Noxious Weeds Act To Apply To Township

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 September 1947, Page 4

Noxious Weeds Act To Apply To Township

[SPECIAL REPORTER] REEFTON, This Day. After obtaining a favourable opinion from the Progress League, the Inangahua County Council yesterday decided to take the necessary steps to have the Noxious Weeds Act applied to the whole of the town of Reefton. The weeds specified in the re- ' quisite special order will be blackberry, broom, foxglove, gorse, sweet briar and ragwort. The Progress League advised that it had felt highly complimented in being asked to give its opinion on the proposal to apply the Act to the town area and its reply was in the affirmative. Cr F. W. Archer moved that the council give the necessary notice of a special order- to have the provisions of the Act cover the Reefton town area, and specified the weeds, as above. Seconding the motion, Cr G. J. Williams said he agreed that it was a good move, but added that some members of the Progress League .should clean up their own sections before asking anyone else to do so. “They will not sell vacant sections in the town which are overgrown with weeds,” he said. The motion was carried. Railway Fences Replies to the council’s representations concerning the state of the fences between the railway line and the highway in the Inangahua Valley were received from the resident engineer of the Railways Department, Mr W. E. Puddy and the Minister (Mr Semple). Mr Puddy stated that the latest advice from head office was that future outlook regarding supplies of wire was very bad and the whole position was at present under consideration by Cabinet. The Minister stated that the department’s staff position was still serious and the supply of material was such that the department was not yet able to undertake’ any general fencing work. “I accordingly regret that it is not, therefore, possible to undertake to replace the fence between the highway and railway at Inangahua at the present time, but I assure you that this fence will' be given attention, along with others, when the supply of material and labour again return to normal,” added the Minister. Surveying the work carried out by his department during the month, the foreman, Mr N. D. Bolitho, said that upper Shiel street and Kelly street had to be gravelled, 1000 yards of metal being laid down.,The grader was now employed in grading the street. Material for the water main to Elizabeth 5 street, Buller road, had come to hand and workmen were now engaged on the installation, two chains having already been completed. Workmen were still engaged on repairs to the swimming baths. Maintenance work had been carried out on Gannons road, Reefton coal road, Specimen Hill road, the Black-water-Waiuta, Rough river-Mirfins, Snowy and Murray creeks roads. Repairs had been completed where erosion started at Boatman’s creek bridge. 'Work had been continued by the contractor on Pascoe’s bridge and the painting, tarring, and placing of the hand rail would complete this work. ; . In reply to a question by Cr AW. Bell, the forepian said that no more work was being done at the swimming baths than had been authorised by the council and the swimming club was fulfilling its part of the agreement. , i ’ ' Access to Sawmill , Reporting on the proposal to construct an access road on the , west bahk of the Maruia .river, below Mairs’s bridge, the foreman said he, had inspected the site and estimated the cost of construction at £po (hire <jf grader £45, gravel £5 to £l5).

Cr W. Blackadder said that the road was required to give access to a new mill and the owners were prepared to put on a lorry and two men to work with the council’s grader. It was decided to construct the road on the terms suggeste’cl. The inspector, Mr A. Palmer, reported that heavy traffic fees for the quarter ending November 30 were being paid promptly by the_ vehicle operators. Three head of stock had been impounded during the month Reviewing the water-supply position, Mr Palmer said that the open race had maintained a good flow of water, but the Auld’s creek pipe-line was poor. Cr C. Coxall asked whether the council could not do something in regard to the Auld creek pipe-line. He pointed out that, last Sunday, the electric pumping plant was off, and if it had been summer the council would have been in trouble. It was decided that the foreman should inspect the pipe-line and report to the next meeting. On the application of the Reefton Health Camp Committee it was decided to purchase £5 worth of health stamps, for the campaign opening on October 1. Cronadun Station Yard

Replying to the council’s representations for a cattle-loading race to be provided at the Cronadun station, the Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr Skinner, advised that he had so far been unable to secure finality, as the Minister of Railways had not completed his investigations. At present the yard was congested owing to coal consignments. The application of the Black’s Point Tennis Club for the services of Mr D. Panckhurst (a council employee) in an advisory capacity, to assist it in the laying down of a new court was granted. Mr A. Hunter, Westport, applied for the construction of 100 chains of road to provide access to a coal lease held by him off Brown creek road, Inangahua Junction. Cr’Bell said that the road was already surveyed and it would also give access to pastoral areas and a potential sawmilling area. It was decided to forward the application to the Mines' Department for its comments.