MR TURNER IN LEITH WARD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1123, 27 July 1865, Page 5

MR TURNER IN LEITH WARD.

Last evening Mr James Turner met the electors of Leith Ward in the late Albion Hotel, Great King street. There was a very fair attendance, and Mr T. Redmayxe was called to the chair. Mr Turner said he was extremely sorry that the unpropitious state of the weather had prevented many persons from attending who would otherwise have been present. He proceeded to enter at some \eogth upon the details of his public actions in the late Town Board during, the last two years and a half, and made particular reference to the eadeavours which he, along with the other representatives of the Ward in the Board, had made for the improvement and lighting of the streets in the Ward, and the difficulties which they had to contend with. He referred to the L 35.000 loan, and said that the original intention of the Government of the day was that this loan should be a grant to the city, but by an amendment moved by Major Richardson in the Provincial Council, it waa made a loan. When the Town Board received the money, it never entered into their consideration that it or the interest should be repaid. They knew that the original intention of the Government was that the L 35,000 should be a grant, and not a loan; and if elected he should endeavor to have the loan converted into a grant to the city. He was in favor of raising a loan for the sewerage of the city, but throughout a large portion of the city only surface sewerage would be required. In the neighbourhood of the Hospital and Maclaggan street underground sewerage works would be required, and they ought to be at once established in order to preserve the health of the inhabitants. He thought that one of the first efforts ol the Corporation should be to have the Exhibition Building converted, not into an Hospital, but into a Market, for which it was originally intended, and he was in favor of the establishment of a hay and produce market being established on the reclaimed land at the south end of the town. He would use his endeavors to have all the thoroughfares and footpaths in the Ward well metalled; gravelled, and lighted,- and he thought that until the Ward was properly lighted, it ought not to be charged in an equal proportion for lighting rates with the other parts of the city. In answer to questions, Mr Turner said that if the Water Company did not, within a short time, complete their works, he should endeavor to get the Corporation to give as much pure water to the several Wards a 9 they possibly could. Mr Pagan asked the following questions :—" What proportion of the Government loan of L 35,000 to the late Town Board was allocated to Regent Road and Forth place ?—I believe it was L3OO. Was that money expended on these streets? And, were the original plans or gradients authorised for them carried out ?—I should have preferred that a notice of these questions should have sent to me, and I would have obtained the necessary information from the Town Board Office. Was not Regent Road to be formed to the Town Belt at the top of Maori Hill? And, Forth place to where it meets Regent Road at the same place ?—No, it was not. The money wa3 chiefly expended in forming that part of Queen street that runs between the Maori Hill Reserve and Mr Robert Murray's property, and almost wholly to his benefit, was it not ?—That is a personal matter. Will you favor us with a good reason for afterwards, in your capacity of chairman of a committee on these works, reporting to the Board that the money had been judiciously spent, while, as you admit, it had been almost wholly misapplied in making a circuit of roads round Mr Murray's property; and leaving an unfenced precipitous cutting, of from ten to fifteen feet in height, right across the road line that the money was set aside to make ? —I was not chairman of that committee —I think Mr Bastings was. "Did you not at the same time report to the Board that, in the way of forming Regent Road, as sanctioned by Government, there were engineering difficulties that rendered it advisable for the Board to sanction these deviations from the original plans, and misapplications of the money.—l have already said that I wa3 not chairman, and made no report. Did the committee referred to ever meet at these works, and examine for themselves on the spot, before you framed and sent in that* report to the Board ?—I believe they did. Did you, yourself, go and examine them after you were appointed chairman of that committee ?—I was not chairman, and I did not go and examine the works personally. If Regent Road, or Forth Place, or both, had been made good roads with that money, do you deny that a considerable portion of the traffic to and from the interior of the Province, would have been diverted to them, as easier and

HEPBURN AKB 00.

more convenient outlets than Stuart street; and, that this Ward would have derived considerable benefit from that diversion of traffic?—l do not think that three times the money voted would have made this an outlet to the country. Can you stand up before this meeting and conscientiously aver that, in your late capacity of member for this Ward, and Chairman of the Committee on the Regent Road job, you exerted yourself to your utmost to support the right and oppose the wrong; and, that your actions were not in any degree influenced by jour private leanings to Mr Murray and the Board's Engineer ?—I had no private in- | terests or leaning. I acted for the interests of the Ward, and I do not think that I should be saddled with the fault 3or misI takes of a public body. Will you state what, on the present occasion, you conceive to be your claims to the suffrages ;of the numerous ratepayers in the Regent Road, Maori Hill, and Forth Place divisions of this Ward?—l have done my duty to the Ward for the last two years and a half in the Town Board, and I have always endeavored as prominently as possible to bring the wants of the Ward before the Board. There were several other questions asked, none-of which were of any public importance. The CiiAiHMAxdrew the attention of the meeting to the 13th clause of the Incorporation Ordinance, which provided that auditors should be elected on the same day as the Councillors. Nothing had yet been done in this matter, and ne hoped that it would not be overlooked. On the motion of Mr Habrop, seconded by Mr Jenkinson, it was unanimously resolved that Mr Turner was a fit and proper person to represent Leith Ward in the Municipal Corporation. Mr Tobneb returned thanks for the honor which had been done him, and moved a vote of thanks to the Chairman, which was carried with acclamation. The meeting adjourned.