WAIMATE WEST COUNTY COUNCIL

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 12 August 1921, Page 6

WAIMATE WEST COUNTY COUNCIL

MONTHLY MEETING.

THio usual monthly meeting of the Waimate West County Council was held at Manaia yesterday, when'there ■rare present: Crs T. McPhillips (chairman), J. Stevenson, J. S. McKay, A. Gamlin, W. Le Fleming, E. Long, and T. A. Bridge. HOSPITAL BOAUD SUBSIDY. Cr J. S. McKay, who is the Coun«3's representative .on the Hawera Hospital Board, reported that the 3soard was not in favour of a return Id the £1 for £1 subsidy. He con^ tended that every Board should be treated on its merits, and they were in of a proportional subsidy and siot a flat rate. As he pointed out, scone of the hospital boards possessed ' snore endowments than others, , and %bese fortunate boards were able to soaaage on a smaller subsidy than other less fortunate boards. BARBERRY. Thtf Department of Agriculture advised that tho plant known as barberry - (barberis vulgaris) had been added to . the third schedule of the Noxious Weeds Act. - Some discussion arose as to whether . a/noxious weed could be planted as a kedge. ■ .■ :- v ■ .-. '.. , Cr Stevenson said that as far as the councillors knew barberry did not grow in abundance in any part of the coun- , ty, and he suggested that they 'hold the 11 jnatter over in the meantime. .'/"11b chairman stated that they could yjleawe it over for the present and i* ' 'they found that the plant was spread,me they could deal with it. ' \ Cr Long said he did not think there ' was any chance of the plant spreading ipt the Waimate West County, as he , vnderstood that it only spread on poor and broken ground.

" . On the motion of Crs Long and Gamlin, ik was decided to take no action »* tin matter. ~; TOWN BOUNDARY. ! Hie Department of Internal Affairs r lorwarded a copy of the report of the ;''' Commission appointed to enquire into the proposed alteration of boundaries _' of the Manaia town district. It was stated ■ that there was no existing power to give effect to the recommen- ' -datum of the Commissioners tnat either • A special rating-area be constituted or m system of differential rating be instituted, and consequently if those concerned desired to establish such . xating area or system of rating for the t purposes of the' loan in question the _ only coarse to adopt was to have a local Bill prepared for introduction to Parliament. Cr Long said he thought it was. a v great pity that the town boundary had V keen interfered with, especially as it ?> gave them sixty extra chains of road *V to keep. He considered that the change fc-^would be detrimental to the township. McKay said there was the other h'l aide to the question as well. All :*. would have been well if the system o? '■ rating had been instituted. f , HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER. i Cr -Stevenson, who had attended a conference at Stratford which had discussed the hydro-electric question, ; Stated that Mr List, who was chair- ; man of the New Plymouth Chamber ot Commerce, and Mr Bellringer were very much annoyed at tba -w^ivtitude of the [- Xeague ik trying to -*S?U*k New Plymouth : fijom supplying the districts south of _ New Plymouth as far as Elj, ■ -tham with hydro-electric power. He .:* jaaintained that New Plymouth was iiot going to supply all Ihe districts £ of the province iKafc, required the power, but was "mereiy-'going to supply .^^^.the large towns, where the expense o* installation would not be so heavy^ and by so doing would spoil the opportunity f , «f any board supplying the country disr , tricts. GENERAL". -, The chairman and Crs Bridge and Bteveason were appointed to attend the , - forthcoming Counties' Conference. The chairman v. stated that as they liad not yet received the loan money tile matter of drawing up the road esti- "\ mates for the coming year had not yet Been attended to. He thought they must make some move, and the best. ' thing to do was to report at the next meeting on what he thought was the most necessary work that needed at > tending to. He moved in that direction, and Cr Gamlin seconded. The motion was carried.

ENGINEERS' REPORT. The engineer, Mr j. A. Hansen, reported that the staff had been occupied | ior the last part of the month working i M " the crusher. After finishing on the Main South road the crusher had been moved to the top end of the Rowan /i«oad, and the 400 yards of boulders there had been crushed. The crusher , wms now ~on the lower Auroa road, where there were 500 yards to put through. Metal patching had been carried out on the Auroa, Rowan, Rama and Oeo roads. A good many concrete pipes had been made- during . the wet weather. It was expected that the Kapuni bridge would be finished ,- ' «ext week, as only the hand rails and wheel guards had to be completed, lie was now having the fillings at each «nd of the bridge put in. It was his intention to spread a light coat t/t metal over the deck of the bridge and then tar-grout it. To do this and metal the approaches it would require about fifty yards of crushed metal, and as there was no broken metal near he was thinking of setting the crusher up near the bridge just to crush sufficient to do _- the job.