PETONE AFFAIRS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 9958, 30 April 1918, Page 10

PETONE AFFAIRS

MEETING OF THE BOROUGH COUNCIL. An ordinary meeting of tho Petone Council was held last evening. There were present: The Mayor (Mr J. W. MoEwan), and Councillors C. P. Brocklebank. W. Cox, J, Churchouso, J. Foster, J. McDougall, D. McKenzie, and E. Trevor. - „ , The National Association of French War Orphans- thanked the council for its donation of £lO for the benefit of their fund. The Under-Secretary of Lands advised that the Council may at any time, prior to November 11th, 1918, acquire tho freehold of a section at Maungaraki, which is now under lease to tho borough. It was decided to get a report from the borough engineer (Mr A. Cowie) as to the advisableness of purchase. . It was decided that the borough engineer confer with, tho Public Trustee respecting the requirements of the council in regard to Nevis, Lochy, and Armidalo streets. Twenty-eight days’ notice is to be given the owners of two properties in Petone to effeot repairs to their buildings. The health officer had reported the premises, one of which is m Victoria street, and the other In Sydney street, to be insanitary. Mr 11. Applaynrd. gasworks manager, in his annual report stated that the amount of gas manufactured during the year 1917-18 showed an increase of 1,655,000 cubic feet, which was equal to 3.74 per cent. The average make per ton of carbonised coal showed a largo over the previous year; being 672 cubic feet per ton. The gas receipts decreased by £92 on the estimate, but represented an increase of £lO2 over the year 191617. The gas manufactured amounted to •14,239,000 cubic feet. Of this amount 21.957.000 feet were consumed locally, 1*1,001,000 cubic feet sold to Lower Hutt, 1.131.000 cubic feet used by borough works and buildings, and 1,030,000 devoted to street lighting. At times a difficulty was experienced in procuring sufficient supplies of coal. Prices had advanced, Newcastle by 4s 6d per ton and State coal by os 6d per ton. . The railage from ’Wellington had increased by 3)d per ton, and cartage from the Petone railway station, to the works by 4d per ton. The coke produced, estimated at 13 per cent, per ton of coal carbonised, 2319 tons. The receipts on this head were £lO4 above the estimate. At the beginning of the year there was a stock of 9000. gallons of tar, and the sales totalled 25,534 gallons. The stock on hand at the end of tho year was 12,370 gallons. The report wan adopted. The council discussed the water supply. and the following three methods of ’augmenting tho supply, which were submitted by the borough engineer (Mr A. Coiwie):—(l) By enlarging tho storage capacity, which might be done in two ways (a) by raising Uie level of tho present dam, (b) by building an additional storage reservoir higher up tho stream; (2) by sinking artesian wells and pumping into the mains; and (3) by inserting hatch-boxes in the present main and thoroughly scraping tho pipes. Several councillors wore of the opinion that .the cause of the trouble was tho pipe’lino, and that there was an ample supply of water. There was not any appreciable difference in tho waiter supply during tho past ten years, when tho trouhlo was first mads apparent. Ko definite decision vra, s decided upon*