HAWERA BOROUGH COUNCIL

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 15 October 1921, Page 11

HAWERA BOROUGH COUNCIL

FINANCIAL STATBMHN^

I A statement was presented to the Borough Council last evening showing the balances of the various accounts on September 30 to be as follows: Accounts in credit, water £203 Os Gel, deposit footpaths £40, payment housing department £265, interest £7368 loan 16s 9d, £20,000 loan £1744 10b 6d, £15,500 loan £2679 18s lid; accounts in debit, general £9603 7s lOd, cemetery £375 9b 9d, hospital £235 4s Od./interest sinking fund £30,000 Toan £87 16s Bd. The following statement shows the expenditure from the general account under various headings to September 30, with the estimate for the year in parentheses: Public works stables, and sanitation £3402 (£60755, office expenses £413 (£856), printing, stationery, and advertising £146 £200), legal expenses nil (£150), abattoirs £586 (£1250), baths £20 (£195), institute and library £63 (£145), reserves £132 (£335, including £225 to purchase land), park £818

mg £225 to purchase land), park £818 (£807), interest £1004 (£1361), sinking fund £30 (£110), Fire Board £175 (£350), accident insurance £76 (£76), sundries £209 (£469); total £8029 (£12,879). j HEALTH COMMITTEE. ' The h%ilth committee recommended: That sanitary inspector's report be received ; that a stop watch be procured, as suggested by the inspector": that the matter of a smoke house in High Street be left over^ior consideration by the general committee; that the occupiers of business premises having water taps outside be notified to provide removable taps to the approval of the inspector ; that the engineer be authorised to procure a supply of rat poison to the value of £10; that an advertisement be inserted urging householders to do their utmost to destroy all rats and prevent anj accumulation of garbage, also suggesting suitable rat poison and drawing attention to the rubbish removal service. WORKS COMMITTEE. fn?' iie ,workß committee recommended i lhat the engineer's report be received, .and he be empowered to buy two horses; that the Gas Company be asked to move lamp to corner of Argyle and Manse btreets. BATHS COMMITTEE. The baths committee reported: Members of the baths committee met five members of the Swimming Club's committee on October 10, and suggestions (wlucn had been submitted in writing to the club) were fully discussed, and slightly modified to meet the wishes of the club's representatives prior to being laid before the club. GENERAL. COMMITTEE. The general committee recommended: That the inspector be asked to look into and report for Friday's meeting re gate and light on Regent Street premises; that deed of assignation of Haw era Public Library and Institute to the ' council be executed and sealed on behalf of council; that the application by the Returned Soldiers' Association for supply of surface soil to the club site be referred to the engineer for a report; i that the borough solicitor's letter re ■ by-laws and boundary roads be held j over meantime and the town clerk interview the police regarding the matter; ! that Mrs. Martin be informed that, owing to stringency re water supply, her request for an additional pipe cannot be granted; that the Farmers' Coop. Society be granted permission to drive horses on the usual conditions; that the School Carnival Committee be granted the use of the Park with the ! right to charge admission, subject to satisfactory arrangements being made with reserves committee and to various dufc signifying approval: tha-t the Plunket Society's application re street I stall be granted, but the society to be informed that the council did not favour this method of raisitog money, and requested it to adopt other means in future; that the engineer's report as to requirements in respect of new streets be adopted,-and the latter sent to Mr. J. S. Murray, accordingly; that the application from J..W. Tong, Ltd. for refund of ; building fee be declined • that ** W:,£ oodi s application for relaxation of building by-laws re W. G. Patten's premises cannot be granted; that the matter of fencing posts for abattoir be left m the hands of the chairman of the abattoir committee, with power to act; that, as desired by his Worship the Mayor, ordinary meetings of, the council be held on Monday after second Friday m each month, instead of the second £nday; that Mr. L. O. Hooker be paid £15 15s for services rendered re exhibition of war trophies, and that he be I thanked for his successful efforts; that i Wie letter from the Hawera Retailers'

Association re by-laws dealing with itinerant traders be referred to the bylaws committee for consideration and report; that the matter' of proposed visit by Ponsonbj Boys 1 Brass Band b <*.J«t.m the hands of the baths committee, with, power to act: that the extension of agreement with Wilson and Cannam, Ltd., be executed on behalf of the council; that the Crickei Club's request for the use of a room at the pavilion be granted; that Cr. Lewis be empowered to act respecting tender for repairing fences in Turuturumokai reserve; that the council consent to transfer of lease from R. E. C. Dowling to a. C. Hunter, and that document be signed and sealed; that the Mayor and Cr. Lewis' action in employing temporary assistance at park during Mcilobbie's illness be confirmed; that WUtne and Dutton's tender for painting pavilion at the park be accepted. SANITARY INSPECTOR'S REPORT. I The sanitary inspector reported: During the month of September 98 house to house inspections were carried out and 21 notices given. Permits were issued for four plumbing jobs and five drainage jobs. Nine drains were tested of a total length of 620 feet. I have to report that in some instances after permits are issued alterations are made in the carrying out of the work or other than the contractors specified for the plumbing and drainage. This is not J usually notified, and must be notified I in the future, as these plans are filed ; for future reference. In some instances • contractors are not putting their com- > mencement and completion notices in. [This also does not facilitate the work- • ing of the office. INSPECTOR'S REPORT. The borough inspector reported: Inspection was made of the back premises of hotels, restaurants,' butchers' and fish shops, and stables; also a house to house inspection of Argyle street. In the majority of cases everything was - quite all right. Hedges—l^have -made a fairly thorough inspection of the borough in re- \ gard to hedges. Those requiring attends tion I spoke to owners personally, and 5 . these .were attended to directly. '. —Poultry Runs —In regard to the poultry runs, I think tmfe are fully twb- ' thirds of the residents keeping them. '•In the majority of casei they are not

kept as clean as they should be|" therefore they are a direct attraction for rats and other'vermin. I think, if your Council adopted a systematic removal of all house refuse it would compel a large number to do away'»with their poultry runs. Most of. their house refuse is srmnly utilised for tl*e upkeep of their fowls, and as long : aj3 they are allowed to dispose of refuse like "that the boi%ou^ir'wiir negd close suDervisiori. V : .Traffic—: At ,'the time of takinor im mv duties all motors and other vehicles of

every description were simply ignoring the traffic by-laws, but I am pleased to report they are now observing them to a greater extent, I spoke to Mr Elliott re inserting in the daily paper a few of the main traffic by-laws, and he kindly did so. I wish also to point out to the Council the advisability of having a stop watch for those motorists going at excessive jjpeeds: In the majority of cases the Magistrate will not convict unless you absolutely prove the speed anyone is doing. I have therefore come to an agreement with Sergeant Henry; he ia procuring a stop watch, and he also asked me if I could get one to deal with such cases. I have-had a fairly large number of complaints from residents on the South and Glover' roads re excessive speeds, and the only way to catch them is how I suggested. I issued one driver's certificate of competency after having tested applicant. Buildings—l received an application for a permit to alter a shop situated in Union street, and owned by Mr Patten I did hot think it at all advisable to let Mr Patten proceed with alterations till after I had put matter before the 1 Council, and have advised him accordingly. I also had to serve a notice on' Pivac and Co. re a smoke house, situat. Ed at rear of premises. Nuisances—l have had occasion to speak to several business people in High street about sweeping rubbish' from shop premises across footpaths and into channels of kerbing. Those spoken to have now ceased to do so. Quite a number of business premises have taps in front or at the sides of buildings. Going round at night on an inspection I have found these taps turned on, a lot of water being wasted thereby. I strongly advise the Council to "have these taps cut off. These different owners of shops could very easily use a bucket of water and sponge to clean the windows and front of premises, and thereby save a great amount of water. These taps'should either have a removable handle or be cut off.

Number Plates for Houses—Seeing there are four or five houses near completion in or near Grant, Laurent and Dixon streets, it would be advisable to have the number plates ready for these streets.

I have been working in conjunctioxi with Mr F. G. Coleman, sanitary inspector, re sanitary matters, and may say it has been very satisfactory.

PUBLIC LIBRARY. The librarian reported that in order to catch the next English mail, leaving about 17th inst., the list of papers and magazines for 1922 needs attention, so that advice may be given in good time for any alteration in the present list. Prices will probably be much the same as for 1921. I would suggest discontinuing Country Life, a very expensive paper, £3 4s 6d a year, and at the present time about half of its original size and abounding in advertisements. The National Geographic Magazine would be a valuable addition to the library table. It only costs just over £1 a year, and is full of interest and splendidly illustrated (American). About 50 new books were bought during the month. The list of members still stands at 450. As usual, quite a number have discontinued for the sumnfer, but new people coming have filled the gaps. It is satisfactory to notice an increase of 80 over the corI responding month" of 1920.

• ENGINEERS REPORT. The engineer (Mr J. Sturrock) reported as follows:

£20,000 Loan.—Metalling of Vogel, Milmoe and Morrissey streets is completed. Caledonia street is being metalled. This will complete the metalling work till the autumn. Work has been' recommenced on the sewer in Turuturu road, the water-level having now lowered sufficiently. Programme of Work.—Tarring of footbaths is noSy in lull swing, and Caledonia street metalling is in progress. On completion of metalling the earthworks at the new sub-division will be commenced ,and the streets formed. A gang will be kept going steadily at ihis. On completion of tarring footpaths the loan, for surface" tarring for the first time will be given attention, and thereafter the bitumen tarring of streets will be completed, to be followed by the ordinary maintenance tarring of streets. There will be a large tarlTng programme this year. After this work the water pipes in the new subdivision will be laid, or possibly, before then, if they arrive soon. Tarring Methods.—Some of these years we may have to get a tar sprayer to enable us to get through our work in .the season, but so long as we can keep going on the good old method of hand coating I propose to do so. Fully j half of the tarring men like the hand i method, although it has riot the sensational appearance ot machine work. The cost of labour is small in comparison to the cost of tar. The principle is then obviously to look after the quantity of tar. A small saving in labour may be swallowed several times in loss of tar due to sensational methods. Oi course for a county a machine is a real necessity, for they could not otherwise get through the work in the time. One of the most important .things in tarring is to get a thorough adhesion between the coat being applied arid the old coat. There is -no machine which can rub the tar into the little hollows half so well as the hand brush. General.—Weeding of footpaths is now completed. The. sports ground has been levelled and is ready for what is required in harrowing, etc. The tank at the intake has been1 cleaned. We reauire two horses to enable us to the work. I suggest that I should advertise and trarchase as before.

An Oamaru message reports the death of Mr. Wm. Gardner, sen., aged 76. Deceased came out with his parents in the early days of settlement, and had been actively engaged in pastoral pursuits. He was a well-known breeder of merino sheep. -