PATEA COUNTY COUNCIL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 12 August 1925, Page 6

PATEA COUNTY COUNCIL.

MONTHLY MEET]NO. The monthly meeting of the j’ate.i County Council was held yesteiday, adieu there were present: Crs. JGiibbs, (chair), Helton, Taylor, >cown. Alexander, Bach and \\ at ki n. QUESTION 01-' PRECEDENT.

Messrs. Hn,ll hveil 1. Spratf ami ihoinson drew the council's attention miury alleged to be done to Air. C. Anion's property by the lowering ui the level of the Alton Gorge road. .1 no writers stated that Air. Anion would be f-iatii&fied if the council assisted him to remove a lorry .shed to the bottom oi the cutting. , Cr. Scown said it seemed hard if tne council could not improve its roads without 'becoming liable to make entrance® into persons’ properties. Or. Taylor said that if the council were liable it might prove a costly precedent for the council. ]t was decided to reply stating that the matter was being held over in the meantime foil* consideration. FREIGHT ON METAL.

The secretary of the N.Z. Counties Association wrote asking the council to urge its Parliamentary representative to induce the Government to keep the freight on road metal at the lowest possible rate. The chairman said that a deputation, which, included Crs. Helton and Wait-kin, the engineer and. himself, had waited on the Railway Board in connection with -the matter, but could get no satisfaction. The board had said that it. was . out to show a profit, and its instructions were to run the railways on business lines. it could not give a concession to anyone without placing some burden- on another. The chairman said, however, that he understood. through the Prime Minister, that the Government had some scheme whereby some allowance would be made to counties situated a- long way from the source, of metal supply. Kowcve;, there was no,tiling definite from this source. There was absolutely no chance of getting anything from the Railway Board, The question of whether or not it would not be better for the council to obtain its metal fro-m Rangitikei was discussed briefly, but no definite opinion was expressed owing to lack of knowledge of the Rangitikei material. The excellence of the Belmont metal, nevertheless, was unquestioned. The matter of the cost of procuring metal wa;s finally held over in the mea-nti me. EdiTAD THROUGH WA YE RLE Y. A deputation consisting of Mesas*s. AciTfam, .D'ailiisr/n and Ridge waited on t-iie council a,nil asked for the council's assistance ‘in the laying of the new mam road through AYaverley.

Air. Adtaan said that the board had got so. far bgt .could not get much further without- the help of the council. GircuiiiiSitaincies over which the hoard had no control had prevented t-lie work being carried out last summer.

The chairman said lie would first like to clear up a little matter between the Waver Icy Board and the County Council. He referred to the basis of allocation of heavy traffic license money, the W aver ley Board having voted, for allocation between the various local bodies on a basis of metalled roads, leaving out of account roads unin ata-lled. Such a, basis of allocation was directly against the interests of the County, Council, which had idso miles of metalled; roads.

lit, was pointed out by Cr. Belton that at the conference when the matter was decided, the chairman of tlie County Council (Cr. Gibbs) had moved a® an -amendment that unmeta-l led roads bo taken into consideration, but although tlie AYaverley Board had a representative present, the amendment lapsed for want of a seconder. The chairman, said t.haif ‘an alteration in the basis qf .allocation, in the direction he had indicated, would have meant between £2OO and £3OO to tlie county. It would nob have made much difference to the Town Board, but still it had not seen fit to assist the County Council.

Air. Ailhun said it was more want of thought on the part of member® of the board. There was nothing done intentionally against the County Council. Members had simply seen that one basis of allocation was better for them than another, and they had gone for the one that wa.s the best from \Yaverley\s point of view. After some, further discussion Cr. Belton remarked that the weight of evidence seemed to be against the Town Board. Later, it was decided that the engineer bo instructed to supply the AYaverley Town Board with the necessary plant, should such be available, and do the work at his- earliest convenience, it being understood that- the road formation be not more than 18ft i n width.

A KAKARAMEA DEPUTATION

A deputation consisting of Messrs. Gh ambei lain, Alorriis and McCarthy, waited on the council, and asked that metalling work be carried out on the Spence Road. A culvert was also wanted. The chairman said there was not much money available. lit was decided that- the culvert be put in, and the engineer be instructed to report on the matter of metalling, which could be considered later. Air. Chamber-lain also asked that instead of putting the ten chains .of metal on the side of the main road on the lulls by the Kakaramea water-hole, five chains of metal be laid on each -.side of the tarred* road up the hill between the water-hole and Kakaramea. —The request was granted. GENERAL, The council's opinion on the building and sanitation by-laws, which the Health Department proposed should be adopted by the five counties in the No. 8 Highway District, was asked by the Rangitikei County Council. Generally speaking the proposed by-laws ©eenied to be more suitable for town areas than, county district®. The clerk intimated that the council had not yet received a copy of the bylaws, and consideration of the matter was therefore deferred.

Constable Tindall wrote drawing the attention of the council to the approach to the AYaitotara police station, and asked that improvemens be effected. A culvert bad 1 , been broken in.—it was left with the engineer and Cr. Alexander to report to the next meeting of tlie council. As a result of a petition, the council decided to raise .a loan of £‘l3oo for the metalling of part of the Hukatere and Of auto Roads-.

A motion was passed to the effect that step® be taken under the Public: Works Act to take -such land as needs-, wary for the deviation of the main road near the Waverley racecourse, with a view to eliminating two level crossings, The engineer (Mr. King) was asked to place plans before the council of a machine which he had invented for unloading metal from railway trucks into 1 lorries. At present the eouneiil paid 1® (id per yard for the work to be done bv “elbow grease,” but the engineer estimated that on. ,a conservative basis his machine would do the work for J,s per yard. EN GINEEII ’S REPORT.

The engineer (Air King) reported on the months’ works as follows: Alain Road and General.—-Work on til© main road has been mainly eonfiiiecl to ordinary maintenance. The metalling of the side track on the Kakaramea waterholo hill has been commenced. A commencement has been made with the poplar planting to protect the AYaitotara hill at two places. Along the length between Moumaliaki and AA’aitotara, which was in very bacl order, the metal has been patched and graded over, and the road is very much improved. Aletal has been coming to hand, and has been dumped near the top of the YYhenuakura hill. Otoia YYest.—-AYork in this district has mainly been confined to lifting the metal from the old road over the Alton gorge and carting the same to the central portion of the Ball road, where the same has been used for .patching. The bottom of Trine’s cutting has been metalled and improved. The metalling on Theo. Foreman’s road has been com-

plelcd as far as authorised. On the upper portion of A. Pearce’s road the filling has been widened, fenced and a new culvert put in. Otoia East. —The metalling of the Opaku highway has been completed (bottom course). The Opalti road generally has been patched where necessary, and special maintenance work has been carried out on the Mahon road.

Waverley Hiding.—The metalling on the Parahake road has been commenced and completed, and the metalling on the Beach road has been commenced and is making good headway. Elsewhere in the riding general surfacework has been carried out. On the Kara hake gorge one particularly bad place required sanding badly, and I engaged a horse and dray for three days to carry out this work.

Moumahaki Riding.—The metalling on Parsons’ road to the beach has been completed and the repair metalling on the Waitotara station road. On the Ngutuwera bridge half the piles have been driven, and work is now held up until the remainder of tile timber arrives. The three chains of metal authorised for the Lower Okutuku road has been commenced. Repairs have been carried out on McGregor’s road and the grass edges graded off. The grader team is now engaged widening a bend on Aitken’s road. Kapara Riding.—The tunnel on the Makakaho road which was blocked the previous month has been cleaned out. The contractor for the tunnel and filling on James’ creek reports that he is nearly finished, and this work will he inspected next week. An inspection of the Aharoa hill contract has been made, where good progress has been made, and the contractor expects to complete his earthwork contract in a few weeks’ time. There will then remain the small metalling work to bo carried out.