THEIR STEWARDSHIP

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 650, 30 April 1929, Page 9

THEIR STEWARDSHIP

COUNCILLORS REVIEW YEAR’S WORK MEETING AT ONEHUNGA The Foresters’ Theatre. Onehunga. was comfortably filled last evening by ratepayers to bear accounts given by the retiring Mayor and councillors of their stewardship, and to listen to the views of the new candidates for civic honours. The Mayor, Mr. W. C. Coldicutt, in i summarising the work of the council j for the past two years, which he j characterised as a very lean period, re- j gretted that so little had been done j for the relief of the unemployed, al- j though the amount of permanent work j done with the money available had ; been remarkable. The roads were in a very bad state and could not be permanently reconstructed except by loan money, but a road loan proposal had been rejected at the polls. A profit of £4,000 which had accrued from the waterworks had been used for improvement works on the streets and footpaths, and £2,000 given by the Patriotic Association and the Government had been expended on relief work for ex-soldiers on the recreation reserve. The Hillsborough Cemetery had produced a profit of £1,387, which had also been expended on the streets. The retiring council had sent forward a request to the Government Loans Board to sanction a loan of £32,000 for the drainage of the area taken over from the One Tree Hill Road Board, and the completion of drainage works in othei' portions of the borough. „ The retiring council had built -an! up-to-date destructor . out of loan | money W’hich had proved a distinct | success. I He regretted that although the council had provided the stone for j the erection of a suitable war mem- \ orial and the public had subscribed! toward its cost, the,structure had not; yet been commenced. 1-Ie urged the incoming council to j consider the question of erecting a j -women's rest room on the site next to j the Orpheu3 Hall, which had been purchased for that purpose. He also advocated increasing the Mayor’s j honorarium from £l5O to £2OO a year, j and the granting of a corresponding increase in the salary qf the town clerk, whom he described as an inA r aluable officer. Mr. H. Campling, chairman of the Streets Committee, Mr. H. A. Stoupe, chairman of the Waterworks Committee, and Mr. R. G. Speight, chairman ot the Reserves Committee, each gave a shore resume of the work done in their respective branches of the council’s activities. At the invitation of the Mayor, Messrs. E. Merton and H. A. Stoupe, candidates for the • Mayoralty, addressed the meeting. Mr. Morton said that his sole ambition was to pursue a policy of progress and generally to promote tbe welfare of the ratepayers. Mr. H. A. Stoupe disclaimed allegiance to any particular party or faction and would utilise the revenue of the borough for improvement works without any increase of rates. He favoured the establishment of a drainage 1 board to take over the reticulation of ■ all those areas which drained into the Manukau. The existing Onehunga system was established to provide for ; a population of 8,000, but there were [ now 11,000 people in the borough, t which called for a geenral review of j the whole question. After hearing the views of Messrs. T. H. Geraghty, F. W. Mountjoy, A. S. Tonkin, J. A. McKendrick, S. Vella, J. Pilkington and W. C. Hill, candidates for the council, resolutions were carried expressing appreciation of the work done by the retiring Mayor, Mayoress and councillors.