KAPONGA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, 21 October 1916, Page 4

KAPONGA.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

TOWN BOARD

The monthly meeting of the Town Board was held en Tuesday evening. Present: Comrs. Deatn (acting-chair- ' man), Baigent, Fearon and Law. Condolence. Before commencing business Comr. Death moved a resolution to the effect that the meeting desired to express its sincere sympathy with Comr. Fearon in the bereavement suffered by him and his family through the recent death in action in France of his brother. —Comr. Fearon expressed his appreciation of the sympathetic references to the loss sustained by his parents and himself. Correspondence.

The Minister of Internal Affairs forwarded information as. to the cinematograph film censorship recently , instituted. The Department of Public Health forwarded a circular letter with reference to the suppression of the fly pest. —Letter received. Charges for Electricity. The Roman Catholic Church applied for a reduction in the charge for elec-j tricity to the church building, on the, ground that the building was xised only twice monthly, maintaining that the minimum charge of Jss per month j was in consequence excessive.—The Board admitted that in this case the minimum appeared to make the cost ■ of the light above the ordinary, boo considered that the apparent -inequity was nullified by the circumstance that: nowhere was the light such an acquisition as in a public building, 'and that if the light was worth anytning it was worth 5s a month. Contrasting a small with a large consumer, so far as the Board was concerned the supply of electricity had to be made available at i all times, with the consequent expense. entailed in providing and running the | plant, equally for the former as for j the latter-, and therefore the Board considered that both 'should provide] the necessary revenue equally up to a! certain point-, hence the provision of a! minimum charge, the amount of which was regulated by the revenue requirements of the electricity supply department. With regard to the application under consideration, the Board further hel-.l that if an exception were made in one case it would open the way for, others, and in view of all the circumstances the Board agreed that the request could not be acceded to. Taps and Water Pressure. The Fire Brigade applied for the annual subsidy of £10, which was granted. The brigade also drew the attention of the Board to the depreciation in the water pressure, caused by the number of ..defective taps in private houses.—lnstructions to be given to the inspector that all taps should be

inspected ab the same time as he makes his quarterly inspection of the sanitary condition of private premises; the owners of any premises where the water service is not in proper order to be reported to the Board, to enable them to take action accordingly. Extraordinary supply of water to the schoolmaster's residence^—Both the Education Board and the occupier of the premises liaving disclaimed responsibility for payment of the amount due,, the Education Board is to be given notice that unless *the ; matter is arranged without further delay the supply of water to the property will be discontinued. General. One tender was received for the contract for the supply of sand and fine shingle—B. H. Bartlett 6s 6d, with a proviso that all material allowed to be taken from the electric light dam would be charged at 5s per yard.—Tender accepted and also the proviso, the engineer being instructed to allow the contractor to obtain from the dam as much, as possible of the quantity required. The foreman was granted an increase in salary from October 1. It was decided to request the Post and Telegraph. Department to extend the hour for closing the local exchange from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. • The engineer reported that work for the month had included cleaning channels and footpaths, repairing crossings, cleaning drains, etc. A commencement had been made with, the work of retarring the main roads, and good progress had been made, about 1200 gallons of tar and 40 yards of sand having been used to date. Electricity department : Sixty-two consumers - were now connected, including two motors, the output for the month having been 830 units., ' The engineer drew attention to the practice of using—contrary to the insurance companies' rules—an iron by attaching. it to a lamp socket instead of' providing a separate keating icircuit for it.—A circular to be prepared and handed to all consumers who now or hereafter may have no heating circuit in their, installation, - warning them of the possibility. of rendering their insurance invalid in the event of a fire by permitting the practice with regard to irons, etc. Mr H. J. G. Allen waited on the Board with regard to the state of the fences on the Domain, leased, by him. —The Town Clerk was instructed' to increase the posts pn ord»r to 100, and the foreman to inspect and report what was required, and submit an estimate of the cost of putting the fences in thorough order. Accounts amounting to £270 were passed.