OAMARU NEWS NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2607, 2 March 1904, Page 19

OAMARU NEWS NOTES.

(Fbom Otjb Own Cobbespondext.}

OAMARU, February 23. The annual meeting of (he Oamara Harbour Board was held to-day, when. Mr J. S. Holmes was, elected to the chair for the> tenth time- in succession. In his report the chairman dwelt on the works for the improvement of the harbour which are about , to be carried out, and which he believed would be for the bemefit of the finances of the board and of the whole aistrict. The net revenue of the board for the year shows an increase of £600 on the previous year, and this was the more encouraging as there was only the regular trade to depend upon. If all the produce of the district wer© shipped at the port, as it ought to be, there \ would be a very large increase of business and revenue. The tonnage exports and imports also show an increase. At the ordinaiy meeting-, which was subsequently held, a good deal of time> was devoted to the arrangements for the flotation of the loan of £17,000 just authorised by the ratepayers. The board ie evidently inclined to withhold the larger part of the loan in the meantime if it can be done, as some time must elapse before work op. the new wharf caai be started. There is no reason, in the board's view, for paying interest on a large { part of the loan for some months before it can be expended. The dredge is now in Port Chalmers for repairs, and will probaDly be back in Oamaru in lees than a fortnight, when dredging operations will be started. The Borough Council's valuator is just now making the annual revaluation of properties improved during the year. Of new buildings 28 have T>een ' erected, and to 3V others additions and improvements of more ' or less importance- have- been made. The record', is the largest for a number of years, j and indicates an altogether improved outlook in business matters., • February 27. The Oamaru Borough Council at its meeting on Friday evening, had before it the promised statement of the cost of foreshore protection opposite 'the gasworks and Four hundred trucks of stone from Port Chalmers and 2000 yds from the local quarry J have now been tipped. over the edge of the < cliff to stop the inroads of the sea, at a costof £946 or a little more. According to the engineer, rather over three-fourths of the work has now been done. The Special Conimittee of the council set up to make inquiries as to the erection of new municipal chambers has reported to the council in favour of the idea, but has furnished no particulars as to the character or cost of the building — that is to be- kept j steadily in view, in fact. 1 For years the Oamaru Borough Council . has had a little way of its own of disposing of necessary works. The method was simple in the extreme, and was well understood by the patient ratepayers It simply con- j sisted of " massing" the- work, and relegating ! it to the limbo of the past, to be revived when somebody became more than usually insistent on the subject.. There is to be no more of this, however, and henceforth when work is passed it is to be done. But councillors will miss their little liberty, and maybe will now find it more difficult than ever 'to keep insistent ratepayers at arm's length. There is every reason to believe that there will be a contest for the mayoralty this year. Mr J. M. Brown, the present Mayor, will certainly be challenged by (Jr W. H. Frith, if by no others. The Waitaki High School Board of Gover-nors-is finding that^ the Secondary Schools Act and the regulations thereunder are not so easily ca»»ied out as might be thought, and it has had to forward the list of those entitled to free places to the Minister with a. request that he, or the secretary, should say who should be selected for the 13 free places which the board has to provide for. Dr Don reported to the board" this week that he had 111 boys on his register this term (an increase of nine on last year), 64being term boarders and the balance day boys. Had the accommodation of the school permitted, the number of boarders could have been largely increased. At the Girls' School Miss Fergusson has enrolled 47 scholars. *