TOWN CLERKS REPORT

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1847, 31 July 1907, Page 59

TOWN CLERKS REPORT

AN ACTIVE MUNICIPALITY. PHENOMENAL DEVELOPMENT. “In the municipal history of Wellington the financial year 1906-7 must be considered as one of remarkable progress and phenomenal development." This is the sentence with which the Town Clerk of Wellington (Mr J. R. Palmer) commences his general summary of the City Council’s operations last year, and the details given m his annual report, fully bear it out. Hie municipality does not concern itseli. omy with levying rates and keeping streets in repair; its varied interests include the lighting of the city, running of the tramways, the water supply and other public utilities, and even extend to the initiation of a miniatuie zoological collection in Newtown Park, the establishment of a museum, and tho promotion oi lectures upon subjects so diveise as ■'Cure-alls, Patent medicines and Gullability," and “The x lora of New Zealand." . ~ Ike substantial progress of tho city is evidenced by a remarkable amount ol building activity. For 1906-7 there were 553 permits issued for buildings m the city pmn r and i&O for the surrounding .Melrose‘district, 883 in all, toe estimat'd value of which was <£adl,2o3 and .2176,307 respectively, or a total oi £557,5x0. The demand for residential properties was largely in excess o. the orevious year. In addition to - ;UR > 1C must not be forgotten that tno boroughs ;f Karori and Miramar have had a large number of new buildings erected withm their areas during tho year, no doubt principally duo to the extension ol the Pity tram service to the boroughs, booked at broadly, states tho report, the iuilding operations for the year must •3 considered as most convincing evidence of tho city’s growth and extension. Progress in tramway extension has been one of the most prominent featuics of a year brimful of municipal progress in every department of the city s works. The Brooklyn .and Kiibirnic sections were opened during the year, adding their quota to the excellent traffic average, which was 1,408,000 per month. No fewer than 16,897,034 passengers were carried on the system last year. The city expenditure for the year covered by tno report was <£254,953, of which .The,Bo3 was for general purposes, £84,263 on account of tramway working and maintenance, <£22,90S in connection with the water supply, <£6132 for lire brigades, £3798 on libraries, £3902 for reserves, and £1570 for cemeteries. There are assets valued at £2,210,888, more than double the total four years ago, while the liabilities, which also gone up considerably, stand at £1,876,896, and the .sinking funds at £116,157.

In the provision of res*' rves for recreates and breathing-space the municipality lias done good work. The report states that Kelburne Park has been completed, and, subject to the growth oi the green sward, should be available for use during the summer of 1908. A work of greater magnitude is the formation of Glenbervie road Recreation ground, and substantial progress has been made by the staff employed under the City Engineer. Trees have been felled and removed, and a large portion of the hill has been cut away and tipped into the valley, which when filled will form a large xiortion of the recreation area. It is hoped to obtain nearly seven and a half acres by this means. Duppa street and Kilbirnie reserves will be the next works to be undertaken. Since the acquisition by the Council of the Wellington Electric Light and Power Co. for the sum of £150,000, the city lighting has been improved by the erection of 230 arc lamps attached to tramway-track poles. Private consumers are promised; says tlie report, a reduction in rates for current. THE FUTURE PROGRAMME.

A good programme for the future is indicated in the report, There is 'the municipal abattoir to erect, a loan ot <£15,000 having been raised tor the purpose, widening operations in busy W • lie street to be continued, an elaborate and carefully-prepared consolidation of the city by-laws to be published, and a municipal marlyet to be provided on a site not yet cliosen. The Wellington City Reclamation and Empowering Act. 1906, gives power to lease part of the Te Aro Reclamation for boating and yaci ting; prohibits private use of any tramway tunnel lawfully used by the coi ooration; vests the Kilbirnie reserve in the corporation; authorises reclamation at Evans Bay and vests same when made in the corporation, etc., etc., and authorises the raising of a loan for the purpose. It is n it, however, considered desirable to undertake the reclamation until some of the many other works in hand have been disposed of. A crematorium is also to be one of the many municipal undertakings. Subsci lptiona received and premised for this object amount to abcut £530, in addition to which the Council has voted £4OO. Plans of the building have been prepared and working drawings of the furnace have been applied for from the manufacturers in England. It is now intended to proceed with the work at the earliest opportunity. It is not unlikely that the Council will shortly turn its reforming zeal ill to the city milk supply. The question of undertaking municipally the management of the milk supply has already been considered by a special committee. Savs the report : —“The proposal is one winch the Chief Medical Officer of the Colony, Dr Mason, strongly favours as being capable of obviating a great deal of infantile mortality now considered to

be more or less traceable to the milk supply as controlled by the many agencies now dealing with the mat.ei. There is no uniform method of treatment guaranteeing any standard of purity. This could be carried out if it were made imperative that all the milk forwarded for city consumption were received at a municipally-controlled depot, treated by pasteurisation or other approved method of sterilisation delivered without intermediary aid direct to tho consumer, and probably m sealed bottles of various-sizes. Such a reform must be considered as one making for a great improvement in the general health of the community, the facility with which milk carries infection being only too well known. Considerable data lias been collected by the committee (chairman, Councillor Murdoch), and a report on the matter will shortly be laid before tho Council." “With the spread of municipalism oil every hand, w*ho shall say where local control of public utilities shall stop?" states the Town Clerk in conclusion. “Even as the large and successful cooperative societies of Great Britain, can and do supply all necessaries, and in fact many of the luxuries of life, whether it be in food, clothes, or furniture, at lesser rates than private vendors to their shareholders; so may the municipality to its shareholders the citizens, and the time seems fast approaching when this will be demanded and met.