Water-rate Collector. Mr. Adams having applied for an increase of per centage from 3½ to 5 per cent, the Water Committee, on the 6th of April, recommended that £10 be given him for his increased duties, but to postpone what was asked for until some definite arrangement was made with respect to the Water-works. Coun. Wingfield understood that Mr. Adams first undertook the collection at 1½ per cent, and at that rate received about £20 a year. He soon after received an increase which brought it up to about £48 a year, and this he considered to be ample pay. Coun. Winter would have dissented from the report under ordinary circumstances, but Mr. Adams had had his time taken up and his mind diverted from his own duties during the late short supply of water by persons calling on him with their complaints and by his assisting them in obtaining remedies. Coun. Duke also referred to the collector’s largely increased work over that of the Assistant overseers by having to make out his rate from three or four parishes. He (Mr. D.) cordially supported the Committee’s recommendation, and would have been pleased to propose £20 instead of £10. – Carried with only one dissentient.
A New Forge. At the same meeting, it was resolved to erect a new forge at the engine house in St. Andrew’s at a cost of £20. It was believed that the expense would soon be saved in the repairs of tools and other implements.
Memorial against Hawking.
At the Council meeting on Oct. 5th a memorial was read by the Clerk as follows: - “We the undersigned owners and occupiers of property beg to call your attention to the increase of hawking. It is a great hardship that parties living in or out of the town, having no establishments to keep should be allowed to do what we are forbidden to do, namely to hawk their goods. We are aware that it is in many cases difficult to prove the offence in consequence of the parties pretending to call for orders, but this is well known to be only a subterfuge, the parties having always an assortment of goods with them. If the present state of your law cannot meet the wishes of your memorialists, we trust you will pass a bye-law for the purpose, or cause some more stringent measures to be taken to put a stop to hawking and selling”
The memorial was signed by about forty tradesmen of George street, Robertson street, High street, All Saints street, London road, Grand parade and Norman road, including the principal poulterers, greengrocers, and a few of the grocers. Coun. Poole remarked that the Local Board had provided a Market and had otherwise done what they could in the matter; he and a brother-councillor to whom he had spoken, were both convinced that a great portion of the goods sold by the greengrocers were purchased by them out of the borough, therby(sic) evading the tolls. He thought the parties ought to deal fairly by the Local Board. – Ald. Ginner observed that -
