EXTRA EDITION HAWERA COUNTY COUNCIL

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 7 May 1921, Page 7

EXTRA EDITION HAWERA COUNTY COUNCIL

MONTHLY MEETING

The monthly meeting of the Hawera. L-oxinty Council was held to-day. Present- Councillors Murdoch (chairman), Douglas, C. Hawken, Dunlop, Larcom, • Lysaght, Washer, and Linn. CORRESPONDENCE. The Minister for Public Works, for- - warded a copy of the report of the chiet electrical engineer (Mr Birks) on the question of electrical supply for the whole district. , . - . The chairman said the -population m Taranaki was given as 54,6Q9, and the total amount of power required for the province was 1<J,600 h.p. The total in-, stalled rxnver was 2220 h.p., and that »over 8000 additional horse power would be needed. The population would be shown by the present census to have - greatly increased .—The report was re- - ceived. ' A circular letter was, received from the Hon. J. P. Coates. stating that in view of the world-wide financial stringency and the necessity for national economy the Government, would be obliged to limit all expenditure to such works and purposes as were absolutely •essential. It.-was his unpleasant duty to infprm the Coiinc:l that it would be necessary to readjust^- the expenditure of votes provided for road and bridge works in common with other public works. In the event of unemployment \

later,,the Government being in -control of the expenditure v of votes," would be in a better position to deal with the 'difficulty. He was not prepared to financially embarrass local bodies 'by cancelling all • unredeemed but he" regretted that it ■would be neceasary > to • cancel ' every or portion of authority in. reaspect to which, no definite obligation or ■jcontract had been entered into. The -engineer in charge of the district had been instructed to furnish the Council wijt,h, a schedule of unredeemed authorities held by it, and on receipt of^this the Council was asked to fndi'cate the information required to'eiiable the Department to ascertain what -amount would be necessary to honour •each authority to cover the" actual comi"mitinents which could not be cancelled. With regard to moneys offered to the 'Council for expenditure, but in respect to which no authority to exnend had yet been issued, no claim for" expenditure would be recognised. \ The chairman said there was only -one work to complete before they would be able to complete the information the Department required They had received so far £800 from the De•Soon™6ll^ T, he commitments totalled „ &ASUO, but the works would probably ■cost £5000, and he proposed to ask tor £ for £ on the whole of the works. ! \Y nether they would get that remained £9300 Seen ' bUt theJ W°Uld g®t the ■ *wH Duiledin City Council notified ' tliat its gas department. was unable to- ';!? * a requirements of tar, and therefore outside ■ orders could not be * i Twenty-three ratepayers in the Ha-' wera r:dmg petitioned the Council-to hav^the necessary steps taken to raise. -a loan of £1800 for the purpose of constructing Rata street from Glover road to Maire street ;* iMaire street from / VVaihi .road to llata street, and ltiniu from Wanhi road to Rata street I They undertook to pledge their proper- \ ties as a special rating a.rea. for the "purpose of providing interest and rate -charges-on. the loan. . j The chairman said .he understood' that the whole of the ratepayers, with •the exception of two, had signed the | petition. He had informed the i>rin"Cipal ratepayer that they would "take the necessary steps so that as soon as ! money was available a loan could be raised. The petition .was quite in order -and he would move that it be 'accepted i -and that the Council take steps to give -effect to the wishes of the petitioners. —This was carried. " >l The secretary of the Hospital Com- i mission wrote inviting the Council to ' -express' its opinion on any subject or ?u att£ rs in the orde*" of reference for "the _Hosp:.ftil Commission which affect- : -fed local 'authorities.—Received. j Mr AY. J. Tristram, secretary to the Taranaki Counties'/ Conference, wrote ' forwarding 200 copies of the uniform by-laws, and stating that the confer- ' •ence had fixed £12 12s as the amount of any outside local body's contribution to the legal expenses of framing ••the by-laws. Any local body which ap- i i>neu to the Council for a copy of'the ' by-laws should be referred "to "the secretary of the conference, so that the "^fee could be collected. The chairman paid that some local 'bodies were enquiring for copies, and it had been decided to charge a tee of £12 12s, which would igo to the credit •of the. local (bodies concerned ' I

Mr R. Masters, M.P., wrote stating! ■ that he had received the following reply from the Minister of Public orks - in reference to the Mt. Egmont quar- ■ ries: "The Government will construct .*a as fast as funds available. , will permit. It is doubtful whether j • .metal will be available till next season, '. -as special machinery must be. selected, imported and installed." ■> i The chairman said that the local re- ' -quirements had been increased, iby the | . demands of the Wanganui Harbour Board, which would probably be .satis- ! . fied after the first year. The letter was received. The secretary of the Taranaki Progress League wrote stating that the League had adopted Mr Birks' report. | The Council was asked if it would allow j ..a copy of a petition praying for the formation of a Power Hoard to remain in .the office in charge of the clerk so j . that ratepayers might sign it. I The chairman .said electric power wa.s • a very useful thing to have, and it appeared to him that one big power dis- ' trict would be better than a mmiber of ! : small districts. Nothing could be done . for some time yet, but they wanted to • get th"? machinery in order so that { they could act when the right time ar- ] rived. He pointed;out that when .the ' Government supply became available, it woulu .be- sold at a much lower figure ."■ man New Plymouth could sell at, and New Plymouth, would, of course, have to come down 1.0 the. Government's price in time. On the motion of Crs Lysaght and "Dunlop, a resolution was passed in Tavour of one Power Board, and it was uecTueu to comply with t^he request in regara to the petition. The secretary of the Hawera Hospital Board (Mr C. H-aggett) wrote forwarding a copy of the resolution passed re levy, together with a statement showing estimate receipts and expenditure for the coming year. The chairman snltl that though their rcpie.sentatives naci done what they -could, they could not eMnge the position. Thi| was. the second year for the county to be^" levied on the new valuation, and they .were one year ahead" of Waimate West and two years ahead of Eltham. The increase in the valuation in the Eltham County would not be nearly so general as with Hawera. He was sure that if there was a revaluation of Hawera County the valuations would, be greatly reduced. He had prepared a petition for signature for presentation to Parliament on the matter, and. he would suggest that, to give greater weight to their representatives, they should send a strong representative deputation to Welling--ton.

It was pointed out that Parliament would not sit for four months, and 1 nothing effective could 'be done until then. f The chairman .said their strong point was that there was no correspondence between the values for the diffierent districts if the : figures for the last valuation were compared with those-of former valuations. Hawera County had gone up 67 per cent., while Wai- ' mate West had. only gone up 40 per \ cent. ! .Cr Larcom suggested, as the best : course, an attempt to hasten the valuation. Cr Hawken emphasised %he great in- | justice done to Hawera County rate ! payers by the high valuation in that j land tax had increased. He would guarantee that he was paying for similar, land 50 jper cent, more than his neighbour, wno was across the riveo* in j the Patea County. Cr I>ougTas: \Vhat we %ant is to have our own valuations reduced, not ! those of other places increased. I Cr 'Haw"ken remarked that there would be no difficulty in getting signatures to a petition, the purpose of which was to put something into the pockets of ratepayers. : ] It swas decided to have the petition circulated for signature. The Taranaki Progress League wrote inviting the Council to nominate a member for a seat on the executive committee of the League.—Cr Linn was. appointed. ' "*» The Bank of , New Zealand notified ,that on and after May 1 all debenture coupons made .payable at the bank will be subject to a commission charge of- \ per centr—lt Was decided to protest against the^charge. ■

The chairman said they had given the Town-planning Society the privilege !of having Dive's Avenue and other places .attended to so as to improve ! their appearance. His attention had | been drawn to a workman engaged in Dive's Avenue, who was making urn! brellas of the trees there. He stopped the work, and j>n enquiry found that the man had been engaged by the . Town-planning Society to trim the tre6s, and he was trimming' them too. He' was cutting the trees far too ; severely, and they had been seriously ' damaged. If this kind of thing was going to happen it would be necessary to withdraw the privilege given to the Town-planning Society. He would ■"! move that the society be informed of what had _been done, and £hat the ; privilege given must be exercised with j more discretion. ' ? The chairman referred to the riumj ber of motor accidents that had oc- ■ curred lately, and stated that attenJ tion had been drawn'to the dangerous speed at which many car drivers passed : through the toll-gates. They could see by the papers how many • accidents were happening as a result of excessive speed. Only last week they had the xa^e of, a man being swept off the middle of the road by a car.-j—On the motion of the chairman it was decided to have notices -erected at toll-gates restricting the speed of motor cars-when passing through the gates to 12 miles an hour. % a It was stafted' that if this speed was : exceeded tile toll-gate keeper' would notify the Council and proceedings would be taken. \ ' I Cr Washer brought before the Coun- ! cil the danger arising from a bull in. a certain locality which had been at large on the road. It was stated that this could not be permitted, and that the wandering stock nuisance was increasing. | The chairman said the Council would be glad to learn the names of owners j of .wandering stock, which would be ' handed in for the purposes of a prosecution. ' . , ' A member mentioned that at Normanby as many as seven or eight cattle Avere grazed by one man on the roads , under license from the Town Board. >■ The chairman said this was a matter they would have to go into with the Town Board. Regarding tlie representations made at the last Council meeting about a drain from Mr Inkster's property, which it was alleged should be lowered, the chairman said that an inspection had been made, and it was found that it would not be possible to lower the drain, nor was it necessary that this should be done. —The committee's report was adopted. The chairman said they would have to consider the question of having ' their own health officer or agree to pay ;a contribution to the Department, which in such case would have the work done. —It was decided to adopt the .latter course, i Cr Washer asked if the question of licensing motor cars had been considered, and pointed out that the races would be held shortly. The chairman said the Borough Council's license gave the right to ply on cdunty roads. Two local bodiescould not collect a license from the I same man as the law stands.

Cr Hawken said the borough issued special licenses to taxi owners from other places for race days. Could not they spear some of these people too. How about offering a license tor half the price. (Laughter.) Cr Duulop thought the Boundary Road Committee should meet the Borough Council and come to some arrangement about the division of these fees. ' The chairman said the committee Mould go into that matter. Replying to Cr Washer, the chairman said the half-holiday had been fixed for Saturday by a resolution, which held good for 12 months. FOREMAN'S REPORT. Waingongoro Bridge, Skeet; Road — The bridge carpenter is still engaged on this bridge' and has put in two new chords, and there is another one to go in. The chairman and myself went out to have a look at the bridge, and it is in a very much worse state of repair than .was anticipated. A good deal of the* timber, is only held together by a very thin crust that has been preserved by the tar which has been put on at different times. . Skeet Road<—The Public Works Department has' been carting a considerable quantity of shingle over a portion of this road, which has cut it out badly in places. It will cost £50 to procure the metal and put the road in a proper state of repair. I Little, Tempsky,Road—The metal has been delivered on a portion of this Toad 1 asked for by the settlers. It' is now being spread and broken, j Kotukutuku Bridge—The approaches to this bridge are now practically completed and the traffic is going over. There is a portion of the road on the eastern side that lias yet to be widened. - j Tongahoe Valley Road —The big cut--1 ting on this side of the Tangahoe bridge is dangerous from overhanging "debris, i which will have to be removed. As soon as the men have finished at the Kotukutuku this work will be undertaken. I Ohangai. Road —The five chains that ■ required, metalling at the watercress creek is now finished and the road j has a good surface from the Tawhiti i Road to the Meremere Road. The : crusher is now, at th.c back of the station and will be put in position shortly ■ in readiness for crushing the metal for l ! the Tawhiti Road. j There are about 50 chains of road to !. ' tar on the Normanhy-Okaiawa Road, ; and a mile on the Main South Road. - AVliai this is completed it is intended to close down the. plant for the season.

It was decided to ask the Public Works Department to have* the Skeet road, which had been damaged by them in carting 'metal, satisfactorily repaired. The report was adopted. Mr. Bublitz arid two other ratepayers waited on the Council in reference to the Matangara Road, -which was stated to be in' a very bad state. There was one hill which caused a good deal of trouble. The chairman: The whole road needs metalling. Would you be prepared to pay the extra rates? Two members of the deputation" said they were quite willing, provided the whole of the ratepayers were brought in. , The chairman said that to make the road really satisfactory a. loan of probably £1800 would be needed. Cr. Lysaght said that the difficulty was that the dairy farmers could not get up the steep hill leading to Taiporohenui with their skim milk. > The overseer said that to put this portion of the road in order would require about 70 yards of metal. On the motion of Cr. Dunlop it was left with the foreman to attend to the most troublesome portion of the, road as circumstances permitted. I