CITY COUNCIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4460, 29 February 1876, Page 3

CITY COUNCIL.

The ordinary fortnightly meeting of the Council was held yesterday,—His Worship the Mayor (13. Tonks, Ksq.) presiding. Present : Councillors Isaacs, Buchauau, Daldy, Hurst, and Holdship. Minutes.—The minutes of the previous meeting were read aud confirmed, also the minutes of committee meetings, &c. Correspondence.—Copies of letters despatched since last meeting were read. Letters received since last meeting were read. • • < ' CollingwooD'STßEET.—A letter was received from 0. McMasters, calling attoution to the coudition of this street. . It was in a dangerous condition, and quite impassabl® for drays. The writer suggested that aa Wellington street was being improved, th« improvements should extend to this street also.—The City Surveyor said the street was in a state quite as bad as represented. The Mayor said the subject of this street was considered some time ago, audit was considered a difficult street to make. He moved that the letter be referred to the Streets Committee to report upou it.—Councillor Cosgrave seconded the motion, which was carried. Market.—Mr. "R. C. Greenwood made an application that the.Market should bo published for lease before the loth of April; possession to be given upon expiration of existing lease.—On the motion of Councillor Cosgrave, the letter was referred to the Market Committee, who were instructed to report to the Council upon the subject. Symondsstreet.—Mr. I\. C. Greenwood applied that his lease of certain property in Symoiuls-street should be cancelled. The ground assigned for the application was that the applicant was unable to build on itl —The subject was referred to the Fiuancc Committee, with power to act. Harbour Board.—A letter was received from the Secretary of the Harbour Board, acknowledgiugtliereceipt ofa communication from the Council, and stating that the Harbour Board had passed a resolution, to the effect that all the roads at Point Britouiart should be surveyed aud defined, aud the necessary survej'S made. Upper Queen-street.—Application was reseived from Messrs. Rces and Tyler, on behalf of Mr. Niel, asking foa relief under the following circumstances :—lt was stated that oil Mr iSTiel's property the gratiugof the channel was not suflicieut to carry off the water, which consequently ran over the premises, to the great injury and damage of the applicant.—The City Surveyor recommended that another grating should be placed above the old one.—On the motion of Councillor Hurst, seconded by Councillor Isaacs, the motion was adopted.—Mr. George Bruce, wheelwright, of Upper Queen-street, applied forpcrmission to light a fire once a fortnight on his premises, for the purpose of heating wheel tire.s.—The City Surveyor reported that a permanent brick wall should be built to prevent the lire spreading. If that were Gone, there would be no objection to granting the request.—The matter was referred to the City Surveyor, with power to act.

Government Subsidy.—A letter was received from the Secretary to the Treasury, with reference to payment of the Government subsidy. He was directed to inform tiie Council that the Government grant was payable only on the amount of rates collected in respect to the amount levied in each year.

Petitions.—A petition was received from thirty residents of Queen-street, askiug for a crossing opposite Hewitt Brothers.—Councillor Hurst moved, and Councillor Brett seconded, "That the prayer of the petition be granted."—After some discussion the matter was referred to the Streets Committee, with power to act.

Engineer's I\efort.—This report was brought up, announcing the arrival of the ship Ardvar, with additional plant for the Water_Supply works --- -- —- Tenbeks.—'(-'in: rollowmg tenders were received aud opened for the formation and drainage of Fort-street, as follows: —J. Dempsey, £1510; A. L. Wilson, £1513 12s; Jones aud Vare, £1595. (A deposit of 10 per cent, was required, but in this case there was only a deposit of £10, and the tender was declared informal); Martin Danaghcr l £IS49.—Councillor Hurst moved, and Councillor Isaacs seconded, " That Mr. Dempsey'a tender be accepted."—Carried.

Gas Company.—The Mayor reported that the matters in difference with the Gas Company with reference to the assessment of their property had been satisfactorily arranged. The Gas Company had appealed against the amount of assessment, and the matter, by mutual consent, was referred to arbitration. The result of the arbitration was that the valuation upon which ns.«t>gement was to be made was estimated at £2833, that was to say, £333 above what the company's property was valued at by the officers of the Council. The amount or' rates due by the company, together with the costs of arbitration, had been paid by thcin The effect of it all was, that £ISO a-year hadbeen added to the rates of the city. There was another very beneficial effect derived from the result which had been arrived at. A basis had been laid down for the valuation and" assessment of manufactories in future. Prior to tbis decision, the valuation was made on the buildings, and not on plant. He (the Mayor) thought the greatest crcdit was due to the Town Clerk for this result, as well as for otber matters of importance in which he had concerned himself on behalf of the city. !Sy his activity, energy, and diligence, considerable increase had accrued to the revenue of the city. The Town Clerk deserved the thanks of the Council iu respect of various financial matters in which he had been engaged for the City Council. His exertion* made towards getting in the rates, &c., might have the effect of making that gentleman unpopular ; but his services were the more valuable for this very reason.—Councillor Cosgrave thought the whole of the members of the Council would coincide with the opinion just expressed by the Mayor. Smoke Nuisance.—The Mayor brought down the draft of a by law, framed for the abatement of nuisances of this description. The by-law proposed to give power to the Council to compel manufacturers to raise their chimneys to height. The suggestion, of course, was that chimneys should be raised to such a height that they would not be a nuisance to the neighbourhood. The height might be 40 feet, or 50 feet, according to circumstances. In respect to this matter he had been greatly misunderstood, ft appeared to him there had been considerable misunderstanding. Personally, he had no desire to impair or discourage local industries. He had heard it stated publicly that if ever Auckland should become a great city, it must be through her manufactories and her Island trade. His own feeling was that Auckland would never be a great agricultural province. But he did feel a hope that she would be prosperous in her manufactories. Freedom was a very good thing in itself, but not* freedom to annoy one's neighbours* When people wanted freedom ef the latter kind, they wanted too much freedom. There was, therefore, such a thing as too much freedom. There, was even too much of it in some parts of the United States, where he had heard it said everybody was free to annoy everybody else... The object ho had in view in bringing down this by-iaw, was to prevent individuals annoying their neighbours, and by setting up aud continuing dangerous - nuisances dealing death around them. No one could say that the nuisance which this by-law was framed to repress, and abate, was not a very great and intolerable aniioyance to those who wore affected by it. Let them take Freeman's Bay, for - instance. Anyone going there would find that within a radius of from 400 to 500 yards of the city, when certain winds prevailed it was almost impossible to breathe. It was necessary to publish thie by-law before considering it. At' present there was no power of dealing with or checking such nuisances in any way. The Mayor referred to various mills, to the rear.of Mr. J". S. Macfarlane's premises, and further said that he had himself been obliged to l»:ave stores which he held on account of this kind of nuisance. He thought the.nuisanee wa* one which the City' Council should have | (I pr continuation of news see Supplement.)

gome power to deal with. The by-law he now proposed was of a permissive character, jt was not necessary that - chimnies should be carried np to a uniform height. It might be from 40 to 50 or 60 feet, and the Council would be required to bring it into operation t . o nly where it m'ghtbe thought tobencoessary. It was no sweeping measure of uniform compulsion, or requiring uniformity in height or design of chimneys. He disclaimed any desire or intention to injure local industries. The outcry which had been raised on this subject was perfectly ridiculous. Local industries themselves required protection 1 sometimes against each other's nuisances. J There was a great deal of claptrap and humf * bog uttered on this subject. If they gave way to "them, they would all be sacrificed to j | local industries. All should be fostered to : their mutual advantage, but not so as to be injurious to each other." The Mayor cited the by-laws in San Francisco for the abatement of smoke nuisance, and also the bylaw for the same object which has operation in Melbourne. The by-law now proposed could not bo brought into oper- ' ■ alien here for several months. There 1 would be ample time to consider and discuss it before it would have effect.— Councillor Koldship considered it altogether unnecessary to go to the expense of publishing the draft by-law for a month unless there was an intention of passing it, and at the outset they should dissent to the principle* or otherwise, if they intended to J pass the by-law. For this purpose he thought there should*be a committee of gentlemen who understood these matters appointed to draft tho by-law; because, while some admitted the necessity for the bylaw, there were others who would dispute it. He would make bold to say that the bylaw now proposed would be a greater nuisance even to its supporters than the smoke nuisance complained of. He held that a by-law when made, which compelled one man to raise his chimney to a certain height, he would see that others were also compelled to observe the by-law, and if the i Council were to bo the judges of what height a chimney should be, they would not find ■ - many who would erect manufactories with tho chance of their being stopped at the 1 option of the Council. They should lay i down the law that it might be read z by all men alike or else not touch t it at all. With regard to the smoke, t he would admit it was unpleasant to live in 1 it. He wished they could live without it; r but unfortunately they could not. They s had as much right to stop the smoke ? stacks of steamers coming into the harbour p as those of manufactories. Why should a C man with a small engine be compelled to g raise his smoke stack to 50 or CO feet ? a With regard to the height of smoke stacks, £ it was well known that their height was no prevention o£ the smoke nuisanco. The I smoke stack to his mill was first 55 feet n

high. This was done "with the object of preventing any nuisance, but the smoke used to go round Custom-house-street and sweep up Queen-street, and was a very great nuisance indeed. Several kinds of experiments xvere tried, and it was found that by reducing the height of tho chimney the nuisance was abated. The chimncy was gradually reduced from 50 feet to 10 feet, and now there was not half tho nuisance which formerly existed. This was not a matter of theory but of fact—no one in Queen-street could dispute it—and it proved that the smoke nuisanco wuold not be lessened by raising tho chimneys. The nuisance caused by the smoke stack at Mr. Firth's Mill would only be increased by the stack being raised, as it would then catch Hobson-street. With regard to consuming the smoke, that had been tried, thousands of pounds had been expended on experiments, and it had failed.—The Mayor said that the experiments of consuming smoke had not failed, for ho had lately been in Birmingham, and had seen that they were successful.—Councillor ; Holdship said that they had been only ! paitially successful, and that it was enor- I mously expensive. To make the experiments necessary in this country would be J simply to put a stop upon all manufactories and industries. He would not say that local 1 industries would be stopped by the working •' of the proposed by-law, but they would be ! retarded by it; and the Council had no right t to interfere with the smoke nuisauce at this i particular time. He was prepared to prove | that in no town on this side the line had a similar restriction been put in force, unless it had been done within the last three years. In Sydney and Melbourne there were little engines pufliug out into the streets, as well as the large furnace stacks in the city, and no restrictions were put upon them. He j thought the by-law was proposed be- i fore its time, and would oppose it in every j form, as it was unnecessary, and money ought not to be spent in advertising it. —Councillor Daldy was of opinion that there was no escaping from the faet that : the Council had the right to interfere with » anything which was unfavourable to the 1 health of the town. Ho did not think that ! any particular height could be fixed for I chimneys in the town, all would depend ! upon the locality in which the manufactory j was situated. The main question was, • whether the smoke nuisance interfered with the health and injured the property of others. It it did not, they had no right to interfere with it, but if it did, they had a right to legislate upon it.—Councillor Cosgrave thought that chimneys and manufactories meant progress, and that no obstacles should bo placed in their way. He regretted that there were not half enough manufactories here. In a town of 12,000 inhabitants it was not right for them to put any obstacles in the way of manufactories. —Councillor Buchanan said that there was a necessity for such a by-law to be on the books, eveu if it should not be enforced against present occupiers.— Councillor Hurst understood that the notice of the by-law would be before the public for a month, and he would not like to commit himself to any opinion at the present time. He thought that"time should be taken to consider the question.—The Mayor, in replying, said that it was absurd to think that ten or fifteen feet on a chimney being made compulsory would drive industries out of the place.—The motion that the by-law be advertised was then put and carried.

The Auditors.—The Mayor brought forward a. motion to consider the auditors' salary, and in doing so took occasion to reply to the letter written by one of tbe late auditors and published. His Worship said : This is the only opportunity I have of replying as Mayor, for X could not enter into newspaper correspondence, to a letter written to injure the public credit of the Coazicii. Air. Waymcuth takes credit to himself for having refused to pass two items. What were they! The one was an item of a sum of money deposited temporarily in the bank, instead of being invested in Government securities. The auditor was instructed that the money was only temporarily placed in the bank, and knew well that it was placed there for the purpose of accumulating, and it has since bead invested in Government securities, bearing interest at 7 per cent, per annum. The other item was for the expense of collecting the rate, and for office expenses. Although it does not state in the Act that the expense of printing'rate-books, collecting the rate, and office expenses are to comc from the rate, still they must be taken from the rate or else how are they to be paid? Where is the money to come from ? The 255 th clause of the Ant, after referring to several matters, goes on to say, "andfor all other lawful expenses touching the same." Well, if the collection and office expenses were not lawful expenses, I should like to know what lawful expenses are !—Councillor Hurst asked if a legal opinion had been taken on the question, as had been suggested. —The Mayor : I will take steps to procure the opinion. I am now merely justifying the action of the Council. Th« other matter to which they refer is the illegal appropriations of the afnkm g fund. With regard to the position of

that fund it is simply this : In January, 1872, £20,000 was borrowed for<lfifteen years, for 6 per cent, per annum. Tltis" notable power of the city having increased at a very much greater extent than the-then Councillors— for X was one of them—contemplated ; the sinking fund, too, ha 3' accumulated to a much, larger extent than. was. expected ; and now, for four years it stands considerably over £6000, which is invested, this being very considerably in excess of the requirements. £1000 per year, gentlemen, is amply sufficient for the sink-ing-fund, and, in four years, the sum of over £GOOO has been accumulated, when £4000 would have been sufficient. That is to say, it has positively accumulated at the rate of 60 per cent, more than was required. That is the position of the sinking-fund which jSIr. Waymouth refers to. It would pay itself off in eleven years, instead of in sixI teen years, and yet Mr. "Waymouth almost i insinuates that tlio City Council has been tampering with it. X will not trouble you with more remarks, but will ask you to fix the salaries of the auditors. —Councillor Isaacs asked if it was the duty of the auditors to give a legal opinion upon the acts of the Council, or whether it was not to simply state if matters of account were correct or not.—The Mayor thought it was quite competent for auditors to state if money had

it been expended contrary to the Act. He ie thought they would be quite right in ex:o pressing their <ppmions in this respect; but te in this instance/ he disputed that the money :>f had been expeiided contrary to the^Act. — 'S Councillor lljurst said that the auditors 1 2, memorandum being published, there r- the matter ought to drop, so far as b. they were concerned, and the Council T - should take its solicitor's opinion as to r whether they were or were not acting e legally.—Councillor Brett was very glad the t matter had been mentioned. He had met e with people who had said that a meeting had ;, been held, and that the Council had made - up its mind to prevent the return of the e old auditors if possible. All he could say c was, that if there had been anything of the I sort done, he knew nothing of it.—Councillor i Isaacs said that the same statement had 3 been made to him, and he had given a similar t reply.—Councillor Daldy thought that wheu I any variation was made by the authority of i the Council in the administration of funds, » the auditors should mqke their note of it; i but if the Council had good reason for ; making the variation, the Act did not ' say the auditors could go any further, s The note was published, and it was for the ' public to seek for an explanation from the Council.—On the motion of Councillor Cosgrave, sconded by Councillor Brett, it was agreed that the auditors' salary should be £20 each. Building Regttlatioits. — Councillor Daldy moved, "That such alterations be made in the Building Regulations as to permit iron buildings, as defined in the Act, to be crccted in the block of land bounded by Commerce, Custom-house, and Fort-streets." —The motion was seconded pro forma by Councillor Buchanan. — After some discussion, the following resolution was proposed by Councillor Holdship, as an amendment, and carried, "That a new clause be added to the Building Regulations, giving power to erect iron buildings, of a class to be specified, on the block of land bounded by Custom-house, Commerce, and Fort-streets." Streets Committee. —On the motion of | Councillor Buchanan, Councillor Brett's • name was added to the Streets' Committee. . Finance. — Councillor Cosgrave moved, 1 "That in future all cheques be signed by \ the Mayor and two members of the Finance '' Committee."—Carried. j 'Baa Stand. —The following resolution ] was moved by Councillor Cosgrave, and car- * ried, "That the stand opposite the Grey- j hound Hotel, in Queen-street, be proclaimed a stand for 'busses about to proceed to One- ( hunga, and that the stand for 'busses upon ( their arrival from Onehunga be in Victoria- 1 street East." * Finance.—The following accounts were J : ordered to be paid : —City Council account, £260 lis 9d; city endowment loan account, c £135 7s Cd ; endowment revenue, £S ISs 6d ; t waterworks, £SUO 17s 6d : total, £1205 16s 3d. Statement of Funds, C4eneral Account : ? To balance in bank, £434 ISs 9d; by account 7 to be paid, £200 0s 9d : balance, £174 7s. ? City Endowment Revenue Account: Balance cr., £714 10s lid; account to pay, 13 £S ISs Cd: total, £705 18s ss. v Special Rate Account : Balance Dr., £9 19s c stl ; fixed deposit, £5,500. Waterworks c Account : Balance in bank, £1745 03 3d ; e accounts to pay, £800 17s 6d : total, £944 F 2s 9d; iixed deposit, £67,500. Special Rate Account: Balance Dr., £9 193 sd; sinking fuud and fixed deposit, £6,250. Balances on | 2Sth February, 1876 : Balance in bank, r £434 ISs 9d ; accounts to pay, £260 lis 9d ; 1J balance Cr., £174 7s Od. Fixed deposit, 3 months, 5 per cent., £730 3s 3d. Endowment Revenue: Balance in bank, £714 16s lid; h Accouuts to pay, £8 18s Gd ; cr. £705 t 18s sd. Fixed deposit, £500. Endowments n Loau : Balauce in bank, £532 lis 2d; ac- t. counts to pay, £135 7s 6d; Cr. balance, £397 3s Bd.—The Mayor said that the avail- a able sum at the disposal of the Couucil between the present time and the striking of t: the next rate, independent of the loans, was i £200, so that in bringing forward any motious, if they would boar this in mind, it I--1 might save them some trouble. n I This was all the business. - f