TAIERI COUNTY COUNCIL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2085, 8 February 1894, Page 5

TAIERI COUNTY COUNCIL.

The monthly meeting of the Taieri County Council was held at Mosgiel on Friday. afternoon, and attended by Crs Graham (chairman), Roberts, Samson, Chisholm, Andrew, bnow, and Nichol.

INSPECTOR'S MONTHLY REPORT.

The Inspector reported that the Henley-Berwick contracts were progressing favourably. Bryant had completed his contract on Berwick Hill, and a decided improvement had been effected on the old state of things. O'Rourkehad also completed his contract satisfactorily, and King's iob was well advanced. Overton had a strong force on, but the high tides of late had hindered the work considerably. The inspector thought the council should take steps to secure the reserve on the border of the lake, outside of Mr Crossan's J sections, as it contained valuable road material, and some would be required for road purposes shortly. Casey had finished his contract on the Switchback, and the road was now fairly good, and would suit the requirements of the district. The formation of Olive avenue would co3t £14. To take Nolan's road through from the junction of Centre road to section 58, village settlement, would cost £10, and a few pounds more Ayoujd make it through to the back of the settlement. M'Rae's road, from the suspension bridge to the boundary, which had been made about eight years ago, required a considerable amount of surfacing, the rocks having become prominent through the action of the weather. The remainder of this road to the junction with the Stokes road had never bepn formed, as it was a very awkward survey, taking the' traffic a long way round for nothing, .except perhaps to suit the land when it was in small sections. It was now a small grazing run in the possession of Mrs Elizabeth Dore; who was in favour of using the old track through her section, from which a short track could be made into M'Rae's from the direction of Middlemarch. If the council consented to the deviation, he intended to have the work carried out by the'party at present on the Nenthorn road to M'Leod's. The road from Middlemarch was bad, but there were rib dangerous places in it, and he did not see that anything could be done except to let the water off until the weather took up. The traffic on the road was very heavy. The only road to Mr Bell's section, Whare Flat, Was from the Longridge road, near the top of the ridge, 'and ran down to the top of his section. A practicable road could not be made on the surveyed line, but Mr Bell had been going through Mr Pogson's sections for the last 20 years. He understood that some arrangement existed between the late Mr Bell and Mr Pogson about a deviation. There \vere about 25 chains of very rough road in the Kaikorai riding at Mr James Cameron's section, Brockville, and the road would require reforming if anything was to be made of it, as it was or a bouldery nature. The cost would be £15. There was a bad patch, on Ewen's road that would require 25 yards of metal, costing £5. The Owhiro road in the East Taieri riding from the East Taieri School road to the Riccarton road was getting very flat and full of holes, and ab6ut 300 yds of gravel, costing £20, would be required. The road grader had beeil tried, and was an excellent machine of the kind. It wa3 easily managed, and was doing good worjc at a cheap rate. A piece of unformed voad, leading to Mr Holland's, could be done with" it, and also a piece of Centre road, near to Scott and Wilson's, wh,ile there were also some portions of the road from Brighton to Taieri Mouth on which the grader could be used to advantage. He had arranged to erect three chains of strong scrub fence, which would tend to lessen the accumulation of sand drift at Kuri, If not stop it altogether. There was a drift also at Brighton in front of the township, which was destroying tile gravelled road. He thought the planting of gorse on the sandhills would stop the drift in time, but at present the sand vvould have to be removed from the gravel. TEjE pOUNCIL'S FINANCIAL POSITION. The Cn airman 'siid that the "council's bank overdraft 'that day was £4741 9,3 5,d, a,rid he would ask them to' pass, accounts to the amount of £625 - 16a 4d. They owed the land fund £1139 33 ltf, so that their tqtal of indebtedness was* £6so6 8s lOd. The silve'v lining to the cloud consisted in the fact that they had reduced their land fund account by £1000 during the year. At the same time their overdraft waß too near the limit. He thought they should bear these figures in mind before they undertook any more work.