DRAINAGE SCHEMES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22059, 15 March 1935, Page 12

DRAINAGE SCHEMES

ritOrOSED £30,000 LOAN archhill gully work UNEMPLOYMENT SUBSIDY PLAN Authority to borrow £30,000 in order to finance two new drainage projects', estimated to cost £40,275— including a subsidy of £7OOO from the Unemployment Board—is to he sought by the Auckland and Suburban Drainage Board. The projects, if sanctioned, will give a considerable amount of full-time employment. One work is the construction of the .first and second portions of branch sewer No. 9, in the Oakley Creek watershed. This is designed as an intercepting sewer to serve portions of Avondale and Mount Albert. A future extension will enable it to take sewage from part of Mount Roskill. The estimated cost is £12,500, of which £3400 is expected to be made available from an existing loan, leaving £9IOO to be borrowed.

The other scheme is one which has been in contemplation for many years, namely, the construction of a culvert to enclose tho whole length of tho Archhill Gully watercourse from the western boundary of the Newton Central School grounds to Great North Road at Western Springs, a distance of about a mile and a-half. Tho total cost of the work is estimated at £27,775. The engineer-secretary, Mr. EL H. Watkins, reported to the board yesterday that he had interviewed the Commissioner of Unemployment, Mr. G. C. Godfrey, regarding the Arclihill Gully project. The commissioner had stated that the Unemployment Board's present practice was to grant a flat-rate subsndy of £1 10s to £1 15a a, week for each man engaged, according to tho nature' of the work ancl conditionally on married men being employed for 40 hours a week at standard rates of pay, the employing authority having tho right of selection and standing-down of workmen.

The commissioner had intimated that he was prepared to recommend the Unemployment Board to grant the maximum rate of subsidy of £1 15s a man for this particular work. Presuming that this rate of subsidy would be obtainable, the total amount payable by the Unemployment Board would be approximately £7OOO, so that an amount of £20,775 would have to be included in the loan to provide for thp work. lb was resotved to apply to the Unemployment Board for a subsidy at the rate named and to the Local Government Loans Board for authority to raise a loan of £30,000 for tho two works.