THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1907. THE CITY COUNCIL AND NOYES BROS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13812, 28 January 1907, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1907. THE CITY COUNCIL AND NOYES BROS.

The Mayoral minute read at the special meeting of, the City Council last week held to consider matters connected with the electrical engineer's position is a document which set out in unmistakable terms the Mayor's conclusion that Mr Goodman could not be allowed to continue in the dual position of manager for Messrs Noyes Bros, and electrical engineer for the Corporation. We have already expressed the opinion that Mr Goodman's position was an absolutely incongruous one, and it was fortunately ended at the Council meeting, by the receipt of a letter from him announcing that he would take up the duties of electrical engineer as from the 23rd inst. and another from Messrs Noyes Bros, notifying that Mr Goodman had retired from their staff. This is as it should be; and the Council, Messrs Noyes Bros., and Mr Goodman at last occupy their proper relative positions. But while this particular aspect of the relations between the Council and its electrical engineer may be looked upon with satisfaction, ifc will, we think, be admitted that the Mayor's minute deals with other matters connected with its electrical lighting and power scheme in terms that call for more detailed explanation. Time and again it has been publicly shown, for example, that the Council committed itself, to this great project far too precipitately— that it adopted an agreement with Noyes Bros, without having before

it anything like the precise information, without the well-considered plans and specifications, or the independent advice of a skilled and able electrical expert as to the probable ultimate development of the scheme, by meaus of which it could alone arrive at even an approximate estimate of the ultimate cost of the operations on which it was about to embark. The original estimate of cost set out in the agreement with Noyes Bros.— viz., £40,000—was for the delivery of a certain quantity of electric energy at Halfway Bush, but it was an estimate made by the company which had previously got possession of the water power at Waipori Falls that did not provide for many things that were essential to the complete success of the City Council's much greater scheme. It did not provide for the erection of a great power station in the city'with all its imposing array of complicated machinery, its storage batteries, its expensive switchboards. It was an estimate made for a single hightension line of transmission which, in the interests of consumers, it was found absolutely necessary to duplicate. It was an estimate that did not take into account the cost of transmission from Halfway Bush to the city of the power delivered at the former place. It, was not even pretended that the line of route had been determined upon over which the poles and. wires had to be carried. The £40,000 was, in fact, from the outset, known to be but the first portion of the expenditure in a scheme whose ultimate cost must far and away exceed that sum; and this fact was specifically brought under the notice of the City Council when the agreement with Noyes Bros.,was entered upon. Under these circumstances it is entirely wrong that the public— which,. if it ever took the trouble to make itself acquainted with these facts, has completely forgotten them—should be led to suppose that the Council has been allowed to helplessly drift from one increase in the originally-proposed expenditure to another until, instead of £40,000, the city is committed to spend more than double that amount in connection with the Waipori scheme. It may be true, as the Mayor says in his memorandum, that he, " and the Committee too, recognised that the position had become intensely acute "; but in 'our judgment the Mayor should, when he penned these words, have clearly shown that the tremendously increased cost of the scheme was not in the least chargeable to any misleading of the Council by Messrs Noyes Bros, or Mr Goodman, or in any way to a withholding of information to which the Corporation was entitled to be placed in possession. Quite the contrary is the feet indeed. The public has probably forgotten that as far back as June last year we published a very full report to the Council by Noyes Bros., through their engineer (Mr Goodman), hi which it was clearly shown that the cost of the Waipori scheme that the Council would have to provide for, exclusive of the sum paid to the Waipori Company, would be £81,1G5 9s 9d, plus ct sum of 10 per cent, on about £50,000 of that amount—Messrs Noyes Bros.' commission—which it had been forgotten to take into account when the figures were compiled. These facts should have been stated by the Mayor, and should have been remembered by councillors when the Mayoral minute was under discussion by them. There may be still unsettled a, question as to what is the total sum on which Messrs Noyes Bros, are entitled to claim commission, but that fact should not in any way prejudice either that firm or Mr Goodman in the eyes of the public. The Corporation may or may not have right on its side in its belief, that it should not be expected to pay commission on soine of the items which go to swell the total cost of the scheme. The Corporation may have sound reasons to advance why, in its judgment, the city should not be saddled with the full amount of commission Messrs Noyes i Bros, are claiming. We have not before us the information that would warrant us in expressing, an. opinion on the subject; but it is a, matter on which there should not be much difficulty in coming to a satisfactory conclusion. ' Wo should be sorry to suppose there is any prospect of litigation in the final settlement of accounts. We are quite sure the Council does not want to act a shabby part in its settlement of the claim j nor do we believe Messrs Noyes Bros, are the men to make a demand for payment of any sum to which they are not entitled. The matter is probably one for reasonable compromise: if there is honest and legitimate difference of opinion, that indeed seems to bo the only wise course that is open to the disputants. Nor iu its relations with its electrical ongineer is it desirable friction should be engendered, i It is generally agreed by those who are competent to express an opinion that Dunedin has secured one of the finest electrical tramway services in the colonies—a service that is a credit alike to the city, to Messrs Noyes Bros., and to. Mr Goodman, under whose close and able supervision it was brought to completion, and whose services as electrical engineer the city has been fortunate enough to secure. It is, wo believe,- directly in the interests of the community that Mr Goodman's good work should be continued in the control of the tramways and general lighting and power scheme, in which an extremely large sum of money has been invested. His responsibilities are great, for it is expected—in addition to the work of general control that devolves on him—that with respect to the sale of electric energy for power 1 , and lighting- purposes he will help and guide the Council in its new business. In the report from which we have already quoted Mr Goodman, in the name of the firm for whom he was acting, commits himself to the statement that, given pToper administration and sound management, the city has in its electrical undertaking a business scheme that should prove entirely self-supporting and a benefit to the

community. He has been placed by the Council in a position of" great responsibility and trust in connection with that scheme, and we ha,ve no doubt that with cordial and loyal support given each to the other by the Council and its electrical engineer the success of this great tramway and business venture on which the city has embarked will justify the belief expressed by Mr Goodman in its potentialities.