WAITAKI COUNTY COUNCIL

North Otago Times, Volume CIV, Issue 13657, 28 August 1916, Page 1

WAITAKI COUNTY COUNCIL

' MONTHLY. MJiETING. The monthly meeting of the Waitaki County Council wis held 1 on Saturday, The/chairman (Mr Geo. Livingstone) presided and there were present Messrs W. Niiiliolson, W; Gardiner juii|, A. Mclnnes, J. A. Maepherson,' It. T. Oats, T., A. Munro, W. Kininmout, and A. Forbes. Accounts amounting to £27 on the Pupakaio Water Haco account, and £lOsl 13s lOd on the general account, were passed for payment. ■ . v ' Correspondence. The following correspondence was dealt with:— ' The. Treasury Department advised,, having banked the,' following sums: .Goldlields revenue 10s,- and •rates subsidy £ls(s3los,'payment under Laud' Act £27'l9s'Bd,—Received, ; Tlie Collector of Customs advised the receipt of gold declarations for the months of May, June, and July as 37ois/ 330z, dud 270z ■respectively.-r Received. ;, . Tlie Secretary of. tjie New Zealand Society., of Engines • wrote, tliauking the eouiiei l^for the r opportunity given to their Engilifc ta ; atteiid 'the latc'confferen'ee held 'in. Ohristeliurch.—Eeceived.' . ,• ' s ' ; ' v ' The present licensee of the Ahuriri reserve advised that lie 'hail completed the fence from, the Omarania bridge to the Ahuriri bridge; a distance of nearly 'two - miles, the total cost being- £17!). He requested that , when the reserve is released this amount.be added to improvements, to be repayable to'liim by the successful lessee.—lt was agreed that valuation be made at time of releasing. ; The Town "Clerk of Oaniaru wrote asking the council ,to authorise the formation and gravelling of the east side of North street, as embodied :in ai resolution passed by the Borough Council and enclosed;— Approved. G. Ledingham, Awamoa, wrote direct-ing-the attention of the council to the necessity for steps-being taken to re-move-the timber from tho street facing his property. He also asked to have a' : road, formed ' for , light traffic—Mr ft. T. Oats and the engineer .-{were appointed to repoi't on the matter at the next meeting. ; , " J. D. Eentou, Livingstone/ wrote drawing the .council's, attention to the bad stated of. the main road between Livingstone and his residence.' The road was badly cut up, and there were two" small pinches in need' of gravel, In wot weather these places were impassable to ■ motor traffic—lt was agreed that the work-be proceeded with. J. Falconer,, Kakanui, wrote ! iiireetTn'gf th'c bad state of the road between sections 1, 2, and jj .and sec.tidnsi 5 . and' 18, block 4,'Otepopo Suryey district. -The. writer reminded .council, that v it■.liEOj * decided: two, years ago to 'graved .the road, but-nothing had I singe. been done.—Mi 1 moved that . the writer, be 1 informed, that when funds permit the work would be attended to, ; . : ' , The District Engineer, Dunedin, for.warded an agreement to take over aud maintain land for road purposes, for execution by the council, —This was agreed to. , Thirteen residents of George' street, O'amaru, added their, signatures, to a letter pointing, out. the disgraceful state of the road at George street. They pointed out that 'something should be .done to the road at once as pedestrian.' traffic was an impossibility—The matter was held over for investigation, J l .- Mahoney, Enfield, applied to have the road from the railway crossing, to the top of the hill and leading through section's 5 and 6, block 11, improved ,by grading and metalling, He was prepared to supply stone free of cost/and . to supply £1 'for £1 towards the cost.— The offer was accepted. A. A. Eason, Weston Park, wrote drawing the council's attention to the very bad state of Argyle street and part of Gordon street, running'from Argylo to Charles street in Weston Park.—! The matter was left toltho member for the riding and engineer. ■ Forty, residents of Enfield' wrote petitioning the council to. form a footpath from :Mr Common's corner to Wesley Church. The inconveniences of the. road were- pointed out,' admission tothe church grounds being possible only : after .wading through slusli and \ mud. —Left to tho. member for the riding and .the engineer! ! The Crowu Lands Office forwarded ( the scheme for- the expenditure of '-thinly "fourths" and "halves" from Grown Lands accruing to Waitaki County Council. The expemli- : rtune ■ totalling i6B 5s Jld,am( requested that particulars of proposed expendij tnre bo supplied.—Approved. ■ James Carson,. Enfield, wrote drawing the attention of the council'to-the state of Napier street and also to the course the storm-water take? 1 . He asked that the Council approach the Railway Department to let the water , run down on the western side of the railway,—The letter was received. Engineer's Report, 1 The engineer reported as follows:—- ; I.—The recent wet weather has con,t sidiiiably delayed contract work, and , has occasioned a good deal of extra work on the roads generally. 'S. —The contractor for the Marae--1 woka roads lias becu hindered by the 1 weather, but now has the formation almost completed. The gravelling had better be Veld over until l the summer when tho roads have set. The approach to give access to . tho river at the Kakamii township , bridgo lias been widened and improved. [ 4.—J inspected Main's road and sugi gest that as soon as the grader is available the road be formed. o.—Another short piece in front of ■ Mr Dick's property at Weston iilso re- ' quires forming with the grader. 6.—1 inspected the road leading to ■ Mi Little's property at Enfield, and , found it in a bad state. It requires • about 25 yards of metal and about another 100 yards of maintenance is required for the adjoining roads. Tenders will-need to be called for the work ' later on when ihe crusher is avmlnlile. 7.—1 dill not iusfiect the Tii-^'i-.-ltv ■ load, as uathing can be doi.i. ihere • until the weather clears up. : 8. —Tho contractor is now puttingout the maintenance gravel on the • main road; at Papakaio, aud while lie was there I got him to,widen the road at a dangerous comer at Peebles. . f), —J inspected the place', where Hie water lies op the Perry road, In wei weather it fyrms a lagoon on the road

with uo fall to get the water away, so the only thing I sec for it is to raise the road'above the water level. ,10.—The metalling of the muiii road between Black Point and Bortons is now completed, and wlien (lie road is tolled and blinded it should be'it first class job, The road has been very bail; aud there is no 'doubt ..the pubjic have - been put to a good deal of iinionveiuenec while the work was going ou, 11 —I have hail the worst part of the Livingstone pinch gravelled. The road through the. township is in a bail state, thicily owing to one of !the',settiers, carting- building material over.it during',all the wet weather,..ami: while on this subject I would like to point out that'all round the Toliarahi district particularly a. number of tlie farmers have been carting gravel for their own use over the roads .while'they were wet ami in uo conditiou t to stand: heavy traffic. The result is that many of the gravelled roads arc badly damaged, and it would take a considerable amount of money to put them in order agaiu. 11. is neither a fair.thing to the. County or to the ratepayers as a whole who. lire .using the roads for them to!be damaged by a-few merely for want of a a little consideration on their part, ■ 12, —L also found that some of the local people, were carting gravel across the MaereWlienua ■ light traffic, bridge which was never built for the purpose and:.will not J stand'it. This must-be stopped, audi think it would be advisable .to advertise a list of the light traffic bridges in-'the County aud instruct me to prosecpte anyone crossing with more .tliau the specified load. lil.-rFor some distance .above the Macrewlieuua School .the road is-'over-shadowed and kept- very wet- by a high gofse hedge which has not been trimmed for years, ami'the surfaceman reports that it is impossible to keep, the road iu order with the hedge as at present, and that he can get 110 sasisfactiou from the owner. 1 have inspected the road, and I ■ recommend ; that the owner be given notice-under the Public Works-Act, which gives the Council full power to deal ■with the matter, and compel him to eut the. hedge down to a reasonable height, i . ■ 14.—With Councillor Munro 1 inspected the balance of the new roads at Benmore, aud have made, arrangements to have the work stratcd on them very shortly. 15—I have been offered a line' of Australian hardwood timber,' chiefly planking, from Dunedin at a reasonable .price. As this class of timber is' very scarce anil cannot be obtained locally, Which often causes considerable inconvenience _aud delay,. I think it .would be advisable to obtain this line anil always-have some on hand when required for small bridge repairs, box crossings, etc.' : .' t : All the clauses in'the above report were approved of with the exception of numbers 9..aad,.,,ip.xNuiflb((r>st.wasJ.eft_ to the engineer and member for the riding. Number 10, on,, the motion of Mr Maepherson, 1 it v wasilecided t'o'liave i the road blinded and l rolled,. "In clause 'ls it.was decided that the ongineer .be instructed to effect the purchase, General, Mr Mclnnes reported that lie and the engineer had inspected the pound | at- Duntroou and found that , the pound was inadequate for the pounding of stock, Mr Maepherson. suggested 1 that something be done iu the matter, and' moved that the question be referred to the engineer,-Mr Mclnnes, and himself/ Mr Mclnnes seconded the motion, which was carried. . Mention was made of the heavy traffic which crossed the county's bridges, and it was agreed, o" the motion of Mr Munro, that notice? of the maximum load pcrmissable be. placed on the bnllges. , . On the motion of Mr Oats, seconded by Mi Gardiner, it was. decided that the south.end of the 1000-acre road be attended to as soon as the crusher was available, tenders to be called for that purpose. . , Mr I'Vbes suggested that the surfacemen in the County's employ be permitted during the. shearing season ■to engage in shearing.operations. It, was 'decided that with the. sanction of the members for the,respective;, ridings the suggestion'be acceeili'd to.'"' ■ Mr Maepherson drew attention to the- necessity for gravel being placed' on the footpaths at Georgetown.