Otsutau Town Board.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume 1, Issue VII, 14 June 1905, Page 3

Otsutau Town Board.

The ordinary .'monthly meeting of this Boaed was held m the Town Hall, Otautau. on Monday evening, when there were present Messrs Matheson (chairman),- Swhan, Officer, Kelly, Scatter and J. Fish r (clerk) DRAINAGE CONNECTIONS. B. Ford, of the Railway Hotel, Otautau, addressed the following letter to the Board : — I have your letter of thc 9th ult., re connecting with the main sewer. I must again ask your Board f.-r assistance to carry out samo viz,, to put me on tbe same footing as the residents on the main road Ido not want any privilege above any other rateoayer, but will certainly resist being heavily handicapped. • \ . . Tbe C'e k : There is a minu'e bearing on this matter which would probably have lo be rescinded, before it could be dealt with m any different way. The Chairman : Amotion wai carried, " think, to the effect th it he wis tq get p p,3S ; for a chain m length f ee of charge. Tl*ic Clerk said, ihe minute \?as as follr ws : " Moyed by I*4"* McNeil and seconded by Mr Scatter, that he be allowed 33 pipes fr-3e of charge, schsdule rates for the remainder." That was carried at a meeting of the B^wd held on the Bth August last year. Mr Fq.-cI had seen him .011 the matter and wa quite agreeable to making tbe connection, provided he was put o 1 the same footing as any other ratepayer. But he said he would allow the m'U'.tr to.'gt to court if the Board required him to put m any further length of pipe thin he, would hive to do on the main street. -Ho cbntend-d that hs was the only ratepayer off the main stiee.!; who had been ' compelled to make the connection. The Chairman ; I am n^t aware that anyone has "been allowed anything for p'p*»s on private property. The clerk : He wants ta mike the con. nection, provided ho can dolt ontbesam,2 terms as the-others. The Chairman : Provided the B ard will ' do it for him. In reply to Mr Scatter, Mr Kelly said he had had lo take his pipes IJ* chains to the connection. The Chairman : And Mr Sweetman took it as far as that. Mr Scatter. : He took it farther. In answer to the Chairman, the Clerk r.aid the pipes cost the Board ls OJd. Mr Ford wanted to connect his place, but was determined that he would not put down a lot of piping that other people had not been required to do. ! Tbe Chairman : It is all on private property. It is against the Act to give any man pipes free of charge. I said so at the time the motion was carried. ' :. . ' Mr Kelly : I give notice that the fori-qef resolution be : rescinded. Other .people along i\\a- 'street might"* be compelled to put m a drain too, and ft simply means that the Board would have to trqat them all the same. The Chairman : If you give it to Mr Ford, you will have to give it to everyone 'm the town. ''" Mr Kel y ; That is what I fay and I think ba was yery foolish not to haye' ay tiled himself o'{ the concession when he had the chahc.e. The matter then dropped! EQAUP, ANU, CQUXTY fcOCNCIL. The dlerk read a-'letter from Mr fJeo. Giiciirist, a former Clerk t(*> the Board' stating, m answer" to enquiries fr->rn thi Board, th.it, as far as he co(ild recollect,' th- 1 ! $oafd gave £IQO tabards ' the cost of tlie Aparinia Bridge, and, be thought, £20 to £21 towards the half cost of forming and gravelling the road from the b idge to tbe main roud, and since th°n they had spent about £4 for maintenance. Thc Clerk : Ido not understand whether tbe Hoard gave £I<o towards the . bridge out of their funds, m addition to the collections that were made The Chairman : The Boam! gave £100. 'I b, j Clerk said 'be " aad ascertained that on the 26ih March 18© there .were private subscriptions raised by the residents for the Yellow Bluff Bridge to the amount of 182 10a. The point, however, was whether that was paid to the county m addition, or paid to 'he Town Board and inpjqded in." the £100. Tho Chairman said' he bad been told positively'that the Boarcl gave t'TOO m addition to the I*B2 lOs. He was surprised at a member of the County Council stating at {he. Council table that ih,e Towq Board never paid one penny towards making the road to the Yellow 'Bluff bridge; It showed that some members did not know what they were talkling ab:ut.j Before muk'ngsuch a statement, a man should be sure of his facts. He had read tbe member's statement jn the press, but could, r-qt, ! of eoyree, gay whether the press report was correct. TVIr Swhan : It shows that they do not know what tbey are talking about. The Chairman : If th,e n.einhers qf the County Cou,uoil think t^o Town Board is doing \yell out of them let them hand over the ratcß, and t\\e Board will make thi footbridge required over the Otautau river. The rates for tqis year will air-gunk to £120, and, with ihe 2fj per cent received from the Gov- .-■ ernment, tbey will have £150. It would pay the Board well to give them a percentage for collecting, ahd let them hand over the balance Mr Scatter : It would pay the county too. Mr Officer : Have they the power to hand over the balance? The Chairman 2 No, they are not bound to do it, I believe we are spending money illepally m making the footpaths on the main street, because that work rea'ly belongs to the county. If it came to a point of law, we eppli clem-jod. every penny «( it Wok again,

i However, I hope we shall rot come to litii gation. I Mr Scatter endorsed the cba'rman's re-. I marks, He knew the Town Beard had b'-en I keeping up the maintena cc on tbe road from . I lie Yellow B uff Bridge, except on tho last occasion. When he was a member of the B jard ten years ago a certain amount of work was done there. The Chairman thought something should be done to correct the erroneous statement of a County Councillor The real meaning of it Was tliat the Board were imposing on the Council. Mr Scatter knew for a fact that the Town Board had paid £100 towards tho bridge and had also paid towards the maintenance of the road on one or two occasions, if not more. The Chairman : I do not think a footbridge would cost more than 10s per foot. In fact this year's rates would do it. Mr Scatter : It would depend upon how it was constructed. ' Mr Swhan sud tho County Engineer considered a footbridge four fee. wide would cost £1 per foot. Tlie Chairman : You'll find it can ba done for. half that. Mr Swhan : Oae hundred pounds ought to do it. Mr Scatter : Four feet would be too narrow. ' The (.h.iirmai : Four feet would not do at all, it would require to be six feet. , After further discussion, Mr Scattor moved ahd Mr Officer seconded " That the Clerk be instructed to write to thc Wallace County Council pointing out that the county membars are labouring uncle* a wro'g impres .ion regarding the Town Boards attitude towards the Yellow Buff bridge and road. Instead of the Board, as stated at the county meeting, never having cont ibuted one shilling towards the cost of the above works, the Board made a contribution of £100 towards the cost of the Yellow. Bluff bridge anl oll^ctcd as voluntiry contributions £82 10s additional towa-ds the work. The Board also paid half the cost of making tbe road from tho bri'lge to the main street and have on several occasions made payments towards its maintenance." This was carried. The clerk was directed to thank Mr Gilchrist for his letter. WINDHAM TOWN HALL. The Chairmin of the VVyndbam Town Baird wrote asking for information upon ~ various matters connected with tVi3 management, c"c, of the Town nail, aud the Board requested thc clerk to sup,.ly it. VALUATION KOLTj. Mr T. L. Oiwin, of the "Valuat'on Drwtment, Invercargill, forwarded lho newly revised valuation roll for 193-3-6. The Clerk stited that the capital value on th 3lst March 1904 was £29,859 ; on the 31 tM,irch_l9os £38.749 ; showing an increase of £8:839. Tie unimp overt value m 1904 was -fc'8,873, and m J995 £14,264, the increase m tha unimproved valu*- b?ing £-5,386. The improvements for the year were £3534. A rate of fd m the £ gave » 121 ls-lOil. That w\s the ordinary revenue th ; rate would raise aid that would be tho amount piynble lo the County O ujcil. The special rate for payments on loans won d be £00 10; lid.. That was wh tt tliey would get from the jjd rate next yoar a-d it would be suffi-iieut to pay interest oi the two ex'sting loans, and the loan they proposed to^ rais3. AN rNTERKST.'^q I,T JT. The Clerk read th. i -following s'ateneqt wbi.b, ho b, „d prepired for the information ef the B •-* rd : — Beap'.ng upoi th 3 oontrover y going on between the Town Board and Wallace County Council. with reference to tie expenditure on the Main Street and the rate* derived from the Town District by the County Council, I append a list of ratas wbish have boen annually struck sinae 18)7 for the Town Board General Fu id. As the Town District general rate is the same, as that levied by the council, this list will "exhibit tbe 'amount of rates that body has colleoted. For year en ling total geneial £ s d 31st M.iroh, 1838 rate 43 19 3 1899 „ 56 15 11 1900 • ■ „ • 59 18 5 ' „ 1901 „ . 01 12 10 1902. „ 69 12 4 1903 „ 80 16 9 „ 1904 „ 8 5 17 9 „ 1905 „ 9i 13 9 Tota' for 8 years . . £531 7 0 ' 25% Gov ram .:nt Subsidy 137 16 9 Grand total 8 yeai-3 . . £6 39 3 9 B-sed upon the new valuation roll m force as from lst April last, the rate this year will be about £120. On the mot'on of Messrs Soatter and Officer, the Clerk was accorded a vo eof thanks for bis trouble m compiling tlie lis."'' fakelly's roavv I Tbe Chairman i-epdrtecj. tha - ;, as desired by the Board, "-p ".-.ad'insneQted this road, but faUed to, disc -ver any place where gravelling was urgently required to be done. In any"* case, a few loads would be of no use, and if any part were done it would need 5 chains. The Board, iri view of this report, and the fact that* it was not a favourable time for gravelling to be done, decided to leave tlte matter m abeyance. S***.Ctt*,M IVA-fEU , UnAJNACie. M,r Swhafi are*^ attention to the necessity of having 'the culverts and traps m the streets cleaned out. 'He said when wet weather came, the water could not get away along th i proper, channels, owing to the culverts ai\i\ traps being choked up, and it -pnaet^iently ran oyer the, yqacls., There was one at Mr t'or-d'*-, nnofcher near the Town Hall and another at Mr Kelly's. He thought a surfaceman should attend to them. The Chairman said the one at Mr Kelly's was on the main street and should he attended to by the County Council. A short discussion ensued, but no resolution was proposed and the matte,!"- clipped. Accounts to ,t"aa aviymnt oj £11 19s' lid wer.3 psiet*: iov p.iVraent and the Board roso. ■ ii ■■