New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-08-23

manage It's own aHalrs. We must not issue
bonds, ebecauses one of theiAdn,iniutrafors
might steal them
Mr.. Shaw If the Administrator has MT.
sufficient to steal and run away now. he
will have when these bonds are ssued-ah
least he will have very large Involvement
He will have two anda half millions.
Mr.. Walton: / deny that the ordinance
provides that the bonds shall only be issued
as the contracts are made.
Mr.. Shaw: 1t provides that the Mayor
shall go before a notary public and make
contract with some person not existing, and
he is 10 mortgage all our Waterworks funds.
l myself have AN humble function assigned
me in the ordinance. | am to represent all
the absent creditors: but if am to appear
notarially in this capacity, | shall study
pretty well what l am doing before |
do it. | say that mortgage executed
by one officer of an incorporation
in favor of another officer, and not all-
thorized by the Legislature, is utterly null
and void, and not only has no effect, but is
SO unusual and so suspicious proceeding
as to destroy whatever value these bonds
might otherwise have had in the market,
when the circumstances are properly looked
into. There is no act Of the Legislature
which authorizes the city to issue bonds for
waterworks purposes, and the city has
never attempted to issue bonds without an
act of the Legislature
The Mayor: Is there any act of the Legis-
lature allowing the issue of these wharf
bonds, of which we have put out seven hun
bred thousand dollars worth
Mr.. Shaw: think there is, in the charter
Whatever proposition the Administrator OF
Finance may fear is in store for this C0un-
Gil, say there is no proposition so suspi-
cious and 50 little worthy our respect as
this naked proposition brought here today.
The offer that was recently laid before us
a MOUNTS simply to this: that the company
offer to run the Waterworks and pay an an
nual rental of hundred thousand dollars,
reserving to the city two million dollars
interest in the works
Mr.. Walton: They ask us to lease them
the Waterworks, with privilege to them
to mortgage the works for two million dol
erty to be appraised, and the city's interest
to be reserved TO the extent of two millions.
Mr.. Shaw: Well, when we come to draw
up the ordinance we can arrange this
Mr. Walton: | don't know what we may
do when we come to draw up the ordinance,
but l consider this proposition an insult to
me personally, and an insult to this Council.
Nj. Cbsx 7 hoy f1a
before me, but | should certainly move to
amend that this proposition is not before
the Council now, and the fact that some
such proposition is in the hands OF the Adj
ministrator of Waterworks is no excuse for
hurrying through the Council a still worse
proposition, when one half of the Council
do not accept it. Coming back to the pro-
visions OF the ordinance itself, l say the
ordinance is one we have no right to pass.
1t will be utterly null and void if we do
pass it, and it will injure our credit more
than any attempt that has been made since
we came into tie Council. 1t is an attempt
TO Hood the market with bonds, the min
imum rate of which is not fixed. Once pass
this ordinance, and we shall have the work
given out to patentees where there can be
no competition. If the Administrator OF
WaterwOrks wants improved works, let him
throw the competition open to the mechan-
zeal world, specifying the works he wants
to be put IN, and not choosing any that are.
covered by distinct patent. Let us then
receive every proposition, and if we find it
is-well to accept any of them, let us go to
the Legislature and get an act giving us the
legal power to issue bonds, and not issue
two and half million bonds Illegally, with
out informing the public, except in vague
and imperfect terms, of the purposes TO
which they are to be applied. Before any
ordinance Of this kind is put before the
Council for final passage, the contemplated
works ought to be specifically described,
and, after due elaboration and careful esti-
mates of theic cost, then the Council could
act understandings.
Mr.. Walton said he would like to have
heard the Administrator of Accounts make
this speech when he was on the protection
levee question
The Mayor called the Administrators of
Finance to the chair and took the floor.
He begged leave to say, in reply to the
administrator of Accounts, that this ordi1
nance followed the logical course of mat
tiers; namely, it provided the means, on the
credit of the city, for payment before com
mencing the work. This was the logical
course pursued by the Council in other
matters; it was the course recommended
by the gentleman himself, who, when he
tried to be so, was always logical. He
thought it most unfortunate that gentlemen
should complain about this ordinance being
forced through. l declare here tcon-
tinued the Mayor that Mr.. Lockwood
and give you nalae-one of the principal
men of this New Orleans Waterworks Com
pany, and one who fgured-I speak it here
dlstlnetly-not very creditably in the sale
and appraisal of the old Waterworks, has
haunted this building, besleging Admins
traitors for weeks past don't know that
he has offered anything; he has not
offered me anything, but he has said dis
tinctly and that can prove, as reason
why the Council should take up his PROPOSE
ton, that If it is not taken up when the
Legislature meets, they will pass the Water
works bill over the Governors veto. He says:
'lf you don't take my proposition, you will
get something worse They have their
pockets fun of this Waterworks scrip, and
they are going to pass this bill. and will do
it if you don't do something don't be-