TAIERI COUNTY COUNCIL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1851, 30 March 1904, Page 21

TAIERI COUNTY COUNCIL.

n monthly meeting of the Taieri County Council was held at Mosgiel on Monday afterneon, and was attended by the Ch?irman (Mr E. Gibson, Crs Miller, Haarison, Dow, .j ' _„ . „ M Donald, and Christie. The.Finance Committee reported having found the monthly expenditure to be £486 13s 4cl, £320 6s lOd .being charged to general account, and £166 6p 6d to " thirds" and " fourths." They recommended .payment of , the amounts. They recommended further that the services of Mr Couston be retained at an annual salary of £150 and railway pass, and: that an assistant at £140 a year be engaged. This arrangement, while slightly better for the council financially, would be equally satisfactory. A monthly financial statement attached showed the outstanding general rates to ba £1988 13s lid, and the bank oveidraft £4042 3s. —£?°P^d.- . .., „ „ „ . , , -, The Engineer (Mr B. B. Couston) reported as iollows for the month of March:— The contracts completed during the month are scouring Centre Road ditch, South Taieri, and road formation Little Ross. The contracts m progress are foranal/ion Centre road, Middlemarch; spalls Bald Hill; and gravel Strath-Taien. Tenders are called this meeting for gravelling Blair Taieri, and gravelling to repair flood damage on Green Island to Taieri Mouth and Outram to Berwick roads. The grader 'has been employed on roads through small grazing runs in Strath-Taieri and Deep Stream ridings, roads graded being Stoker to Bald Mill, Matheson s to Whitton s, Whitton s to Nenthorn Creek, Paterson's road, Freeman's jrcad, Cameron's road, and Little Ross to Woolshed. Incidental works of maintenance and repair covered by certificates of payment are masonry culverts on Lower road, Sutton "to Middlemarch, and Schoolhouse road, Shannon, concerte culvert Main South road, near Abbotsiord, repair Silverstream footbridge, repair washouts and spalls on road through Stoker Bun, and> gravel on Factory and Wingatui reads, North Taiori.—Received. Ai a meeting of menibers, held on the 18th inst., the question of repair to fltfcd damage on M'Coli's road, Otokia Riding,' was formally discussed. It was decided that the two culverts -washed out * should be^replaccd by 30Li concrete pipes from - the Beach road, and, by a'box opening 7ft by sft from timbers in county yards.—Confirmed, A meeting of delegates of the Taieri and Bruce County Councils was held at Taieri Mouth on the 19th to confer as to the working of the punt and the raising of wire rope to a height of. 14ft, as requested by the Minister of Marine, Piid-it jwas resol-ved—^y Th?t in the opinion of the conference there"sis no obstruction to the traffic in the river b,y the wires of the punt, as ■there are two chains on each side above 14ft iii height with deep water, and that the bridge in river higher up is a greater obstruction to the traffic, it being only in, height 10ft, and until the bridge is heightened there is no necessity to raise the wire rope." It was also agreed^-" That the tow rope be replaced at each end as far as possible with a liin wire rope of flexible steel."—Decision confirmed. A visit of inspection was paid to tho Lee Stream on the 213t 'by the chairman, the councillors ior Maungatua and Deep Stream Ridings, and the engineer for the purpose of making a recommendation regarding the short road to con--nectr Waipori-Eldorado and Outram-Clarks roads. It was decided to recommend that the -■work be carried out by contract, Maungatua Riding contributing £10, Deep Stream R.ding £15, and Mr Magonan £35, or balance.—Recommendation confirinsd; engineer to call for tenders.—Cr Blaekie and the engiaesr had recommended regarding Duke's road ditch— " That the council admit no liability, but seeing it has been customary to scour'this ditch in fcrrnei years, the council repolve to pass half cost if the owner does the same."-Approved. Lee Smith's subdivision: A reply has been sent that the council cannot admit any recompensation for the extra width reierred to. I think the council might let it be known that in esses where land is subdivided for sale under similar conditions, applications for signatare will not be considered until the street line is formed by proprietor to ths full width required by the act-It was resolved that the ccunci! bring under thes notice oi^ the District Land Registrar the fact that certam -Imid adjoining the Burnside Railway Station had been sold by public auction and that, m the opinion of the council, the law, regulating the subdl- VV uSI°V? this land had no, been complied with. Waipon Falls Company: No action had been taken by this company at the time of my last visit regarding the councils notification to have a temporary line of telegraph brought ■up to standard of Government where roads , are crossed.—Attention to be drawn to the fact ' that nothing had been done in the matter, and that unless the council s request was complied with in a fortnight the wires would bs re•moved at the company s expense.—He (the engmeer) had the following recommendations to make: That money available from block VII, Stratti-Taieri, be expended in reducing gradient on road thiough block near Peddie's house, and i that application be nude to the Land Board Ito have fmids accrued from Mr M'Rae's inn j transferred to same road-Recommendation to be given effect to. That approach to Sheepof danger to traffic through poles recently erected on Green Island to Brighton road.The attention of the department to be directed to the danger arising from the poles. The schedule of expenditure for year ending 31st March, 1005 has besai prepared and circulated A amongst members during the month. There p ire two matters which it is my duty to bring g

under your notice: That it is impossible with a limit of £2000 to allocate for more than terI porary rfepair, and to postpone for another 12 months the consideration of what every year become questions of greater moment, the renewal of a number of the county's principal bridges, and the efficient repair of several of {be main thoroughfares; that with a |d rate, an^ wi th schedule expenditure of £2000 and T;ding expenditure of £1800. it is not possible to reduce the overdraft.—These clauses weie passed, and t]le schedule of allocation for the year adopted, with the alteration of 100 yds of metal for Allanton, and 150 yds from the end of metei to county hut. Tne g anitary Inspector reported that the Kaikorai Stream continued in very fair conflition, though he had still to 'complain of a gl.eat deal of pollution from Roslyn. A compiai nt by tTTe Ota<*o Acclimatisation Society regarding the state of the stream should have Deen referred to the Roslyn Borough Council, not io the Taiea-i County "Council.— Adopted. Messrs Kenyon and Hosking wrote giving the opinion that ministers' manses were liable to be rated.—Opinion to be acted upon, j. p. j£. Fraser wrote on bahalf of the Marine Department regarding the Taieri Mouth p^t, referred to in the engineer's report.—lt was resolved-that a reply be sent to Mr Fraser that the council had .conferred with the Bruce County Council, and had come to the decision expressed in the engineer's leport. Further, that the council had delegated its fun-jtions to the Bruce County Council, who were principally interested in tho matter; that it was in fact. a matter of indifference to the Taieri County Council whether the punt continued j n existence or not The Secretary of the Otago Acclimatisation Society wrote concerning the filthy state of p raser Creek, Kaikorai Valley—Writer ref erre< j to the Roslyn Borough Council that borough being the offenders in the matter. s. M'Leod and 16 other ratepayers wrote asking that the road between the creamery and West Taieri Church be metalled.—Deferred to next meeting. The Clerk to the Henley Eiver Board wrote ! stating that the board had agreed to put in a new box on B drain 4ft by 4ft. The cost of the box laid' on the ground would ba £58; ! cost of putting in extra. To be informed that the engineer stated he had come to no agTeement with the board as to the size of the'box. The, writers were referred to previous correspondence. The Manager of the NZ. Trust and Loan Company w«Jte stating that he could not say anything with regard to giving^Jand for a j road to Lee Stream Hotel until lie wrote io ! his manager in that locality. He had no objection- to the road-if it\ did not injure the company's property.—To ba asked if he confirmed the offer made by his local manager, F. E. M'Lean wrote asking the council to grade the B Drain road from the bridge at Lee Creek up to the road leading to his house* He offered to supply teams for grader and plough.—Consideration deferred; Cr Miller to report.^ E- and J. Gough wrote that the price paid them for breaking metal in Mosgiel quairy was. not sufficient.—Left in the hands of the engineer to arrange. D- M-Quilkan wrote re trough on the Dun-edm-Whare Flat road, and asked the council to take *» ovel"> s0 that the persons damaging 1<; might be prosecuted. Trough to be taken over the council, as requested, Eei« and Gray wrote asking for a copy of ti3e heavy traffi. c oy-laws, and how to advise customers hauling on the county roads with traction engines.—By-laws forwarded, and position to be explained by Inspector Bain, B- W- &*&&* wiote drawing attention to catt.e and horses trespassing on Plevna, vJ^tshill and Abbotsfoid townships.— Matter to Toe attended to. .W- S. teele w£ote intimating that he would ye. l to rr §.lye..lye. UP hl? su>esu> es as P°unakeeper m Strath-Taien.-Resignation accepted; engineer to T a t? poiSL?l 1^ «n m« nt +1 o -o ec j ve( j The c^ f E . f Eailway, wrote that Government had decided to appoint a i commission to inqui re, where necessary, into ' fa allocaiion mJ& c m connection with the ccst f repairing Sutton c^elc bridge. If the council objected to the allocation and considered {hat a portion, or the whole of it, A ld be borne b some other local authority, n asked to notif him not later than the 31st._Eeceived. The following tenders were accepted.— For 200 ds a ° eJ Blair-Taieri Settlementq O'Rourke, at 2s 5d per yard, for 100 yds gravel, Berwick Township—John Cameron," at ?L nn r7 npr vmn It was lelt to the eneir.eer to fincl an assistant j n }ji s work In ihe absence of Cr Blaekie, the matter of n.aking by-laws to regulate motor bicycle traffic was allowed to stand over for a month, j t was reSo!ved that the allocation for the xiding funds be £1600, last year's allocation of £1200, it being mentioned, not having proved sufficient. * , .

A mot;on to the effect "that this meet- ' regards the co-operation jf the different £ tg ° of E £ j naTal d f " enf:ai. t _ u,p Etnnivp's ami hvo-p-ste P? in **** direction, is down for cb, cushion at the next mooting of the TVanS&nm Chamber of Commerce, The Imperial Bbass Spbat Pump: With Stream and Fine Spray Nozzle.—Made by merican noted manufacturers. Are obtain- 1 ,ble from Wimmo ajtd Blair, Dunedin. Fruif- ' rowers and Orchardists should use tteaj-