ANNUAL MEETING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8725, 26 November 1913, Page 7

ANNUAL MEETING.

The annual meeting of the Ashburton County Council was held to-day in conjunction with the ordinary meeting; ■ ... ; ■■■;.•■.■.■ ,:' ■;■'■'

The Chairman (Mr C. \J. Harper) gave a resume of the! work which had been carried out during- the past year.' After making reference to the matters of the water supply to the Canterbury.' Flour Mills, the new flume at HindW and the training wall at the Ashburtop Traffic Bridge,.he said that the contri-1 butions to the Roxburgh Crossing Bridge had been paid as follows:—lJp-j per Ashburton Road Board £133 6g Bd, Mount Somers Road Board £133 1 6s Bd, Government grant £499' 18s, bal-j ance paid by Council £999 4s Id. The following grants had been made by theCouncil during the year: Ashburton' Domain Board £100, Captain Scott,. Memorial £100, Ashburton Technical Classes Association £50, Hinds Ceme-I tery Board £1 14s sd, Wakanui Road Board haif cost of f two new concretl bridges, :Methven Domain Board £2S 19s 2d. The, following contribution}? had been received towards the cost (£7O) of the stormwaW channel from the Lagmhor Creek:-—Upper Ashburtom and Longbeach : Road Boards 25 per cent, each, Tinwald Town Board 15 per cent., Ashburton County Council 35 per cent. The cost of entertain 7 ing the crew of the New Zealand a£ Ashburton had been £68 11s 3d. The number of motor cars and cycles registered during the ended' November 12, 1913, was 454, making a total number at present registered; of .836.. The number of dogs registered during the year had been 2792, as against 2725 for the year 1912. Other figures were:— Traction engines registered, 91 (1913), 90 (1912); hawkers' licenses issued, 34 (1913), 34 (1912); vehicle licenses granted, 37 <1913), 33 (1912) • billiard room licenses, 2 (1913);: 2 (1912). During the year there had been 75 breaches of the Ashburton Traffic Bridge by-laws, against 58 for last year. The number of birds heads purchased was 348,222, eggs 255,015, whilst 2124 rats' tails had been received an& payment made. The usual general rate of one farthing in the pound had been struck. The Council had never exceeded that amount, but had carried on its business, building bridges, looking after the water races, and doing all the othei? work on that farthing rate. He would guarantee that there was no other County in New Zealand that could carry on with a farthing, rate. There were, of course, Road Boards in the County, but they were not able to strike a rate greater than one farthing in the pound. One of the most important things that had happened during the year . was the resignation of Mr John Lambie, who had been a ma.u'oe?of the Council for over 30 years, and^, had only been absent for one period/ of three years. No man had served thef Council more faithfully than Mr! Lambie had. Mr Harper concluded byj thanking the members for the works they had put in during the year just passed. All had worked well together; and had extended courteous attention, to the chair. , I Mr Harper then left the chair, the Clerk taking his place, and calling for nominations for the position of ChaiiV man during the coming year. t On the motion of Councillors Harri- 1 son arid Morgan, Mr Harper was unanimously re-elected. Councillors Cairns and Murdoch alsd spoke of the good work of Mr HarperN during the long time he had been a member of the body, after which Mr I Harper briefly thanked them for the compliment they had paid-in re-elect-ing him as Chairman..; (Applause).