WESTLAND COUNTY COUNCIL DISCUSSES CEMETERY UPKEEP

Grey River Argus, 17 April 1947, Page 3

WESTLAND COUNTY COUNCIL DISCUSSES CEMETERY UPKEEP

At a meeting of the Westland County Council in the County Chambers on Tuesday last, the following were present: Chairman, Mr. M. Wallace; and Councillors A F. Clark, J. Donovan, T. Brown, R. Bradley, E. Cook, T Harcourt and G. Rowley. A deputation from the Hokitika Borough Council, comprising the Mayor (Mr. A. R. Elcock) and the chairman of the Borough Reserves Committee (Mr. A. Armstrong) waited on the Council seeking to come to some agreement about the upkeep and cost of the Hokitika cemetery. The Mayor said he regretted that .it had become a matter for dispute between the two bodies. He explained that in the statements put before the County Council by the Town Clerk, the wages of a No. 13 Scheme man had not been taken into account. The Treasury Regulations l demanded that the wages accounts of such men be kept separately. Administration costs had also not been taken into account and he suggested that as the County were going to pay, and had paid, proportionately half of the cost of the upkeep of the cemetery, they should send two members of the Council to act with two members of the Borough Council as a committee to look after the maintenance of finance angle. Mr. A. Armstrong endorsed the Mayor’s remarks. Mr. Wallace (chairman of the County Council) said the County Council was prepared to share the cost equitably on the proportion of burials in County and Borough. He suggested that the interment fees and charges be raised so that an approximate amount be collected to cover the cost of administration and upkeep of the cemetery. The County would fairly divide any cost above the amount collected, with the Borough. Mr. Wallace pointed out that the County Council were concerned with several other cemeteries in the county. The Mayor (Mr. A. R. Elcock) said that he thought that already the interment fees and charges in Hokitika were the highest, or amongst the highest in New Zealand. He invited two members of the County Council to form a committee, with two members of the Borough Council to look after the running and upkeep of the cemetery. PETROL QUESTION The Department of Industries and Commerce, Wellington, wrote replying to a letter from Engineer Clarke regarding prices for motor spirit. In his letter to the Department, the Engineer pointed out that petrol in Kanieri, three miles from Hokitika, was ?d dearer per gallon. In Ross, 17 miles from Hokitika, it was the same price as at Kanieri. In Runanga five miles from Greymouth, and in Stillwater, nine miles from Greymouth, the petrol was only Id dearer than in Greymouth. The County’s bowser was in Kanieri, and Mr. Clarke asked that the boundary. of the price area at Hokitika be extended to include Kanieri.

The Department stated that numerous such anomalies were extant ihroughouf New Zealand. The price areas had been surveyed and any alterations to existing boundaries would mean the altering and surveying and mapping of all the boundaries in New Zealand. The Department did not intend to do this at the present time. It was moved,, and carried, that the Council take further action in an endeavour to get the price altered.

K. Reynolds, Hokitika, applied for a small skeleton tramway right over the road reserve dividing Whiley’s and Kline’s farms on the Kokatahi, Road, to enable him to get silver pine out.

Cr. Brown drew attention to the fact that Westland was being cleaned out of silver pine. He said that the cutters were taking every stick. Soon there would be no posts for settlers and dairy farmers in the future. He thought the Government should be approached to set aside an area.

Mr. Wallace said that Federated Farmers were taking an interest in this matter. He suggested that a remit be set to their next conference to be held in Greymouth shortly. The Resident Engineer, Public Works Department, Greymouth, advised that the Department had obtained approval for the expenditure of £2OO on the Martyr River bridge, Okuru, subject to a contribution of one-fourth being received from the Council. The engineer stated that, the question of whether such a contribution should be paid from the Council’s funds or provided by the parties benefiting is a matter for the Council’s decision and action. The Council decided to ask Mr. Nolan if he would contribute some of the £5O required, in view of the fact that he was the most interested party.