ELTHAM COUNTY COUNCIL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 16 October 1922, Page 6

ELTHAM COUNTY COUNCIL.

MONTHLY MEETING

The usual monthly meeting of the Eltham County Council was held at Eltham on Saturday, when there were present: Crs. C. J. Belcher (chairman), R. J. Knuckey, A. V. Messana, M. W. Barker, A. Campbell, W. C Carter, C. E. McGuinness and E. J. Gilford. An apology for absence was received from Cr. McWilliam. Leave was granted. The Eltham Borough Council wrote notifying that they had "remunerated the members of the Eltham Fire Brigade for attendance at the fire-a b Mr. S. Jenkins' property on the Mangawhero Road.

There was some slight discussion and, on the motion of Cr. Campbell, it was decided-to .make a donation of five guineas to the brigade. Mr. E. Forester, of Mangamingi, applied for permission to erect a cream stand on the roadside. —Permission was granted subject to the stand being erected to the satisfaction of the en^ gineer.

An account for £30 16s 9d was forwarded by the Department of Internal Affairs, being the council's proportion of expenses as recommended -in the Commissioner's report concerning the Eltham-Stratford Boundary Commission.

Crs. thought that the expenses were very heavy. Cr. Messana said that the petitioners should indemnify the council, while the chairman said that the council would be wiser on future occasions.—The account was passed for payment. _ The chairman and clerk were authorised to purchase dog collars. Registration fees were again fixed at 2s 6d for. cattle dogs 'and iOs for all other dogs.

•? ri Carter stated that he had decided to withdraw his resolution moved at a former meeting, that' milkcarts be exempt from tolls at the .Mangatoki toll-gate. Cr. Carter mentioned that since the last meeting of the council he had gone into the mattes of rating on the unimproved valuation in the Eltham County, and had found that the objection m regard to the limit of 6d on the nmmproVed valuation in the Umona riding was non-existent, as an amount equivalent to the amount of rates being received at present on the capital valuation could be received trom a rate on the unimproved valuation.

ENGINEER'S REPORT

The engineer, Mr. M. E. Fitzgerald, reported as follows: —

South riding—Watertables were attended to in,Campbell and Rotokare roads. A further length of Eraser road was remetalled and the side tracks were graded.

Mangatoki riding—Metal patching was done on Stuart road and tar patch" ing on Hastings and Hunter roads, lhe reconstruction of the Eltham road culvert near Duthie road is completed except for finishing off the road surface: i-orfcions of Elth en and Hunter roads were sprayed with bitumen, ami a detailed report of 'his work will appear later in this report. The Palmer road loan work is well in hand. The work is proceeding at a rate oi' about 10 chains per day during favourable weather. In comoany with Cr. Carter I disposed of some of the rou«h stone on Hunter road. A few heaps were reserved for the making up of the junction of Hunter and SVeet roads.

Omona, riding—Metal damaged at, the near end of Rawhitiroa road and on Mataimaroke road by ihe floods was attended to. The bulk of the work in this riding consisted in catching up maintenance work which got behind as a result of th© special flood work, borne small slips have been cleared and minor widenings effected. The Public Works Department has made 7 much progress with the clearing of Bft. tracks in the valleys. Kaponga riding—The bulk of the month's work has been the patching of Eltham road. The metalling of Palmer road is now well under way, but the work has npt yet reached Kaponga riding. The condition of Manaia road is causing anxiety, and it. is hoped that the council will see its way to -include, the tar spraying of this road (which had to be cut out of ths estimates) in-this year's work. Eltham riding—The obtaining of metal for repairing flood damages at the far end of Rawhitiro? road wa.4 continued. A commencement has been made with quarrying shell rock in Mr. Jackson's pit. A few small slips were cleared off the Mangamingi ridge, and watertables were- cleared. General surface work was done on Toti, Mabey, Tirimo'ana, and Mangawhero roads Part of Mountain road vas sprayed with bitumen, and is reported on. General—Repairs were effected to the tar boilers, and 1 think thoy w'll stand this season, but before long it will be necessary to replate the bottom of one. The staff is now concentrated

ujion the resurfacing of Palmer road Given favourable weather this work should be completed about the end of October. It is proposed to then complete the metalling of Fraser road, which will take about two weeks and carry us to about the middle of November. By that time the road across the swamps should be firm, and it is proposed to carry out the remetalling of Campbell road south and Mangawhero road east. A suggestion has been made that a start should be made with the remetalling of Dalziel road, but as Campbell and Mangawhero roads are in worse condition and are a continuous expense to maintain it would be uneconomical to delay work on them longer than is necessary. The foreman, Mr. Maynard, applied, for a week's leave of absence at the beginning of this month, and this was granted him.