MANGAPU DRAINAGE BOARD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 2516, 20 December 1927, Page 5

MANGAPU DRAINAGE BOARD.

GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES GRANTED. A meeting of the Mangapu Drainage- Board was held yesterday. Present: Mr W. A. Lee. chairman, Messrs C. Hioms, W. J. Turner, M. H. Wynyard, and W. Johnson, engineer. Leave of absence was granted to Messrs Hot'a and Board. A number of communications were received dealing with procedure in respect to the application for Governanenfc subsidies, including a letter from Mr Wynyard in regard to his interview with Mr J. C. Rolleston, M.P., in the above matter. In respect to the Board’s applicar tion for subsidies for tho work required, the estimated cost of which was £14,000, it was reported that tho sum of £5250 had been granted by the Government. This incl|.idcd the sum of £SOO *p r oim se d- from tire Main Highways Board and was now available.

The amount asked for had been £6OOO. The above amount is made up in the following contributions: —Lands Department, £4000; Railway, £750; Main Highways Board, £SOO. Mr Hiorns said that it was important that the Bear 1 should know how much money would be required yearly to keep the work going when once :n hand, and at what rate the money wo’ild be spent. The engineer had intimated that the total cost of the work would be expended over a period of three years, working out at over £4OOO a year. In tins connection the following resolution, proposed by Mr Wynyarcf, was carried: That the clerk prepare an estimate of the special rate necessary to provide interest and sinking fund upon the loan that would be required to complete the work over and above tho grants promised. On the motion of Mr Wynyard, it was decided that a revised roll be obtained oil account of the re-valua-tion of the county for the purposes of ascertaining the position, as it might affect in the future the area proposed to be drained, and over which a general rate had already been struck. The engineer gave an approximate idea as to what in his opinion the Te liuiti Borough should contribute towards the cost of the proposed work, and in this connection members of the Board will meet a committee from the Council in due course.

The engineer was instructed to bring down a report to be dealt with at, a later meeting.

It was generally felt by members of the Board that the Borough Council was sympathetically disposed towards tlie Mangapu project, which included a considerable area under the Borough’s jurisdiction which would benefit under the scheme. At the conclusion of the meeting Mr W. H. Wynyard took the opportunity of thanking Mr Lee, the chairman of the Board, for the manner in which he had efficiently presided at the meetings of the Board since the latter’s inception. The a c:\-aiice made by the Board up to the present stage had been largely due to liis efforts in the Mangapu project. The scheme was ou<j in which he (Mr Wynyard) was much interested and Ids association with members of the Board had been a happy one. Tho Board was engaged on a project the work in respect of which, he hoped, would, in the hear future, show some tangible results. It was a scheme which contained big possibilities. (Hear, hear.) Other members endorsed Mr Wynyard’s remarks. Mr Lee, in responding), and thanking Mr Wynyard for his remarks, said that lie knew that the scheme which had bjeen propounded constituted a difficult problem at the outset, and the results to date were pleasing. A drainage board in the King Chi .in try was quite a novelty and it was his hops and desire that the Board should proceed on the right lines and feel its way so that it could confidently proceed in a manner that would ensure returns for the money that was going to bo spent.