The Weekly Gazette for Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool and Cleveland District. — 1879-03-22 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

THE CHILD MURDER AT NEWPORT.  duce Mr Booth's salary to £250 would nese& aitate a serious injustioe to Redrawn • otherwise £365 per annum —itu exasiegij sum—would hive to be paid for the work Mr Booth and Redman would have to perform. It did isos hOOM to him (Mr Councillor Mildred) to be a question of whether £5,000, £2490, or £l,OOO which was admitted by Mr Boa* or £BOO, as stated by the Chairmen, had bad; paid away in mistake. The question wee— Was Mr Booth capable of occupying the position of one of the highly-paid officials at this, Corporation? He (9fr Counsillor Mildred) held that Mr Booth was not ocep• potent to hold any position under the poration, which involved the respondbility of extensive money paymeni. In extenuation it was urged tbat he beg saved very considerable sums as a 8111 manager. But had he done anything moue than his duty—to keep the txpenses when' they were or. as far as possible, to reds* them. The Mayor had shown that any sees ing which had been effected was not attrals. table to the energy of Mr Booth. It was sea the Committee were to blame for not dlr. covering the measurements were incorreeds But surely the Committee could not bs expected to check measurements. Thar relied upon a very highly-paid official, and he had misinformed them. He, admitted over-paymenti had been made Ii consequence of his mistakes. He (air Councillor Mildred) had no doubt about lb Booth's incapacity. He was unfit to heat any office in connection with the paying at money. It would be utterly impossible for the Committee to make sure the amounts they were paying were correct if they hat not the utmost confidence in their officials. Mr Booth could easily have satisfied himself about the measurements. It was said be did not wish to take the post of superintendent of the gas tank—that it was pressed upon him. Be that as it may, he did d 0.., and he became responsible for the wok. He had proved himself absolutely incapable of carrying it out, and in fairness to the i)ommittee and in justice to the town he ought to resign. He (Mr Councillor Mildred) wished it to be understood that he had no animosity towards Mr Booth, but bore to. wards him the most kindly feeling. The CHAIRMAN said Mr Booth had encoessi frilly carried out engineering work to the amount of £12,670.  Mr Councillor JONES said Mr Booth was a very useful man as a gas manager, and the Mayor was wrong in saying that was a labourer's job. As to Mr Jones's expenses in oppo%ing the Water Scheme, the Mayor forgot to make any allusion to those pleasant little dinners at the Tavistock in which he and his colleagues took part. The voting was then taken for the Mayor's amendment— hat Mr Boot+i be asked to resign—the Mayor, Aldermen Todd and Hudson ; Councillors Leopard, Goodhall, Kaye, Walton, and Livingstone, 8; against, the Chairman, Councillors Jones, Taylor, Fidler, and Imeson, 5. The amendment was therefore carried, and the motion lost. The meeting sat till nine o'clock.  A few days ago the body of a recently. born child was found in the river Tees at Newport. On Wednesday the police authorities receivod information that a woman is in custody at Alnwick on suspicion of being the mother of the child. At the inquest a verdict of murder was returned, and a reward of £5O was offered for information which would lead to the detection of the murderer. An officer has been sent to Alnwick from Middlesbrough, and doubtless he will bring the prisoner to Middlesbrough.