HAMILTON BOROUGH COUNCIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12271, 15 May 1903, Page 6

HAMILTON BOROUGH COUNCIL.

SPEECH BY THE RETIRING MAYOR. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Hamilton, Thursday. THE Hamilton Borough Council met on Wednesday. There were present: The retiring Mayor (Mr. R. W. Dyer), the Mayor-elect (Mr. C. J. W. Barton), and the newly-elected councillors : Messrs. ft. Salmon, K. Parr. G. Pearson, \V. Dev. A. E. Manning, A. Coyle, J. Bettley. J. A. Young, and H. S. Hardley. The Mayor-elect was introduced by the two senior members, and duly installed in the Mayoral chair. , The retiring Mayor congratulated Mr. Barton on his election. He said it was usual for the retiring Mayor to give an account of what he had done during his Mayoralty. Coming first to the question of finance, he might say that when he came into office in. &av. 1901, the overdraft at March 31 stood at £712 16s 9d. On March 31, 1902. it was £708 18s, f<nd on March 31 last it was £490. Some people appeared to think that the correct thing to do was to wipe off the overdraft. He did not think so. They had reduced it, but they had increased the rate. By starving the streets they could reduce the ovedraft, but it was, ho said, a sad policy to do that. They should work the overdraft down as quickly as possible, hut not at the cost of the development of the borough. When hi) took office in 1901 the rates amounted to £550; in 1902 they bad totalled £610, while last year they had increased up to £677. The mistake up to recently had been made- in striking too small a rate. They wanted all the revenue they could pet, and it would be the greatest mistake in the world to reduce the rate. The revenue from endowments had kept up fairly well—in fact, it was about the same, but the expenditure on streets had been much greater. During i9Ol they bad spent in Hamilton East £90 3s sd, aid ill Hamilton West £160 in 1902, £130 and /62: and last year, £153 and £277—and he claimed that they had effected great improvements. The interest on the loan of £3000 had been reduced from 5J to 4i per cent., making an annual saving of £30, and they also made a small reduction in office expenses. The streets were better than they were two years ago, but a considerable improvement could be made yet. He then touched upon the question of the waterworks, and maintained that the Council had dono right in acting strictly upon the recommendation of their engineer. He concluded by wishing the new Mayor a successful term of office.

The Mayor, in reply, thanked Mr. Dyer. In reference to the waterworks he thought the present position was not creditable to the Council. He then proceeded to sketch out the works that he thought were necessary. A vote of thanks was passed to the retiring Mayor.