PUBLIC MEETING OF RATEPAYERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2055, 5 June 1890, Page 2

PUBLIC MEETING OF RATEPAYERS.

A public meeting was held in the Road Board office, Geraldine, on Tuesday afternoon last for the purpose of considering a number of resolutions passed at a conference of Representatives of County Councils and Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards held at Chria'church oo the 24th and 25th April, 1890. There were a cicsidorable number of the principal ratepayers of the district, also Major Moore, member for the Geraldine District on the Geraldine County Council, and Messrs Buxton and Rhodes, M.H.R.V, for the Rangitatn and Gladstone districts respectively. Mr F. K. Flatman, chairman of the Geraldine Road Board occupied the chair, and read the advertisement calling the meeting. He also read a portion of the suggestions made by the chairman of the Geraldine County Council at the Conference of Chairmen of County Councils he'd in Christchurch recently. Many of the ratepayers in the Geraldine district did not approve of some of the suggestions, and the present maeting was called for the purpose of considering certain propositions winch had been formulated to lay before the meeting that day, traversing the opinions of the Christchurch meeting.

The following resolutions ware passed unanimously ;

Rating—“ That no extended powers of rating be given to the county ceuncils prior to taking the vote of all the ratepayers in the district in which the rate is to be struck.*’

Rivera—“ That in the opinion of this meeting the extended powers sought for at the Conference of Chairmen of County Councils be extended to the road boards whore in force, and that a clause be added to the present Ro id Boards Act enabling each board or county where no road board exists to compel the neighboring board or council to clear its watercourses and riverbeds from obstructions for one mile beyond the boundary Hue." Bridges “That this meeting is of opinion that all bridges on county roads, as defined in schedule 1882 of Main Roads and Bridges Construction Act, should be kept in thorough repair by the county in charge, and that the power should still be vested with the Governor to say whether certain bridges should be closed or not.” Charitable Aid “That the present Charitable Aid Board having failed to administer relief satisfactorily, this meeting suggests that the road and town boards and borough councils in each county counnil district administer outdoor relief, and that the existing Charitable Aid Boards should confine their duties to the management of hospitals.” “ That the ratepayers in the Geraldine district are prepared to pay a rate for the maintenance and the keeping in repair of the bridges in the Geraldine district.” [A fuller report will appear in our next issae].| ,