ACCESS TO STATION

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 54, Issue 32624, 21 September 1945, Page 5

ACCESS TO STATION

NO BIGGER SUBSIDY STATEMENT BY MINISTER REQUEST “UNREASONABLE” “Taking all the circumstances into account it would be unreasonable to expect the department to contribute to this’ scheme on the basis you suggest,” stated the Minister of Public Works, Mr R. Semple, M.P.,' in a letter to the Ohinemuri ’County Council in reference to a request by the council that the Public Works Department contribute £2 for £1 of local body contribution to the scheme for a Puke road-Coronation street new road, to give easier access to the railway station. The Minister’s letter, dated August 21, was read at the council’s September meeting. The chairman (Cr. T. A. Barrett): That is not very satisfactory; we are back where we started from. It was stated, in reply to questions, that the estimated cost of the project was £l'4o*o*, and contributions from interested local firms £lOO, leaving £9OO to be found by the local authorities. These latter were understood to contribute in the following proportions*: —Paeroa Borough Council 50' percent., Hauraki County Council 30 percent., Ohinemuri County Council 20 per cent.

Cr. E. iL. Yearbury suggested that the council had better wait to see what atttiud'e the Hauraki County Council took to the Minister’s view of the matter.

Cr. G. A. Avery: Does the estimated cost include the taking of the land necessary to putting the road through? The chairman: Yes. Befoi*e we can do anything at all it means* buying this land and dedicating it.

Cr. Avery said that with stock travelling ovei- the road it would prove an expensive road to maintain, according to the county engineer. The engineer (Mr'L. E. Shaw)’: Yes. I think it will take from* about £l2O to £150: a year to maintain the road’. Until the road was consolidated, Mr Shaw added, the • difficulty would be with its soft, wet condition. To Cr. S. H. Thompson: There was an enormous amount of traffic on the Puke road' to and from Hauraki Plains and the wharf, including a tremendous lot of stock.

The chairman: I think we -should have been let off any contribution to the cost of the road seeing we shall have to maintain it, though we have fewer ratepayers- than any other body likely to benefit from it. The Paeroa Borough Council, Mr Barrett added, would' get more benefit than the Ohinemuri Council from the road because much of their present traffic to the station would be diverted' to the new road.

On the motion of the chairman, seconded- by Cr. A. F. Thorp, it was decided to ask the Borough Council, as the prime mover in the matter, to make further representation, through the member for the district, to the Minister of Public Works as to the necessity for the increased contribution requested from the Minister’s department. BOROUGH DECISION DISCUSS WITH OTHERS At the -September. meeting of the Paeroa Borough Council the above communication was received from Messrs Al S. J. Thorn M’sJP., and it was decided that the matter be referred to the committee appointed to discuss with the other interested local bodies-.