MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22208, 10 March 1934, Page 2

MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS

CITY COUNCIL REPORTS Reports will be furnished as under by the various committees of the Dunedin City Council at the fortnightly meeting of that body on Wednesday evening. RESERVES COMMITTEE. The Reserves Committee will report as follows: — RELIEF work at gardens. The representations submitted to council by deputation from the Unemployed Workers’ Movement on the subject of the employment of relief workers at the Gardens on carpentry, painting, and similar works have now been investigated. The workers in question are employed in or about the nursery, the bulk of them being classed as unfit for heavy manual work such as trenching and the ordinary pick and shovel work. An attempt has, therefore, been made to employ them as far as possible at their various trades. The work which has been done, while of advantage to the department, is not essential work, and, under ordinary circumstances, would not have been carried out at the present juncture. One man who has been doing some carpentry work is paid 5s a week additional for the use of his tools, and the department also replaces any which are lost, broken, or worn out. It is understood that the men concerned appreciate the attempt which has been made to find them congenial work. It should be added that any essential work provided for in the department’s allocations, as, for instance, painting railings in the cemeteries, is paid for at ordinary time rates, and the vrork is done by the men concerned in addition to the unemployment time. GENERAL COMMITTEE.

The General Committee will report as follows; ,

Instructions have been given to give notice, both by public advertisement and also by direct notice, as far as possible, to all owners or occupiers of lands in the city, requiring such owners or occupiers to clear ragwort from their property by March 21 next, pursuant to the provisions of the Noxious Weeds Act, 1928, LICENSES AND PERMITS.

Applications for licenses and permits have been granted as under:—Trade signs 4, second-hand dealers’ licenses 2, Two applications for hanging signs projecting over the greater portion of the width of the footway have been declined. WORKS COMMITTEE.

The Works Committee will submit the following recommendations: — STONELAW TERRACE.

The committee has given consideration to an application by Mr H. S. TRy.to have a portion of the Town Belt, being an extension of Stonelaw terrace, and fronting his property (allotment 6 and part section 1, block VIII, Upper Kaikorai district), declared a public street. The position is that the applicant has built two houses on this property, one facing Dudley place, off Caimington road, and the other fronting the Town Belt, and it is in order to give the latter property a legal frontage to a public street that the application has been made. Your committee begs to recommend, therefore, that the application be and is hereby granted, and that the necessary steps be taken for the request to be given effect to, The necessary resolution to operate as a special order herein will be submitted to a special meeting of the council. INSTRUCTION TO ENGINEER. The city engineer has been instructed to act in the matter of constructing a dry stone wall on portion of the south side of Henderson street and forming the footpath, at an estimated cost to the council, providing for relief labour, of £l4. WATER COMMITTEE. The Water Committee will recommend that authority be granted to proceed with the construction of about six chains of six-inch diameter bypass pipes, with suitable pressure reducing valve, at the Maori Hill reservoir at an estimated cost of £250. The works are required to permit of the cutting out of the upper basin of the reservoir for necessary cleaning purposes, At present it is not possible to cut out the upper basin as no provision has been made for a bypass. FINANCE COMMITTEE. The Finance Committee will submit the following recommendations: — UNITED FIRE DISTRICT. Consideration has been given to two separate proposals submitted by the Minister of Internal Affairs for the constitution of (a) a united fire district covering the city of Dunedin and ihe borough of Mosgiel, and alternatively (b) a united fire district embracing the city and all the suburban boroughs including Mosgiel, Green Island, St. Kilda, and West Harbour. In respect to the Mosgiel proposal, it is understood that the Fire Board is prepared to provide the service needed for this district, and as the small cost involved is not likely to affect the city, it is considered that the matter might well be left to the Fire Board to arrange. The much wider scheme embodied in proposal (b) is, however, in another category. While it is apparent that material advantages would accrue to the suburban areas, it is, on the other hand, difficult to see that any benefit would accrue to the city from such a proposal. It would appear, moreover, that sooner or later, the cost involved in providing and maintaining the fire protection services oyer the considerably enlarged area, would inevitably tend to increase, and in that ease the city, as the largest local body contributor, would require to_ increase its contribution in like proportion. Your committee is further of the opinion that the proposal is inopportune and for that and the foregoing reasons, recommends that the Minister be advised that it cannot be agreed to. PICNIC DAY.

In accordance with instructions, consideration has been given to the application from the Employees’ Picnic Committee for the restoration of the picnic day holiday. The estimated cost of giving effect to the proposal, spread over the departments, is £lB7 6s 6d. The cost to the Drainage Board would be £3B. These figures in the case of the Tramways Department provide only for relieving workshop and permanent employees who could be spared, and in the case of the Electric Power and Lighting and Gas Departments exclude all employees who must remain on duty to maintain the services.

After conferring with the chairman of standing committees and heads of departments, the committee is of the opinion that in view of the numerous difficulties and anomalies which invariably arose in the past as the result of the granting of a special holiday for picnic day. it would be a mistake to reintroduce such a holiday. The committee further recommends that if the employees of both the council and the Drainage Board are prepared to hold the picnic on a statutory holiday, the council authorise a grant of £SO as a contribution towards the cost of the picnic, on the understanding that there shall be no canvassing of business firms for donations either in money or kind.