COBDEN SEWERAGE

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 September 1946, Page 4

COBDEN SEWERAGE

MR. O'BRIEN SYMPATHETIC TO •SUBSIDY COUNCIL’S DEPUTATION The case for the granting of a subsidy towards the cost of a complete sewerage scheme in Cobden was presented to the Minister of Transport, Mr. O’Brien, by the Greymouth Borough Council this morning. Mr. O’Brien, who arrived at Greymouth yesterday after travelling by . ’plane to Westport,-■received a deputation comprising the Mayor, Mr. F. A.' Kitchingham, Crs. P. Blanchfield and J. E. Stokes, who pointed out that the cost of the scheme would.be £47,000 and a loan of this size could not be met by rates, as an impossible burden would be placed on the ratepayers of Cobden, where the rateable property totalled only £28,000. Mr. O’Brien told an Evening Star reporter, after the matter had been discussed, that he viewed the request most sympathetically. He knew that the suburb was inhabitU-2d largely by working people who could not be rated out of existence —already . some were rated too high. Mr. O’Brien said that he had pointed out to the deputation that the cost of the sewering of Greymouth had been partly met by a Government subsidy, and he had promised them that if the council would supply him with all the necessary data, the amount the council could contribute to the total cost and the amount of subsidy required to bring the scheme into existence, he would take the matter up with the Government and see what could be done.

Following this morning’s deputations, Mr. O’Brien travelled to Runanga and this afternoon will receive a deputation representing the Runanga State Miners’ Union. No particular complaint was to be referred to him, stated Mr. O’Brien, this morning, but several requests, including some from sports organisations, were to be made. Private matters will occupy the Minister’s time this evening, and. tomorrow, he will visit Dobson to meet miners’ representatives. He will address a meeting of friends and supporters in the Lyceum Hall, Greymouth, to-morrow evening. On Monday • he will receive . further deputations and will grant interviews and at a public meeting at Runanga cn Monday night he will be the principal speaker. The Minister will leave on Tuesday morning on his return to Wellington.