BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14048, 19 July 1916, Page 7

BOROUGH COUNCIL.

I V I The fortnightly meeting of the Borough Council was held last evening. Present: Tho Mayor, Mr. W. G. Sherrat, Crs. H. Bright, T. G. Lawless, G. Wildish, and G. G. Munns. The Secretary to the Treasury advised that the necessary consent for the loan of £4000 for th«i purpose of repaying portion of the old Borough loan had been gazetted. — Received. Messrs. deLautour, Barker and Co., wrote on behalf of native owners regarding the land taken on Kaiti hill (12 acres 1.9 perches) for the purpose of a reservoir, stating that the amount of compensation had never been fixed. They suggested the matter should be settled by agreement . or by arbitration. — Referred to Finance Committee. The Hospital Board demanded £1213 2s, being the Borough Council's proportion of the amount required for hospital and charatable aid expenditure for the year 1916-17, payment to be made m three equal instalments on August 1, October 1, and December 1. The Board also forwarded copy of the estimates. — Received. Writing m conection with a building m Williams street that had been condemned, the District Health Officer advised that the Council might apply to any two justices who might order the building to be taken down, and if the order was not obeyed the Council might cause the building tc* be taken 'down, recovering tho cost of doing so from the owner. Regarding buildings to which structural alterations have been ordered and which have been sold for removal, "the District Health officer said it was .'not lawful to remove any of the material that had been condemned for re-erection elsewhere. — Agent to be notified to' remove building within seven days oi* Council would do same at owner's expense V The District Health 'officer wrote stating he quite agreed that the suggested improvements to Messrs. Wilson and Canham's skin factory m Disraeli street should be given effect to should the Council allow this /business to remain m its present position, but as it* was m a residential position, and would become more objectionable from use, he was of opinion that jno' permit to establish, an offensive ti"4de should be given by the Council. It would be as well for the Council to 'set- aside a certain portion of the Borough for the purpose of establishing offensive trades. — Held over for inspector's creport. Mr. A. Zenker wri>te stating that owing to continued wpt weather he had been delayed m, pulling down his condemned house m Williams street, ;' aild requested an extension of ten days, when lie would undertake that the place would be demolished.-—L eave granted. Letters were received from various Ministers of the Crpwn, promising to give the Council's representations careful consideration whin the Bill for the establishing of Municipal Gas Works m Gisborne came before the House. — Received. The anti-German League wrote soliciting the Council's support to the "Naturalised Subjects Franchise Bill" which had been introduced. into Parliament by Mr. Vigor Brown.- 1 - Agreed to. Mr. J. R. Kirk forwarded an enlarged and framed photograph of the Poverty Bay aeroplane that- cost £2039 and was now m active seryice. : — To be thanked. Three tramway "employees — F. Wells, E. Simon and S. Leech, — applied for an increase m wages from Is 3d to Is 4d per hour. — Referred to tramway committee, i Regarding instructions given by the Council for the discontinuance . of the supply of gravel from Kaitaratahi, Mr. L. Crosawell wrote stating when Mr. Hewitt enlisted for the front he was told by the Council that his teams would be engaged supplying two or niore trucks of gravel daily for as long a period as he or the Council wished, and Mr. Hewitt relied on this to maintain his wife and family during his absence at the front.' The writer asked if the Council had- reconsidered the instructions or not, as 7 he would have to communicate wit_ M)?Y Hewitt as to the disposal of the teams. — The Mayor explained that the discontinuance was consequent upon, the Council having made other arrangements. Messrs Grant arid Cooke forwarded plans of proposed work m the formation of Asquith street, Aberdeen road.— • Referred to engineer. Writing on behalf of residents of Ormond road Wost, Mr. T. A. Williams j thanked the Council for intimating that j the water channel and footpath would receive attention.- With regard to the ; railway reserve drain they thought the Council's remark :' "That the Council's obligations do not extend to draining private sections," ; was uncalled for, as they were not asking for section drainage, but an abatement of the nuisance now existing, of stagnant water. The Council aggravated the position by rei moving soil from the reserve for use on the cricket pitch at the time of the Australian team's yjsit, leaving' holes, which the Council made no attempt to fill m. — Referred , to . engineer. Mr. J. Gartly wrote drawing attention to the urgent needif or 'a footpath on the southern side of Norman road.—Engineer to afford relief.,. Mr. J. H. Smith ( wrote drawing attention to the state of Stanley road, from Gladstone road corner to the Girls' Hostel. — Referred to Eftgineer. Mr. W. H. Hood wrote drawing attention to a dangerous thorn hedge being allowed to grow -half way over the footpath m Whitaker street, between Sheehan and Hall streets; also a dangerous open drain at the corner' of Bailance and Whitaker streets. — Engineer and Mayor to inspect. Mr. F. T. Hall wrote m reference to "the deplorable state" of Tukura road, Kaiti. — To be attended to m turn. Mr. A. S. Evans wrote asking if it would be possible to have a few loads of gravel put on the lower end of Hall street. — To be taken m its turn. Mr. C. E. Ivess wrote drawing attention to "the .unsatisfactory and unsanitary condition" of the residence m Bright street, occupied by himself; caused through stagnant surface water. — Cr. Munns drew' attention to the dangerous nature of the. conditions which existed, the people haying to practically sail into their premises m boats. It was absolutely dangerous* to health. — Referred . to a special: ; committee to inspect and report. Mr de G. Fraser, Borough Engineer, submitted his initial routine report, which is summarised' as follows:— Gravel : Material reoeived from Kaitaratahi. for fortnight ending Bth July — O'Grady's contract, unscreened shingle 563 cubic, yards j Hewitt's contract, 144 cubic- yards; total 495 cubio .yards. Maintenance work on pathways, drains, etc., was carried out as enumerated. Plumbing and drainage.: Four notifications of choked drains were -received and attended to. .Maintenance work has been carried out as usua). The Grey and Derby street sewers have recently required a good deal of attention and cleaning, cause being an unusual amount of sand and dirt getting m from Messrs Redstone's, Grey street, and Hannah's stables, Derby street. Notices .have been served on the ownera to construct small pita at their premises; when. these atfe installed 1 , the; above sewers will not require cleaning out so frequently. Waterworks : Report for fortnight ending Bth July: The Inspector and gang have been busy attending to general repairs and maintenance. Top line: The

men have been busy making groyne. in river where big slip has occurred, and j i fencing round slip. and planting willows ahd repairing fence, caused by slip. \ Everything is m good order and working satisfactorily. The amount of water j registered by the Venturi meter last j week was 4,790,000 gallons. ' Sanitation: House to house inspection \ was made m the following- streets — - j Bayly, Stanley, Aberdeen, and Herbert roads. In the majority ' of places the yards were m a very wet condition, m some cases three to four inches of mud was noticeable, otherwise conditions were satisfactory. The Inspector also reported that the dwellings erected on the low lying positions of town area j extending from Grey street to the j wharf were found m a very unsatisfactory condition due to the accumulation i of stagnant water and mud caused by j the last continuous rains. Previously j an open drain conveyed the water from ' this area to the river — about three years ! ago the matter was brought to the notice of the Council, and it was recom- i mended m the Inspector's report that a j pipedrain be laid to the river. Tlie I District Health Officer m visiting the I locality concurred with this recommen- I dation. Nothing has however been . done to improve matters. I have myself been over the locality m company I with_ the Inspector and Health Officer. I Portions of the existing drain where it passes' through a comparatively deep cutting should be piped, m other portions an open concrete* channel would be _ preferable so as to facilitate the , drainage of the adjacent land, or, as : an alternative, the sections themselves should be filled m and levelled. In any case a considerable expense would be incurredj which without doubt should fall on the owners of the properties concerned. Electrical: Thirty-two chains of cable and one pole have been erected. Six house connections were made. The annual examination for electrical wiremen was held on 28th ultimo, seven candidates presenting themselves for examination, three master wiremen and four journeymen wiremen. Two. master wiremen and three journeymen passed. General: The number of employees of the Council was 98, and their wages for the past fortnight amounted to £619 14s Id under general account. The report was adopted.