them to proceed. The Surveyor said the latter could not be unless there happened to be a certain number of deaths within a given period.
The Memorial Again. This petition was again read at the quarterly meeting on the 9th of November, followed by a discussion in which it was urged that the drainage plans had been first approved then tested, and that on carrying them out depended the health and salvation of the town. Coun. H. N Williams, in an elaborate address, showed, by an appeal to figures, that the rate-payers would be even financially benefitted by the general drainage of the borough, and moved “That while paying every attention to the memorial for postponement, the Local Board see no reason to alter their decision”.
Putland's Objections to Drainage Plans
More Objections. At the same meeting on Nov. 9th, Councillor Ginner was elected to the Mayoralty, and Mr. Putland had again become a member of the Council. The apparently interminable drainage question was still to the front even after three years consideration by the Local Board of Health. Discussion had been followed by actions and reactions, progressions and checks, petitions for, and petitions against, until the promoters were almost driven to despair. Even at this stage some members of the ruling body would have the work posponed(sic) for two years, and if they gave a reluctant assent it would be on an insistence that their own suggestions should be carried into effect. From the first movement objections were made and as soon as one objector had been overruled, another started up, and when the latter had been disposed of there came others in succession. A good deal of personal feeling was also evinced, together with a general distrust in the ability of those whose duty it was to prepare the scheme. The plans as produced by Mr. Gant, the new surveyor – after Mr. Putland had been driven to resign – were examined and thoroughly tested by Government officials. They had also been publicly exhibited to the rate-payers, and a verdict more or less favourable pronounced. Still, there were individual crochets, both within and without the Council chamber, which clogged the wheels of progress. Criticism still poured in on the plans of the Local Board Surveyor, and the assistance of Mr. Braithwaite, as a consulting engineer was invoked. This gentleman not only approved the plans, but also passed a high compliment on the ability of Mr. Gant. But Mr. Braithwaite’s fee of seven guineas a day for 31 days took the Council by surprise and created alarm in the minds of the rate-payers. Then, while the controversy was being carried on, money and materials rose in value, war with Russia was draining the resources of the country, national taxation had increased, and food had become dearer. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, it was at last decided that the drainage works should be commenced in the spring of 1855; but at this stage, another check obtruded itself. Mr. Putland, who had resigned his seat to take the office of Surveyor and was so catechised and worried in the performance of his multifarious duties as to tender his resignation, had now been -
