NORTH-EAST VALLEY MAYORALTY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10194, 31 October 1894, Page 3

NORTH-EAST VALLEY MAYORALTY.

MR AItTIIUK AT PINE HIIX.

it [the Pine Hill Schoolhouse last evening a tirly representative meeting of ratepayers was. iddressed l>y Cr Arthur, a candidate for the jnayoralty of North-Kast Valley. Mr George tfindlay was voted to the chair. '■

Cr Arthur said that he did not make any tology for appearing before the ratepayers as a ndidate for the position of mayor. He had been resident in the North-Kaat Valley for IS yaars, id could say without egotism that he was fa vour>ly known to the great bulk of the ratepayers, i* connection with the council had not been of ng duration, but it had been very eventful. Ho und when he entered on his term of office that ie financial affairs of the borough were in s very id state. The .overdraft was considerably over Le ttatutory limit, and altogether things seemed be on the down grade. Viewed in the light of business concern, tV borough, if it went on' as had done would so i have been in the Bankiptcy Court. Another thing which struck any >c of business interests, was the laxity of auageiuent hi borough affairs. Things seemed i have been allowed to drift into such a state that rgo sums of money were entirely lost to the irough. When he told them that the amount of Tears were greater than those of any other jrough round about, and even more than those : the city of Dunedin, they -would have some lea of th« state of the North-Jtest. Valley arough. He had a return in his hand giving a >mp»rfttrve view of the losses sustained by DunJin and the Valley in the mutter of rates. In 82 Dnnedin lost £112s Hd, and the Valley £61 is 6d, or £60 4s more than the city; in 1891 Dunlin lost £1 12s f.d, and the Valley £75 13s 3d, or 74 tie Sdmore than the city; in 1890 Punedin )6t £2 ss, andthc Valley £03 6's 3d, or £67 ls.9d lore than the city. They would agree with him bat a Btate of matters, such as this was simply isgracef ul. —(Applause.) At that time there was iO money, to spend on roads, and he did not rondcr at it. It was not that Cr Campbell, their epresentative, failed to look after their interests, >ut it was because there was really no money yailable for roads and other needful works in the istrict. As he had previously stated, their overraft was considerably over tae statutory limit.i nd they received a commuaication from tho tuditor-general stating that it 'jras his intention d institute legal proceedings against each of the onncillors for allowing this state of matters to Mist. It had gone so' far that the council fore &eked to name their solicitors. They did so, nd were in communication with legal gentlemen a town and with some of the members of Parlialent, with a view to getting their influence to tay;the Government in the matter. If the Luditqr-genecal had carried; out what he stated fa? his intention, it would simply have tneat>t hat most' of the councillors •would have been Iriven into 'bankruptcy.'' Not only could they lavebeen fined for every cheque signed after the itatutory overdraft limit had been passed, bat hey could also have been fined a sum of £100. Jnderthe circumstances some vigorousstepswere leceesary in order, that the position of the >orough might be retrieved. Cr Campbell, with ;be concurrence of the majority of the council, ;abled a motion that tho town clerk and inspector >c dismissed, and that the;,e offices be, atnaU ;amated. This motion was:duly carried after a icated discussion ; but by this action alone a laving of £12U per annum was effected, and tho irork was done in a far more satisfactory manner ;han previously. Mr Arnold was appointed town ;)erk, and from the speaker's own experience he :ould say that a more conscientious and lard-workiag officer would <j with, difficulty >c found anywhere. He did all he could io, get in the rates, and, he recovered, large turns--of money which had been lost to the jorougfa.: Moreover, he courted the fullest inquiry nto what he had done. The books now were sept differently to what they were hitherto. Prior to that it was a difficult matter to see the irao'cg,-. Some were sure to be missing, and alto;ethor 'it: was a difficult matter to arrive at a true sstimate of tho borough's pesition. There was a mystery about the whole affair which seemed .^explicable, but which seemed clear enough in she light of subsequent eyents. Now a great .-eduction had been made in the amount of H-rears. According to a return published in the DtaigoDaily Times of Aiikuse 14 last—the return 3eing made up from the published balance sheets if the various local bodies—the borough of North- i East Valley was shown to have made enormous I progress during the year ended Match 31,1894— ihat was under .the new management. Maori ffillhad a deficiency of £ C6'l2s 9d: Mornineton, ■ £47014s lid; ltoslyu, £240 (Is 9d; St. Kilda, £77.16s sd; South Puuedin, £2!J5 4s U: City of Dunedin, £65655s 4d, but by transferring sas proiits(£3467 0s; lid) and waterprofits(£34slss4d), a total of £8918----3s 3d, to the general account^ Dunedin managed to show, a surplus of £53 Os lid, West Harbour bad- a -surplus) of £10 JOs Id; while, NorthBast ;Valley> showed s.surplus of £286 15s 9d. rh» next reform undertaken by the council tvas■■'■;■■. the;'-. Jetting. ~out of the surface workvby public contract. Ab they were »wans the council had been in the habit Df employing two men to do the surface work. Hese were discharged, and tenders were called for the; work, .with the result that.- a saying was effected of £58 10s-^a very important item considering their financial position. Now, coming to the overdraft, it had bees reduced from £1683 3s Bel in M«rcb., 1893, to £110812 2d on September 30, 1894, thus showing a reduction of £574 11s id, and effectipg a saving on interest on overdraft of £16 (jer year.. Adding that to the savings effected by other, reforms, and allowing for fluctuations, of s.jthe overdraft, and they had«•» 3avins,. effected; of at . least £220 '"• per (rear on working expenses alone. If to that! were added the rates which were not allowed to fall into arrears,'as in the past, they would have a, total saving of at least £288 per annum. Io regard to the surface work, there was one thing connected with it which struck him as requiring attention, and jthat was the necessity that existed '< lor the water tables and gutters being regularly cleared out, and he hoped that the council Would take, the matter in hand and see to it. Another matter to which he referred was the allocation of the money available for works Ux the various wards. This had been done in a very unsatisfactory msmnerin the past. Certain districts made application for certain works to.be doDe, and the council refused or granted them as it was guided by its caprice or by the manner in which the matter had been' brought Forward. There had been a lot of that in the past, with the result that at the end of the year some districts got the lion's share of the money, whilst others did cot get their requirements attended to. He thought a better plan would be for each ward to receive its share of the money according to the amount -;of ' rates -it contributed.—(Applause.) With regard to the drainage scheme, which was a question that he thought would attract^the attention of all, they would probably have noticed that the City Council had undertaken, to request the Burronnding borough councils to join them in asking the Legislature to appoint a drainage board. If the North-East1 Valley stood aloof it would simply mean that they would possibly lind thcmselvei! ;in the position -that they would: be; compelled to contribute 'to a drainage scheme whether they liked it or not. They would, therefore, do well to interest themselves in the matter—(applause)—and see that no legislation was passed that would be detrimental to any portion of their borough. The NorthEast Valley Council had appointed a delegate to attend the conference on the question i with instructions to get all the information necessary and available, but in, no wise to commit the borough to any financial proposals that might be get forth. In doing this he thought the council bad acted widely, for financial proposals brought forward on a matter of this kind must hecesBarily'be on an extensive scale, and before they were acceded to he thought the ratepayers should be consulted, and the council should be guided by their- opinion.—(Applause.) Another matter which he wished to bring up was the question of the North-East Valley Pnblic Hall. He had been told that it was a great mistake to import this matter into the electiorf at all, but he wished to refer to itns there was a possibility of the council being approached with a view to its securing this hall, jlu fact one of the shareholders had projected the idea that the council should be approached in Buch a direction, but his proposition did not seem to have met with f much support. F°-7ever, he did not believe that the idea was all. , 6 *ther extinct yet, and it might be brought forward again. He thought that1 the best thing the shareholders could do was td submit a statement of their position to the ratepayers, and set forth the advantages that would accrue to the council by taking over this building, and then the ratepayers themselves could decide •whether the hall should be secured or not. Personally! he' was of opinion that the council in its present financial position was not able to take over the hall.— (Applause.) At some future meeting he would lay before the ratepayers a comparative statement showing tholosses sustained by the borough during the different lnayot'sterme of office. He thought it right that the ratepayers should .know how things had be managed in the past. He bad no great system of public works to bring before the meeting, for the simple reason that they had no money; and it was only by careful financing they could hope to carry out really necessary works. He would take another opportunity of laying more prominently before .the ratepayers the various works that required to be douo in the Jjorougb. He wished to state that night, however, that if it were simply for the honour of the position of mayor he would not have appeared before them at all, but he thought the time had come when the question of the reforms carried out by the council should be placed before the ratepayers, in order that they might give an expressiou of their opinion, favourable or otherwise, on these changes. He thourht the ratepayers should say whether the council had acted rightly in this matter or not. He claimed that it had acted rightly-(applaUße),— and that it had grasped the situation in a thoroughly businesslike manner, and placed things on a proper footing. If the ratepayers ■were of the same opinion, he asked them to record their votes in his favour. If, on the contrary, they were of opinion that these reforms were not necessary, that things were better as they had baen before, he asked them just-as earnestly to vote a'ainst his return. If they. wishiid to encourage those that brought about those reforms those that were willing to look after the ratepayers' interests just as muck as they would their own, then he asked them again to vote for him.—(Applause.) .... , - , . The Chairman inquired if anyone desjred to »sk Mr Arthur a question, but no one coming E°Mr a Thomas Godfrey moved and Mr Robert Bell seconded a motion to the effect that Mr Arthur was the most fit and proper person to fill the mayoral ohair. . . . The motion being put was earned unanimously, and the candidate hayiag briefly returned thanks, the proceedings terminated. .

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