CITY COUNCIL. Monday, Junk 6.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 636, 7 June 1870, Page 2

CITY COUNCIL. Monday, Junk 6.

The weekly meeting of the Council was held at the usual hour, his Worship the Mayor presiding, all the councillors except Councillor Hart being present. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed. The Town Clerk reported per balancesheet that during the week he had received from general city rates 1868, £3; do 1869, £15 Is; scavengering, £26 11s 6d; rent of weigh-bridge for the month of May, £6 16s 8d; police court fines for the same period, £3 15s; Market Place rent, 7s; builders' license, ss ; by-law, Is; total, £55 17s Id; and that the overdraft at the Bank was £724 6s 7d. Accounts amounting to £331 8s 9d were passed and ordered to be paid. The Surveyor's report was read and considered. The culvert under the Whately Road, from the Victoria Bridge to the junction of Durham and Kilmore streets, has for some time past been giving way, and in a very short time it will require to be relaid throughout, either with timber or 15-inch pipes. The length is about 660 feet, and the cost would be about £100 for timber, leaving a waterway 20 inches by 16 inches clear; and for pipes, £ 1 75. The Works Committee Recommended the pipes. The labour gang had been employed during the week in carting side drain rubbish and footpath shingle from Cathedral square ; repairing Armagh, Kilmore, Peterborough, and Madras streets; filling up crossings at the junction of Madras and Tuam streets, and Madras and Lichfield streets; clearing out side drains in Kilmore, High, and Manchester streets; raking ruts on the East Town belt; clearing out the South drain; and- placing wooden posts to wire fences on the North Town «bfiltr~ In reply to Councillor Gobs, Councillor Jameson said the drainage of Whately Road, where the culvert is giving way, could not be effected by a surface drain, it must be laid under ground. Councillor Goss : intimated that a further portion of the culvert, reported upon by the Surveyor, had fallen in, and for relaying the whole he strongly advocated the use of timber. He was quite satisfied that if all Totara was used, the culvert would last twenty years. Councillor Pratt supported this view, urging that a further portion of the culvert having fallen in, was a greater argument in favour of economy.

Councillor Calvert suggested that as the matter was so very important, it should be deferred for consideration until next meeting. Councillor Anderson strongly advocated the use of pipes. He was quite sure that, although good timber would undoubtedly last a long time, it would be false economy to use it in the present instance. It would be much better to wait until the pipes could be imported, and make a really permanent job of it. Councillor Jameson supported the suggestion for an adjournment of the matter until next meeting, in order that councillors might consider it fully in the meantime, and after some conversation it was decided to do this. Councillor Jameson said the Works Committee had caused levels to be taken in the vicinity of the land abutting on the Windmill Road, the want of drainage for which had been complained of ; and they found that, ' although it could be drained into the side-drain, ... still the levels of the two are so nearly the - same that, if a few heavy showers of rain fell, the drain would rise so as to cause the water to flow back again on to the land. This kind of drainage would, therefore, be a very questionable improvement, and, as the parties could drain their land into the south drain, the committee would recommend that they should be advised t to do so. Certainly, the work would cost from £50 to £60, but it was entirely for their own benefit, and the Council were not bound to consider the outlay. After some conversation, their recommendation was adopted. In respect to the broken metal, Councillor Jameson said Mr White would not bring it down on his tramway for less than 7s per yard, and that it would cost 2s 3d more per yard to lay it on the streets, making, in all, the somewhat large sum of 9s 3d per yard. The committee, in view of this, and, hearing that the Government were giving stone to the Heathcote Road Board from the tunnel, had made application for some of it, delivered at the Christchurch Railway Station, instead of the metal already promised. The committee had not yet received an answer to the application. The following correspondence was read:— Letter from the Provincial Secretary, acknowledging receipt of certain by-laws, which it was stated would be considered by his Honor and Executive at the earliest opportunity. Letter from the Commissioner of Police, intimating, in answer to the reported breakage of lamps in the city, that the matter should receive the best attention of the police. Letter from W. Fergusson, warder of the Christchurch hard labour gang, acknowledging receipt of the gratuity of £5 from the Council, and tendering his thanks -for the jame. His Worship stated that a deputation of residents on the private road leading from Madras street to Manchester street (north), had waited upon him, and stated that they had been unable to collect more than £13 towards the cost of forming the roadway, as required by the Council, before taking it over, and that they hoped the Council would see their way to accepting this sum, and the future control of the roadway. Mr Lame had an interview with the Council on behalf of the residents, and urged the favourable consideration, on several grounds, of their application. Councillor Jameson said although the £18 was not quite to much as originally stipulated for by the Council, still he believed it would put the street into fair repair, and as it was very extensively used, he thought the Council would be justified in acceding to the request of the residents. Councillor Bishop urged the Council to be cautious in giving a precedent for taking over private roads before they were, as stipulated by the Ordinance, placed in complete repair by the immediate residents. Some conversation ensued aa to whether the road could be put into reasonable repair for the sum the residents had subscribed. The general opinion was-, that it would be sufficient if the Council conducted the work, and it was ultimately resolved that this should be done. Mr Lame, who had withdrawn' during the discussion, was called in, and acquainted with tliis decision, for. which, on behalf of the residents, he thanked the Council. A letter was read from residents on Oxford terrace requesting that the Council . would lay wooden kerbing from Messrs' Martin and Lawson'a to the old parsonage, near Lichfleld street, the petitioners agreeing, to provide the necessary timber—referred to the Works Committee. A letter was also read from Mr H. S. Phillips, complaining of a nuisance being caused on his premises by waste water from the Victoria Steam Saw Mills lodging thereon. Referred to the Sanitary Committee. A builder's license was granted to W. Atack. The Town Clerk was instructed to advertise that all who do not pay their rates, on or before the 20th instant, will be debarred from having their names placed upon the new burgess roll. Councillor Pratt, according to previous notice, moved that all persons paying their rates within two months of the date of the first application be allowed a discount of 2J per cent. In doing so he adverted to the difficulty invariably experienced in getting in the rates, and the injustice done to those who paid early, by allowing others who in many instances were equally well able to pay several months longer, in fact, letting them evade payment until the very last moment. He said an additional reason for his motion was. that new measures had repeatedly been devised for facilitating the collection, but had invariably failed. All the councillors and his Worship spoke to the motion, agreeing with Councillor Pratt's remarks upon the present mode of collecting, but questioning the power of the Council under the Ordinance to make aa

allowance or reduction from the rates, and ! even if it were possible to do ao, thought no good would accrue, whilst there would be a pecuniary loss to the Council. All agreed that more vigorous measures should be adopted, and suggestions were made of a day being positively fixed «pon when all rates must be paid or summonses issued. The discussion was somewhat lengthy, but it ultimately terminated with a recommendation to the committee to use. increased efforts to push forward the collection of the new rate. The Council then adjourned.