FRANKLIN COUNTY.

Franklin Times, Volume 11, Issue 851, 17 July 1923, Page 5

FRANKLIN COUNTY.

MONTHLY IHEETIi G. GENERAL BUSINESS. Theregular meeting of the Franklin County Council was held on Thursday. Present: Crs W. Claud Motion (chairman), T. W. Woods. E. C. Cuff, B. Charles, H. P. Garland, W. G. Hamilton, J. Dean., G. W. Heald, J. R. Lowry, H. Wilcox, the engineer (Mr J. F. McArthur) and the clerk (Mr Alan P. Day). The New Zealand Counties Association advised that the confemece would be held in Wellington on Wednesday, August S.—Received. The chairman (Cr W. Claud Motion) will represent the council at the conference.

Mr V. Matulovish, Awhitu, applied for permission to fence in piece of road reserve lease on foreshore, Awhitu Parish, section 68, to prevent cattle from destroying an orchard and garden? Referred to Cr Hamilton to deal with.

Mrs E. Cochrane, Poliok, complainthat people frequently broke the lock on the shed owned by her, situated at Poliok landing. She applied for a lease of the land on which the shed stood. |The clerk said he had replied stating that the council was unable to grant a lease of the land on which the shed was erected, because it probably a public road or the foreshore. He advised applicant to replace the lock on the shed and to put up a notice on the door stating the shed was her property. The clerk’s action was approved. Work Impossible.

Mr G. R. Eade, Papakura, drew attention to the state of the unformed road at the top of Red Hill, Kiri Kiri, fronting Mr Rhind’s property, and asked that the road be repaired. The chairman said it had been impossible, owing to the wet season, to do anything on clay roads., The clerk was asked to reply stating that the engineer and Cr Lowry would attend to the matter as soon as possible.

Mr James Tier, Qpaheke, complained that a dam in the water eoui'se, across the road caused the water to overflow and damage his property. He requested the council to have the obstruction cleared away.—Referred tc the engineer for consideration.

Mr S. Aicken, Ararimu, wrote regarding the blocking of two creeks near his gate, - and the damage caused to the road and bridge through the overflow. lie requested immediate attention to the matterj. Cr Heald agreed that the locality was very wet, and some attention was necessary but under the existing weather conditions it was impossible to do much- The engineer concurred with Cr Heald’s view. He pointed out that the road had received attention quite recently.—The letter was merely received.

Messrs Earl, Kent, Massey and Northcroft, solicitors; Auckland, forwarded conveyance from Mr John Schlaepfer to the King, being dedication of a piece of his property for road purposes, adjoining the property of the New Zealand Dairy Coat Paerata. The area to be dedicated was 11.7 perches. The solicitors asked the council to accept the dedication and execute the deed. Cr Charles moved that the dedication be accepted and the deed executed. — Carried. Request Granted. The New Zealand Dairy Company applied for permission to construct a railway across the road at Paerata from the proposed new siding to the new factory. The company also asked for permission to lay water pipes from the ram across the council’s quarry to connect with the new butter factory.—Both requests were acceded to.

Mr F. W. Yates. Papakuira, wrote with reference to the condition of unmetalled portion of the PapakuraWaiau road, and asked that the council compLete its loan obligations. Cr Charles said that Cr Cuff and he were going into the matter, with a view of ascertaining what amount w r as available for expendiutre on the road mentioned by Mr Yates. Referred to Grs Cuff and Charles for attention.

Mr J. P. Clark, Waiau Pa, applied for permission to erect a private telephone line on Clark’s road. Waiau, from the old post office site to the end of the road. Permission was granted, subject to the usual conditions. (The work is to be carried out to the satisfaction of the engineer. The Whangamarino Road Board advised that there were only two ratepayers to the board who used the piece of boundary road, Mangatangi stream to Canoe creek bridge. Rates collected from the two properties amounted to £2l, which . sum the board was ready to contribute towards maintenance of the road. Cr Dean said the information as supplied by the board was hardly correct. He knew of at least a dozen persons who used the road. Referred to the engineer, who was asked to make further enquiries into the matter and report to a future meeting of the council.

Loans Granted.

The Tuakau Town Board asked to be advised of what steps the council was taking to acquire the old railway route between Whangarata and Pokeno for road purposes. The board stated that it had received requests that a road be constructed between the places mentioned, as the present road was almost impassable. It was slated that the matter was dealt with

in the engineer’s report. The State Advances Office advised that the Advances Board had resolved to entertain the council’s applications for loans of £I2OO for the Patumahoe-Hunter’s road, and £6OO for Jericho road. Both loans were granted for 36pg years at a rate of interest not exceeding 4% per cent, per annum. Councillors expressed their satisfaction that both loans had been granted at such a low rate of interest. Deplorable State. Mr S. E. Heath and ten others drew attention to the deplorable state of Parker’s lane, from Mr Figgott’s corner to the bridge- The petitioners stated that the road was unfit for traffic. The Buckland Welfare League forwarded a resolution to the effect that a concrete bridge on Hamilton road was most desirable, and that Cr Woods and the county engineer meet a deputation from/Buckland with a view to pointing out a more suitable site to erect the bridge.—Left to Cr Woods to attend to.

Mr W. Clark, Tuakau, asked for the top end of Brown’s road to be formed so as to provide access to his land. Referred to Cr Wilcox and the engineer to deal with.

Mr H. C. Hay, Glenbrook, drew attention to a broken culvert on Reid road, aiso to the condition of the watertables— Holered to engineer. Mr A. Jones and nine others, Waipipi, requested the council to proceed with the deviation on boundary road, Waipipi, through Mr T. McDonald’s property.—The engineer was asked to report on the matter. Electric Power. Messrs Gauvain and McLeod, consulting engineers, Auckland, forwarded a copy of a letter they had received from the District Electrical Engineer, Hamilton, concerning the Franklin Electric Power Board. tjThe ! etter stated that the guarantee . of 31200 per annum was to apply only in case of allocation of power of 300 K.V.A., and for the first year of supply only. The guarantee required for subsequent years would be as follows: Second year £1500; third year £IBOO ; fourth year £2320, and fifth year, when the full supply of •300 K.F.A. would be available, £2BOO. The allocation for the Franklin board would be mot less than 300 tv.V.A., and not more than 500 K.V.A. The percentage of allocation per annum would be 40, 50, 60. SO and 100 respectively. For any allocation higher than 300 K.V.A., the same percentage figures for five years would apply. Writing on the subject... Messrs Gauvain and McLeod stated that the maximum supply was no doubt 500 K-B.A. until the Arapuni power was available, after which date the supply would probably be unlimited. The chairman emphasised the fact that although the council had been collecting information on the subject, and Messrs Gauvain and McLeod had been keeping in close touch with them, the council had in no way committed itself to anyone, nor had it mislead anyone. If a power board was estabisbed, l.e thought the se:v : ces of a practical man should be obtained to outline a scheme. He contended that residents would be eager to connect with the scheme, and that the consumption would be large. Not Committed. Continuing, Mr Motion said that those at the head of affairs should concentrate their energies'on inducing the inhabitants to take light and power. They had worked it out and found that possiibly after the third year the scheme would be self-sup-porting. This meant that they would not collect the special rate, although a rate would have to be struck to guarantee the interest on the loan.

Cr Charles : In an area like Karaka, what would be the position ? Mr Motion said that the chairman of the Waikato board had informed him that it would be a payable proposition if they got four consumers of power to the mile. He did not anticipate any difficulty in this respect as far as the county was concerned, because there were few places where four consumers could not be obtained to a mile. Even if the consumers were at the end of the mile it amounted to practically the same thing. A loan over the whole area would be raised, and a rate struck accordingly. Already areas were reticulated and these could consume electricity immediately it was available. From the start the scheme would be revenue producing.

. Representation. Concerning representation on the power board? Mr Motion said that was a matter for consideration. To avoid the thickly populated areas from returning all the members, he thought some scheme of representation should be outlined- It might be necessary for each riding in the county to return a representative. It was resolved to reply stating that the matter would be placed before a committee representing the various local bodies. A circular letter was received from the Public Works Department stating that it was proposed to divide the Dominion into a number o! highway districts- Each district would include several counties and the counties that it was proposed tobe so grouped would, as far as prac ticable, have community of interest, besides geographical and other characteristics in common. Accompanying the letter was a schedule showing the grouping of counties, which comprised the South, Auckland Highway District No. 2. The counties included are: Manukau, Franklin, Waikato, Raglan, Waipa, Coromandel Thames, Hauraki, ' Ohinemuri. Piako Matamata, Kawhia and Otorohanga. ffhe area of the combined districts was given as 6598 square miles (?) ; population 63,920; capital value £39,012-000; rates collected £173.561. length of roads metalled 1331 miles ; length of roads unmetalled 2748 miles ; length of tracks and unformed roads 1596 miles. “IWore Farcial.”

The chairman : Could you read anything more farcical ? What community of interest has Coromandel with some of the other counties ? Under the Highways Act it was proposed that local bodies should contribute half the cost of the construction and two-thirds of the cost of maintenance of roads. The rules were high enough now, but were insufficient to keep the by-roads in order- It was an injustice to expect counties to contribute on that basis. All counties had roading difficulties, but the position was never S'- acute as it was at present. The i ranklin county was on velvet as eompa ed with some others. In the Waikato it was impossible to get about. Mr Motion mentioned that it was intended to have a conference of the counties concerned at Hamilton on July 24, and he thought Franklin should be represented. It was decided that the chairman, Crs Heald and the engineer represent the county. Mr Geo. Jackson and nine others ratepayers on Beatty’s road, drew attention to the state of the road from Hancock’s road to the Paerata road and asked that some attention be given to the road- —Referred to Cf Woods and the engineer. In reply to a question by the chairman, the engineer stated that arrangements had been made to have the road the new factory at •Paerata mfetalled.