KAITI DRAINAGE.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 10412, 20 October 1927, Page 3

KAITI DRAINAGE.

COUNTY LACKS FINANCE.

BOROUGH TO GLEAN DRAINS. .

' The preliminary legal objection as to the limit of the powers of the Commissioner (Mr E. 0. Levvey), who is inquiring into the dispute between tlie Borough and Cook County over liability for the Haiti stormwater drainage, raised by counsel for the latter body in the'early stages of the proceedings, was mentioned by thq Borough Solicitors (Messrs Chrisp and Chrisp) in a report to the lb' .\-ugh Council on Tuesday evening. t.'lt . was contended by counsel for the Cook County, stated the report, that the Land Drainage Act did not give the Commission jurisdiction to recommend to the Governor-in-Coun-cil .ii contribution by the Cook County Council towards the capital cost of a new wprk and that as the schema proposed by the Borough Council could not .he deemed to bq an. improvement on the existing works, all tho■ Commission could inquire into was tho question of maintenance. As this issue was not in dispute, they had applied for an adiounnuent until October 22 as> it was felt that if a conference Between the two bodies could be arranged, there was a possibility of a settlement be'ng made if a more, economical .scheme could he agreed upon. Advice had now been reteived that tho Cook County Council reprcsqntitives were prepared to ' meet the Borough delegates in a further conference and would he prepared to consider any reasonable solution of "Mi© problem. The Cook County Council considers that a very modified exlendi ture wisely made slioitld be sufleieut 1.0 meet what was necessary.

The Mavor (Mr y C. E. Armstrong) ’©ported that the chairman of. the Cook County and the County Engineer had conferred with himself and Mie Borough Engineer for two- hours but little progress was made. -The anility representatives made it clear that the Countv Council was not wepared to undertake any large cx'enditure on tbe Haiti drainage ;eheme. though the Council was prepared to enlarge the existing drains. r t • was held that the County ratepayers in 'that area would not be prepared to sanction a loan for £SOOO ? or undertaking the drainage scheme The enlargement of the County trains would alleviate the pressure pf water to same extent, but would not fully cope with the drainage of ill stormwater from that. area.

The Engineer (Mr A. Young), ex- ■ Rained that the conference was ‘ruitless. The Borough Council had Horne in mind that- if the drainage •uestion was not faced this year d would be an annually recurring nuismce. The work proposed bv the. County in widening the existing drains would not alleviate to anv great extent the flooded area of Tniti. He had pointed out an argument to the County representatives, which he considered was uncontrovertible. that as Gaddum’s creek of 'BO acres required a special drain, then Sheriff’s creek of 140 acres required a similar outlet. Cr. -T. Blair explained that the County’s inability to undertake the work was governed by the lack of Snances. He pointed out that there were many obstruct ions in the Crawford road creek which could he removed and if this were done it wmld relieve the pressure of wate*- hacking up and. overflowing onto the properties. Tt was decided that the engineer should renort as fo fbe obstructions that would !p. reouired to be removed from the creek.