ELLESMERE COUNTY

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 88, 7 November 1939, Page 4

ELLESMERE COUNTY

-^ MONTHLY MEETING OF COUNCIL The monthly meeting of the Ellesmere County Council was held at Leeston yesterday. There were present: Crs. A. Anderson (chairman), W. O. Rennie, R. T. McMillan, J. P McEvedy and D. Marshall. Leave of absence was granted to Cr. J. Heslop. Members of the council during the month inspected the drains through the lake fiat land occupied by Mrs Willey and further considered her application for assistance in clearing at the meeting. No decision was reached and the matter, was deferred until next meeting. Lands and Survey Department asked if the Council would take over the administration of a short length of unformed road in the Homebrook Settlement if the Department legalised it as a public road. Mr F. L. Bailey, one of the occupiers interested, also waited upon the Council in regard to this matter. The .Council decided to reply stating that in fairness to other ratepayers it could not take over the road, 23 chains in length, in its present condition, but was prepared to do so provided the Department paid the cost of putting it in order. Twenty notifications of land transfers or alterations to the rate roll were received. Selwyh County Council, writing in connection with the emergency precautions scheme in relation to the position of Dunsandel, which was partly in the two counties, expressed the opinion that the Dunsandel area would be better under the control of the Ellesmere organisation.—Received. The Counties Association's solicitor gave it as his opinion that all counties were under a legal liability to carry out the heavy traffic license regulations and had no power to exempt any vehicles. This was in answer- to a question whether councils could legally refrain from licensing heavy motor vehicles in view of Transport Department instructions to its inspectors not to enforce heavy traffic licenses in respect, to farmers' lorries. The opinion was also given that insurance remained effective oh an unlicensed lorry. The engineer was authorised to purchase additional supplies of sodium chlorate for re-sale to ratepayers. Registrar, Canterbury College, asked if the Council would build a bridge over Ludemann's drain deviation at the expense of the College. This was agreed to. The engineer reported that two contracts for cleaning main water races had been let at 1/- and 1/8 per chain respectively, and the other one was cleaned by day labour. This worked out at a cost slightly in excess of last year's contract price. The tender of Mr J. Smith of £86, was accepted for painting the clerk's house and the sheds and other buildings' in the yard. Mr P. B. Clausen's tender for supply of dog collars was accepted at 103 d per collar. The engineer suggested that it would be advisable for the council to now go into the matter of the cleaning and of the adequacy of all! drains on the north side of the main highway from the Selwyn river to' Southbridge in order to ensure that flooding would be minimised next winter in view of the need to protect the new and costly paving. The engineer was instructed to prepare a report on this matter for next meeting, also to investigate the best means of disposing of the overflow from Woodman's creek. Repairs, repainting and repaperi'ng of the foreman's house were recommended by the engineer, who was instructed to report any arrangements made to the works committee. The pay sheet for the month was £1266/16/4 less amount already drawn (£448/11/1) £818/5/3. After making provision for this there would be a credit balance of £100 13s lid. ENGINEER'S REPORT The engineer, Mr T. Moorhouse, reported that the weather had been very fine during the month, only one day's work being lost through wet weather. The main work consisted of } shingling mainly from the crusher

and drainage. A total of 1467 cubic yards of shingle were placed, in-1 eluding 108 yards of soil, mainly for| the main Doyleston drain stopi banks. Other jobs included forming part of North Rakaia road, and wa-ter-race cleaning. In the Irwell riding practically all roads were graded. In addition to shingle work in the Leeston riding thee was also done the deepening, widening and straightening of the West Doyleston-Killinchy drain. The main Doyleston drain was also straightened in many places the spoil being used to fill up low places in the banks elsewhere. The Public Works Department had passed the Government grant formation and shingling jobs on Domain and Coopers roads, which had been completed. The former was finished substantially below the estimate and the latter at £2 above estimate. Plans had been prepared and material ordered for bridge over Anderson's drain and a culvert across Webster's road drain. Practically all roads in the riding had been I graded. { In Southbridge riding the light formation of the North Rakaia road between Cryers and Doblins road was nearly completed. The Taumutu extension of the Lower Lake road had been taken in hand to put in proper order. About half of the cutting in Ludeman's drain had been completed. Nearly all roads in the riding were graded. Highways had also baen graded and the engineer proposed to renew the Doyleston drain bridge in January. Improvements at the council's yard had been completed.