Manawatu County Council.

Manawatu Times, Volume X, Issue 1150, 14 January 1884, Page 3

Manawatu County Council.

We condense the following from the Herald: — The ordinary meeting of the Council was held at the Chambers,Foxtotr, on Tuesday. Present — Councillors Thynne (Chairman), Bull, Davis, M'Kenzie, Hadfield, and Gihson. Dr Bockstrow attended after dinner. A letter was read from the Eailway Department, covering estimate of cost and plan 01 joining tramway to railway line at Carnarvon, and embodying form of application for access to line. The estimated cost of the work was put down at £278 12kOd. J The matter of P. Anderson's con- * tract again came before the Council, on a letter from the contractor, and :after a short discussion it was decided to award Anderson £15 m full settlement of the claims on his con- 1 tract. , The engineer was instructed to call tenders for metalling and formation on the Carnarvon- Awahuri Boad, Crs Davies and M'Kenzie being a committee to confer with the engineer as to the parts most urgently required. A letter was read from Messrs O'Malley and Pepperill, notifying they would take £350 and give up their contract on the Sandon tramwayi or transfer it to Mr P. O'Malley and asking the Council which they would accept. The Chairman said that on conferring with the Committee, he had offered to give Messrs O'Malley and Pepperill the sum of £250 on condition they gave up their contract, and left the plant for the use of the Council. Since then the weather had been bad, and he could not now advise the Council to make or accept any offer. Under instructions from «he County . solicitor, he had given the requisite notice to the contractors to complete the work without delay, and had forwarded the required legal notice to "Wellington to be personally delivered on Mr O'Malley. He now proposed .-1-That this Council endorses the action of the Chairman m sending no;±ice to Messrs O'Malley and Pepperill under the condition of Clause 6 of the conditions of contract, This was seconded by Cr Bull, and carried. Cr Bockstrow, who had just taken his seat, asked how the men were to -be paid. - The Chairman replied they had nothing to do with the men. ;■"" ; Cr Hockstrow replied the Council ■ were morally responsible to tbeinen •for tbeir wages, as nothing bad ' teen done to, let tbe public kcbw the ,'conttact bad been afterwards let to O'Malley and Pepperill, instead of Peter O'Malley, and storekeepers and even - Councillors bad trusted the -latter arthe original contractor. A 'great blunder bad been committed m allowing their cheque to be dis-. honoured. O'Malley had traded on it, arid bad said to the men — "Look st this dishonoured cheque. This Council, cannot pay me, and I can't P*y you !".'-•• In the face of all this they were morally bounr* to see the metinrig^it|d. The speaker further said that a, great mistake bad been maM partly by the Engineer, m /allowing too largre progress payments. No work was finished ; no culveit-> were made) and the line, which had not: been protected, was merely rojtighly cut through tbe sandhills. He said Jf they had made a blunder let th*m admit; it, and see the m^n righted out of the money m hand. (Tbe men applauded.) i ; Further correspondence was read Irom /Mr J. T. Stewart, District Engineer relative to his claim cf LBS " for plans, &c, but the matter dropped without any resolution being -passed. It was resolved— " That tbe Chairman acd Cr Gibson have authority to make imprest payments from time to time by cheques drawn on tbe imprest account at the Bank of |; Australasia to the credit of the seve* ?yal grants m aid, subject to imprest vouchers under the hand of the ens gineer «nd clerk being 1 produced to tbem." He explained that the object ;bf the resolution wassimply to enable tne€ouncil to draft moneys from one account lo the other. The Chairman also took occasion to ex» plain the matter of tbe cheque referred to by Cr Kockstrow, which he said that Cr. should not have referred to. No harm whatever had been done by that matter. As a matter of fact tbe trouble had arisen over a technical difficulty between '. the, two Banks, but O'Malley had actually obtained the £450 m notes from the Bank when he presented the cheque, and had taken and paid his men with that very money. Therefore he could not liave turned the difficulty to the Cr. Bockstrow had stated, * O'Malley was not aware the cheque had been dishonored until 3or 4 days' after he received the cash. Eyen with the £100 he received iupt bgfore he left the district, O'Malley hfdpaid some of the men. The Chairman also remarked that the matter was not nearly so seiioas as ttie t dishonoring of a cheque for 3D2000 some months ago, when the ordinary account was L3OOO over- . drawn. Tte usual batch of accounts was ; passed. ;" fWljen the engineer's salary was "beipg/ passed, Cr Bockstrow pro4est©d against the salary being charged to, the amounts received under the Eoads and Bridges Con#rpctiori Act, saying that the engineer bad been employed m other .^orks m the County, outside the works carried on under the Act, and, farther that the course was is : ; Jioijest. to the Government. The ■beaker who was supported by Cr : If 'Kenzio* moved a resolution that items be not passed, but the . motion was lost. On the proposition of Cr Bull, seconded by Cr M'Kenzie, the salary off. tbe Chairman was fixed at the f am of £100 for the present year. . : TENDEES F.OB WORKING UEAMWAy. Three tenders were received for ifprJrinjf the tramway — from Messrs J. Birchley, Foxton ; H. A. Moore,. ' 'pafnarvon" ; and "R. Wallace^ " D, anedin. It was considered the 'price's ' named %er€t ; reasonable, ' but \ ike y'phjiji^l hot^. ov;er j th*e. acceptance ■ (of, - a v Render, . tjlj pe^i ni^tinfir, to enable, lurtner enquiries, fo be made into the cost of working th> line by steam, under these cir*

cumstanr«<, we are unable to give the particulars of the various tens dera.