opinion that next year it ought to be the same as tba of the Principal Surveyor, £*500 a-year.