MUNICIPAL RETRENCHMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9140, 23 August 1888, Page 3

MUNICIPAL RETRENCHMENT.

THE PROPOSALS OF THE RATE-

PAYERS' ASSOCIATION. A public meeting, convened by the Auckland Ratepayers' Association for the purpose of obtaining an expression of opinion as to the City Council's retrenchment proposals, was held at the Temperance Hall yesterday evening. Mr. C. S. Wright presided. There was a moderate attendance.

The Chairman said the petition circulated by the Association, praying for municipal retrenchment, and which was now before the meeting, had been signed by seven hundred persons. Mr Wright went on to give a resume of the Council's receipts and expenditure for the past year, and asked whether the ratepayers could, in the face of the large overdraft, continue paying the high salaries which they were now paying? Some of the officers of the Council were certainly worthy the salaries they were receiving, but the question was not what they liked to give, but what they could afford to give. Mr. H. Phillips referred to the retrenchment proposals of the Association. They proposed that the Mayor should get £200, which they contended was sufficient to entertain strangers. The fees of the city solicitor last year amounted to close upon £700, and they thought the Town Clerk should be a solicitor. The valuer was not the servant of the ratepayers ; he was the servant of the Council, and if they had stood in the Assessment Court, and saw how he had fought against the propertyholders, they would have felt sorry. The clerk of works was the hardest-worked man in the Council, and they wpuld like to keep his salary as it now was. The proposals of the Association would effect a reduction of £1350. He moved " That the retrenchment proposals of the Association be adopted by the meeting." Mr. E. Mills seconied the motion.

Mr. C. Gre£XAway addressed the meeting. Taxes had to be paid on empty houses —and where were they to come from? The people were being'bled to the last drop. Mr. H. W. Farxall (secretary of the Association), read the retrenchment proposals of the City Council,, to be considered at a meeting to be held this evening. Mr. J. Semok said that a deputation had waited on the Mayor with respect to the stonebreaking at Mount Eden. The Mayor had said that the Council would employ the men up to next November, and they would have to wait until the Council could take the stones —that might be six months. There were 40 men at the work, and their average earnings were 10s and 12s per week. From this they had to purchase tools, dynamite, &c. Those who were discharged would have to apply to the Charitable Aid Board, and they would then get food for nothing ; but they did not want that.

Mr. R. Farrell differed from the Association in some of their proposals. The salaries of the Council comprised a small item, but a good deal of retrenchment could be effected in the monstrous extravagance which took place in public works in the city. He did not suppose the meeting knew anything of the work that some of the Council officials had to do. Mr. Farrell instanced the work done by the city treasurer, and said that they must keep an efficient officer in that position, so that the interests of the ratepayers might be protected. Because thoy were in depressed times, they ought not to harp upon cutting down the salaries, and lose sight of the greater things. Let them give the officials plenty of work, but let them not ask them to do it at a starvation price. (A voice : "£6 per week.") He thought the report of the Association showed a smallness of mind, because it did not grapple with the more important things. It was, in his opinion, a mistake to reduce the number or pay of the stone-breakers. Mr. Farrell advocated the village settlement scheme. The Chairman said that the retrenchment proposals of the City Council affected the working classes the most injuriously. The Association, on the other hand, wished to reduce the pay of those who were best able to bear such reduction. (Applause.) The motion was carried without dissent. The petition previously mentioned was then signed by several of those present. The Chairman said that the petition, which was twenty-two feet in length, had been in circulation for six weeks.

It is intended to present it to the special meeting of the City Council, to be held this evening. ______