BRUCE COUNTY COUNCIL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19762, 13 April 1926, Page 6

BRUCE COUNTY COUNCIL.

J MONTHLY MEETING. 1 The mouthlv meeting of the Bruce County Council was held yesterday, and was attended bv Crs T. Scott (chairman), V. Wilson, Wl Bell, A. Kenton, W. J. Sheat. T. Johnston, 11. M. Driver, J. Clark, D. M Gregor, A. .King. INST ECTOR’S REPORT. The Inspector submitted the following report, which was approved:— Clarendon Riding.—Thirty-three chains of metalling have been completed on the Clarendon to Circle Hill road, and about 00 yards of metal have still to be carted out ou to the road. The sledging ot tne stone from the hill to the roadside and carting the metal on to the road alter crushing has been done gratis by some of the settlers in the district. A portion of the block cutting on Boundary Creek Hill has been widened during the mouth. Waihola Riding.—Maintenance metal has been put down on a portion of the Waihola to Taieri Beach road and other portions of the road surfaced. A slip on the Akatore Hill has been repaired, and the contractor has commerced reducing the grade on Church Hill. denied! Riding.—Four new culverts have been put in on Anderton’s road, and J surface work done on the Akatore Coast j road. I Kaitangata Riding.—Messrs bmaill Bros, have done about 20 days’ free carting with <i three-horse team putting clay across a swamp on the Wangaloa to Coombe Hay road. Good progress is being made with the metalling contract on the Kaitangata to Wangaloa road. Balmoral No. 2 Riding.—Grading has been done on the follow-ing roads: —Woods road (90 chains), Pukekoma to Clarkson’s (SO chains), Cuttance road (30 chains), | Piilan’s road (70 chains), also the metal graded in between Pukekoma and Hillend. Crichton Riding.—The loose metal has been graded in on the Lovells Flat to Hillend road. A culvert of 9in pipes has been put in at Tweed’s corner to replace a stone culvert, and maintenance gravel put down on Hewitson’s road to repair damage done whilst carting gravel on to the Rotton Valley road. The contractor has commenced gravelling on Currie’s Hill. Mount Stuart Riding.—Maintenance gravel has been put down on the Roxburtrn Estate road, and the road between Clarkson’s and top of Mount Stuart graded. A 9in culvert has been put in on Crichton road and one on the Table. Hill road: also one of 3ft concrete pipes on Strawberry Bank road to replace a stone culvert. Toko. Riding.—A culvert of 2ft concrete pipes has been put in on Milburn to Tokoiti road to replace a stone culvert, also one of 2Jft pipes at D. Murray’s. Farquharson’s road has been graded and a start made with the metalling; 285 yards of metal have been put down on Springfield road. Surface work has been effected on a portion of the bush quarry road, and a start made with the metalling contract at Circle Hill. Matau Riding.—Watertables. have been cleaned out on the Stirling Hill road. Inch-Clutha Riding.—Grading has been done on Randall’s road and the fence shifted back at the break in the river bank. The grader has also been working on Bell's. Hasting’s, and Sutherland's roads. MAIN HIGHWAYS. Dunedin to Invercargill.—Metal has been carted out for filling pot-holes in Waihola Riding; 93 yards of gravel has been put down between Milburn and Milton; 384 yards of crushed gravel between Milton and Clarksville; and 402 yards of gravel between Bon Accord and Lovell’s Flat. Two teams and six men have been putting down maintenance metal between Stony Creek School road and Stirling road, and portion of this metal has been rolled with a traction engine. \ , Clarksville to Alexandra.—72l yards of gravel have been put down between Clarksville and Glenore. The teams have completed the gravelling between- Glenore and Mount Stuart, and are at present putting down (rravei between Manuka Creek and Pighunters’ road. The stone walls of two small bridges near Manuka Creek school have been repaired during the month. Two tenders were received for carting cravel from Clarksville on to the Main South and Glenore roads —viz., Leckie and Stevens (main road 1200 yards ss, Glenore road 350 yards Is 9d); W. J. Wards (main road 1200' vards 3s 3d, Glenore road 550 yards Is 8d). The tender of Leckie and Stevens was accepted, and the work has been commenced. CORRESPONDENCE A letter was received from the Otago Motor Club acknowledging receipt of particulars of registration of motor vehicles and the covering of owners bv a third party risk. The club had considered the resolution and considered that it was a move in the right direction. —Received. A lithograph of a proposed boundary sign for use on main highways and approved by the Highways Board was received from the chairman of the District Highways Council. —Received. • The Secretary of the New Zealand Counties’ Association wrote in respect of the annual conference in Wellington on July 20, requesting,that all remits be forwarded not later than May 14. Received. The Counties’ Association also wrote concerning the habit of motorists in leaving benzine tins on the roadside, stating that such practices should be put down by the various local bodies. —The Chairman said this was a matter that should be taken up by local bodies, and an attempt made to discourage such practices. Empty beer bottles, too, he said, were another source of nuisance.—lt was decided to draw the attention of the Otago Motor Club to the number of tins left on the roadside. A request from residents of Burns street for the chipping and gravelling of ‘ a portion of the footpath in that street before the winter set in was refused, as the council did not consider such work to be within its sphere. It would be a bad precedent. It was decided to inform the petitioners that such work had been refused in other cases, and the council could not, therefore, undertake it In this instance. R. S. M’Kenzie wrote asking for a reduction in his rates since July, 1921, , as a result of a reduction in the capital value of his holding _ under the new revaluation scheme, which had been made retrospective to that date. —Decided to defer the matter until it was ascertained whether the reduction in value was for rating purposes or not. Young and Sons wrote asking that something he done to improve the road to their farm at Inch-Clutha. which was stated to be in an appalling condition.—Cr Renton moved that the clerk be instructed to write to Young Bros advising them that during the past six years £IOOO had been spent on the road from their farm to the Stirling railway station and dairy factory, and that the road was attended to in sections as funds permitted. At present the funds were not available. The mover stated that the “appalling, state - ’ of the roads had been largely caused by Young Bros’, stock and the use they made of the road. GENERAL. The statement of receipte and expenditure for March showed the former to have been £10,260 3s Bd, and the latter £1596 9s lid. The report and balance sheet for the year were adopted Votes of thanks were carried in respect of free labour carried out in several ridings bv settlers. "Speaking of the recent conference with the Motor Club in Dunedin, Cr M‘Gregor said he hoped some good would result from it. He questioned whether the council was justified in incurring the expense of a conference convened by self-appointed agencies no matter how laudable their intentions, since delegates were not permitted to express any other opinion than that contained in the council’s mandate and that could easily have been supplied otherwise. He was, however, agreebaly surprised with the tone of the conference and the sentiments expressed there, which, when more widely accepted, would supply the solution of the highways problem.