THE BOROUGH FATHERS

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13978, 13 August 1909, Page 2

THE BOROUGH FATHERS

VISITS OF INSPECTION. In roseate colours the life of a Borough Councillor is often painted, by those who see not behind the scenes. To sit back at ease in a broad and comfortably upholstered chair, in front of a bright lire, (if the weather be, cold) on one evening in every fourteen, is the idea that a good many people have of the time devoted by Councillors to municipal work. But this is a very erroneous idea. Councillors do a good deal more than appears in reports of their meetings or than can be seen on the surface. At the present time they are giving up every other Thursday afternoon to an inspection, of works in hand or of works, asked for or likely to be needed. Thev spent a busy afternoon yesterday, when, with a four-in-hand drag as a "means of locomotion they paid a series of calls. «The municipal partywas comprised as follows: —DeputyMnvor Hawkev.. Councillors Sealey, Oborn, Raymond, Beck, Porter, Sinclair, Leathwick and Gilchrist, with the Borough Overseer, Mr A. Beswick.

FIRE ALARMS. The first place visited was the Express Company's building in Barnard street, where "the Councillors went at the invitation of Captain Willis, who had to show what all agreed is a valuable fire detector, this being known as the Simplex fire alarm system. When this visit was paid there were present in addition to those above mentioned, Mr D. Virtue, Town Clerk, and Captain Campbell, of the.Firo Brigade. Captain Willis gave, in one of the sample rooms, a very effective demonstration' of the working of this new svstein of fire detection. He had an indicator board 'fixed on one wall and two alarm boxes on the other, all being connected by wires. He explained that in actual working in a town or city the indicator board would be fixed at the Fire Brigade station, and from it lire lines would be fitted up to pass through the most populous parts of the town and suburbs. At intervals along these lines, or wires, fire boxes would be located and when a fire occurred all that a person would require to do would, be to go to the nearest box, break a gl.-tjs (which protects the appliances for giving the alarm) and give one turn of a little handle in the box. This would set a bell ringing on the indicator board in the Fire Brigade station and at the same time the hand on. the indicator board would move round until it came to the number on tbe board which corresponded with the number of the fire box from which the alarm had been given. Thus the brigade would be aroused and by a glance at the board they would see the locality of the fire. (A very satisfactory demonstration of this was given in "the room.) Captain Willis said that private houses could; if they chose, connect with the fire lines, in which case the alarm would go direct to the station in case of a fire. If it was desired they could provide means of telephoning from the fire boxes so that if tbe Brigade, after arriving at the scene of a fire, desired more help, t"hev could readily ring up the station for" it. It could also be arranged to have a bell on-the Y>ost to which the fire box was attached, which would on an alarm being given, set- up a continuous ringing. In the case of an empty house with this system installed therein, a bell on the outside would keep on ringing until it was stopped, in the event of a fire occurring. Captain Willis explained the details, cave estimates of cost of the simple indicator, of the indicator and telephone, with a bell on the fire box post. He offered to -instal two fire alarm boxes in Timaru, by way of experiment, the Council to pay foj- them if, after trial, they found, them satisfactory. Councillors questioned Captain Willis on various points, and the deputyMayor thanked him for the very, interesting demonstration he had given. Councillor Leathwick suggested the adoption of this system in Timaru some time ago, since which time he has obtained information concerning it for the Council, and fr6m the comments of Councillors i.i'ter seeing the system in operation it seemed not unlikely that it will bo brought into public use. STREET WORKS.

Some street works next engaged attention. The Councillors drove to LeCren street, where they looked into a complaint in regard to drainage flowing down the side of the road into the deep gully in front of the premises -ae etipied by Messrs Thickett and Berry. It was agreed that this should be remedied by carrying the water down io the gully in pipes, in the meantime, until the gullj- is filled up. Mr Beswick explained that the tilling up would have been done long ago had one of the property owners affected not offered objection xo tailing over on his land.

Hunt street, which runs between LeCren and 'Wilson streets, was next inspected, and the overseer explained his proposals for cutting the street down to its adopted levels an'd utilising half the material for filling up tne gully in LeCren street close to the eastern end of it, the other half to go towards reclaiming the gully in W'ilson street close to the western f rid ot it. The matter was fully discussed, and Councillors also "had a cursory look over some other streets in the vicinity with a view to having first-hand knowledge when they come to discuss thorn at tne Council table. VINCENT'S QUARRY.

A move was next made for Mr A. Vincent's quarry at A\ aimataitai, the proprietor, who has a big contract for supplying the Council with broken -metal for the roads, having invited the Council to go to the quarry and see for themselves what was being done. The Councillors were very interested in what they saw. The big stone crusher was at Work, and it was-.seen that the work was all done on up-to-date methods. i-'rom a long face of clean hard stone, the material for the crusher is' obtained, the stone being hauled on a truck up to the elevation on which the crusher is located, the engine which drives the crusher drawing the loaded truck up. Into the maw of the formidable looking machine the stone is tipped, and it comes out below as we see it on the road. 'The stone-eating monster squeezes its feed in such an unmerciful manner as to create some by-products from the metal, these taKing the form of three grades of fine metal, one as fine as sand. This Mr Vincent sells to builders, who use it in lieu of sand: the No. 2 mixture is screenings up to 1} inches, which is bought by -the .borough Council, and the third is a finer kind of screenings eminently suited, Mr V incent says, for use on footpaths, where it sets iirm and is as goou as asphalt. Two Councillors present endorsed this, speaking from experience of _ it on their own properties. Mr Vincent savs there is a good private demand for this class of screenings, evident from the small heap that lie had of it notwithstanding that the stock is replenished every day from the crusher. He impressed upon Councillors, however, that when a good thing was going the Council should have the benefit of it, and he was convinced that this material on the footpatliE of the town would effect a great improvement. That the Borough Overseer was apparently of the same opinion was judged from the fact that he there ancf then endeavoured to fix up a con-

tract with Mr Vincent for the sale by him to the Borough Council, of all that lie makes of it. After a general inspection of the qiiarry, Mr Vincent hospitably entertained his visitors (with the assistance-of the Misses "Vin-,r-nt) at afternoon tea. This was fully appreciated and before departing, the deputy-Mayor proposed the health of Air Vincent and wished him success with his bis contract for the supply ot metal to the Council. The toast was enthusiastically honoured and Mi* "Vincent in a characteristically modest rneech made fittin-.' acknowledgment of the compliment naid him. " THE ABATTOIRS. After leaving the quarry, Councillors drove via tbe Old North Road and Hobbs' lane over to tbe Main North Road and across to the abattoirs. At the railway crossing they inspected the site of tbe sub-way which it has been proposed to put under the line as the Railway Department declines to allow the butchers to continue to drive their stock across the line at the level crossing. It was considered that a sub-way would be very expensive,. as in addition to the 'tunnelling, some land would have to be bought, and it was generally agreed that the work could not be linder'taken by the Council. The butchers now drive their cattle across the overhead bridge a little to the south of the level crossing and a. majority of the Councillors present expressed the opinion that there was no alternative but to continue doing this. At the abattoirs, the Councillors were met by the manager, Mr Paterson, M.R.C.V.S., who showed them round the place. Fortunately there was little to lie asked for, some bolts instead of chains for the cattle gates, and the painting of the outside woodwork of the buildings. Everything was in ap-ple-pie order and the recent minor improvements which Jiave been carried out, were favGurably commented upon. Councillors were escorted round the edge of the steep cliffs overlooking the sea in front of the abattoir and id was pointed out to Them how fast the sea is encroaching on the land there. It was agreed that to attempt to stop the encroachment would be too expensive a job to undertake. There is fortunately a thick base of rock at the foot of* tbe cliffs and it is considered that this will prevent the sea from encroaching on the Council's land to anv very serious extent. i'rom the abattoirs a move was made for home, town being reached shortly before 6 o'clock.