ST. KILDA BOROUGH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21646, 17 May 1932, Page 14

ST. KILDA BOROUGH

FORTNIGHTLY COUNCIL MEETING The fortnightly meeting of the St. Kilda Borough Council n‘as held last evening. There were present the Mayor (Mr John Beattie), Crs H. H. Leary, T. D. B, Roy, J. A. Garmon, W. G. Baird, G. Stratton, A. D. Edgar and E. Longworth CORRESPONDENCE. A letter was received from the secretary of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association thanking the council for its donation of £5 5s towards the Anzac Day co'mmomoration service.—Received. The town clerk, Dunedin, wrote inviting. the council to send one or more representatives to a conference to be held in the Town Hall on June 2 for the pdrpose of reviewing the arrangements respecting the distribution of heavy traffic fees. —The Mayor and Crs Longworth and Garmon were appointed as the council’s representatives tp the conference. The Dunedin Drainage and Sewerage Board forwarded a copy of .i resolution fixing the general sewerage rates for the Dunedin drainage and sewerage district for the year ending March 31, 1933. ;Cr Longworth said it was a pity that the board could not see its way clear to make a reduction in the rates. The rates were levied to cover maintenance costs and interest charges. An Act had been passed by Parliament in its last session by which a reduction would be made in the amount of, interest money to be paid by the board, and he thought it was only fair that the benefit of this should be passed on to the ratepayers. He moved that the council should pass a motion regretting the decision of the Drainage Board to levy the same rate as for last year in view of the‘prevailing depression, and the reduction in wages and in interest charges. The motion was seconded by Cr Roy and'carried. WATER CONSUMPTION. The water consumption in the borough for the past fortnight was reported to amount t 6 4,479,000 gallons, of a value of fill 19s Cd. , FINANCE. Accounts amounting to £BOI 14s 3d were passed for payment. INSPECTOR’S REPORT. The traffic and sanitary inspector reported that during the past fortnight two heavy traffic licenses were issued. One case of infectious disease was notified, and 19 inspections were made. —The report was adopted. FOREMAN’S REPORT. The borough foreman reported that for the fortnight ended May 7 the work done included the patching of sti’eets, asphalting footpaths for sealing, carting rotten rock to Victoria road footpath, carting rotten rock for the flanks of streets, carting spoil, etc. The foreman suggested that for the ensuing fortnight the sealing of footpaths should be carried out, if the weather permitted. It was suggested that owing to the costly maintenance on the entrance to the beach from Queen’s Drive to Prince Albert road this block should be treated with bitumen as soon as the weather permitted. About 175 unemployed men had been working for the past fortnight grassing streets, forming footpaths and flanks of roads.—Tlie report was approved. INSURANCE ON UNEMPLOYED. In accordance with a notice that he had given, Cr Leary moved—“ That as from June 1, 1932, the council carry its own accident insurance risk in so far as it applied to wages paid to unemployed workdrs under scheme No, 5.” In support of his motion Cr Leary said he did not think that the work the unemployed' were carrying out could be classed as being of a dangerous nature. Danger could arise only from an accident with tools, and it seemed that the council was called upon to pay too heavy a rate to cover this risk. He thought the council should take the responsibility itself. —Cr Baird said he believed that, some other local bodies were not taking out insurance policies in respect of their unemployed workers. He saw no reason why St. Kilda should not do likewise.— Cr Longworth protested against the council’s taking the risk of being involved in expenditure as the result of an accident to a worker under its control and expressed the opinion that the Unemployment’ Board should take this responsibility for insurance risk, paying out in the case of an accident on the basis of the worker’s earnings for a week.—After some further discussion the motion, which was seconded by Cr Baird, was carried.