NOTES BY A WANDERING COUNCILLOR.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3335, 10 December 1883, Page 2

NOTES BY A WANDERING COUNCILLOR.

A member of tho Wellington City Council, Mr S, Brown, has just returned

from an Australian visit, and, having been requested by the Mayor to make comparative notes on tho municipal management of various cities, Councillor Brown presented an epistolary report, which was read to the City Council the other evening. Sydney was going in largely for wood pavement, tho average cost being 20s per square yard. Street watering was partly accomplished with salt. The fire brigade, according to a Bill just introduced into Parliament, was to be supported jointly by the Government, City Corporation, and the insuranee companies, each paying a third of the cost. In Melbourne, the streetwatering was similar to that in Wellington, Carts for night-soil were made to shut close, so as to avoid all offence in transit, and this system Cr Brown strongly recommended. Storm drains were being laid down the principal streets, egg-shaped and concreted. Wood pavement was also being laid there at an average cost of 15s per square yard. One street was lighted experimentally with electricity. Rates in Melbourne were Is 4d in the £, exclusive of water, and in Sydney they were 3s, Cr Brown also referred briefly to the municipal systems of Invercargill and Dunedin. His general conclusions were that the manner in which Wellington streets were kept would compare most favorably with any city he had seen, having regard to the relative amounts available for expenditure and in the formation of pavements and water-channels. Wellington was decidedly, in his opinion, ahead of any of them.

The Mayor complimented Cr Brown on these useful suggestions of an observant traveller, and said that they showed that in some respects Wellington was f 4 a little ahead of Australian cities.

Cr Brown added that in the largest cites, especially Melbourne, watering was done only in the principal streets, and the dust nuisance in the less important streets was even worse than here. People who talked so much of dust and wind in Wellington would find themselves worse off in Sydney and Melbourne, outside the leading thoroughfares. The remarks of Councillor Brown were cheered.