ABATTOIRS SITE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10571, 18 January 1896, Page 7

ABATTOIRS SITE.

TO THE EOITOB.

Sir, —I canoob parmit the remarks reported to have been made by hu Worship the Mayor and some of the councillors at the last meeting of the council to pass unchallenged; I vriil deal with lis Worship first. .Ho said:_" lie battered that had the request, of : the City Council been made to the Taieii Comity Council immediately after Mr Justice, Williams had refused the removal of the injunction, the ease might have been different." Now, Sir, seeing th»t Jndge Williams's refusal to remove the injunction was made on the 16th December, and t hat the next meeting of the Taieri Council did nob take place till January the 10th, it is Bomewhat difficult to understand

how the application could have bsen made soon"r fchaa it was ; bs«ide«, I went out of, and Mr Wales assumed, office on the 18th December (two days &fter the judge gave his decision), an<s it would seam to me that, if matters were to be hurried on, it was Mr Wsles's duty to do co, snil not mine; in fact, it was impoasibl*! for me to take any steps. Again, his Worship ia reported to have said : " Th» late mayor had brought the matter before the General Committee on the 13fch November, ami retorted that he had taken steps to instruct the city solicitor! to apply for a removal of the injunction. At that mutiny he (the late mayor) was advised In/ several memhrs .of, the committee to have application made to the Taieri County Council without' taking steps to move'for. a removal of the injunction, but that course was not pursued,,and this further time was lost." Now, Sir, Ihe first part of this statement is true, but the italicised portion is absolutely untrue, and jMr Wales must know that it ig bo. No member of the committee advised anything of the eorfc, or said a word in that direction. It ig quite in keeping with Mr Wales's tactics by innuendo or positive missfcatements to seek to throw blame on me and convict me of what he terms "a lapse." I had quite sufficient, proof of his disingeuuousness in this direction during the recent election contest, but I wonld advise his Worship to look after his own " lapses," of which he has already made two or three, and will make many more before his year of offios is out, or lam gteatly mistaken. 1, bad good and sufficient reasons for not applying' to the county council during th« month of December, and, briefly, they were these:, I knew (what pro- : bably.neitber. Mr Wales nor any other member of the council knew, save the town clerk) thMi pievioua to our first application to the Taiei'i Council^ waa understood by the Sainsoa | clique that tha versatile member, Ct Todd, was I to vote with them, and thus the voting was expected to.be four for and four against, and that the chairman's casting vote would have dished us; bnfc for some rearon unknown to me that invertebrate member threw them over, a!: thn last moment, thus making tho yoto in our favour by 5 to 3, and, being present, I hoard Or Simpson after the vote was taken reproach Ci1 iodd for what he had done. Moreover, I was keenly watching the councillors whilst the' voting wan taking plane, and Mr Todd's action was most peculiar. First he held his hand up b. very slight bit, as if he were having a guilty knowledge that ha was* breaking a promise, and gradually—but very gradually—it went up a little higher, until at last there could be no mistake that he was voting in our favour, and then I breathed freely. Well, Sir, knowing this, I knew that Cr Todd must be a wobbler, and tbafc if he had another chanoe to vote ho would probably alter it, which eventually he did. Well, then, had this been so the voting would hava been equal, and - (ho .chairman* casting vote would have fiuisbed our business. 1 also knew that in December iv all probability a change of chairmen would take place; indepd, 1 waß assured that that would be ao.-arid that Cr Andrew would have been the new chairman, which would have made the City Council's application perfectly safe, even if Cr Todd reversed his vote, aothat yon will at once boo that we had everything to gain and apparently. nothing to lose by waiting until Januars. Of. course, it was ouita itano'sible

for me to foresee thaf; Cr Andrew would have found it BRccssir? to resign, and, but for that, we were quite sift, and I think I niuot have convinced every rinprrjudieeii person (I don't iuclude the me.yor in this category) that I madfl no "lapse" in the matter. /My reasons for acting as I did, as stated here, were well known to our solicitors and the town clerk.

So ranch for the mayor. Now I want to say' a word or two with regard to Crs Cohen and Gourley. With regard to the former, he oaid "He had been aa Btrougly as possible opposed in oommitiiea lo the tits which had been acquired, but in order that there might l)B unanimity in the council ho had sunk his indir vidual opinion when he Ciima to that table." Now, Sir, no member of the Council, myself included, koew anything about; the sites offered, or their suitability until we personally ' visited them. This visit was made early .in May, and the General Committee mst once only—viz., on the 15th May—to decide as to what cite they should recommend, and they at that meeting unanimously resolved to recommend the Bitie which was attsrwards purchased. Mr Cohen says he otrongly oppcistd this in committee. Would yon believe it, Sir, when I tell you Ihst Cr Cohen was not even present: at that meeting ? Comment is needless.

I Now, as to Cr Gonrley. He apparently, j from what he said, holda that if a member !of a public body thinka or knows he will be beaten on.any question, it is his duty to say nothing against it, but eimply sit quiet and not even vote agnin6t it. This is moat pcouliar logic, certaioly. I wonder what the public would think hi Her Majesty's Opposition in our Legislative' Assembly were they to follow such au nbsurdly ridiculous course. What have they dono ? Havo they not, knowing that they would be beaten, and badly beaten, in division, boldly got up and stnted their objection to ineaMires brought before them, and thereby done tatic duty; and any public man who fails in doing so does not do bis duty. Mr Gourlej'o remarks were uiteriy puerile, aud only made to; cover hi* moat unaccountable change of front. But I should not have noticed what be-raid at all but for the utterance of the following words :—" He, bow ever, had stated then [at the council meeting 1 prtHtnie] that he thought the present »ite was not tbe b^et cue." Sir, ] moat unequivocally deny thi« statement, and positively declare j that Cr Goprluf uover in my hearing made any objtcfcioil to the «ite uutil quite recently, and that, was during the late election contest. Igo further, and positively declare that not h. single councillor, either in committee, -council, or elsewhere, made any objsction ks to the cultability of the site for the purpose. Any diffeience. of Opinion there w».6, and that was confined, i think, to Cr Carroll, wa3 afl to the ueeessity of having a larger area of lend. Whdt has caused this extranrdiuary ctmuye of frnnton the part of some of ths councillors I do not positively know, aiid can only gue>s at. I may have something to say iii your iibxc iaaueas to the idiotic conrsatha council is now pursuing in reference to this matter.—l am, &c ,

Dunedin, January 17.

H. S. Fish,