TUAPEKA COUNTY COUNCIL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3831, 16 August 1927, Page 38

TUAPEKA COUNTY COUNCIL.

MONTHLY MEETING. The monthly meeting of the Tuapeka County Council was held on Friday afternoon. Present: Cis Cameron (chairman), Bennetts, Cotton, Leary, Murney, McLennan, MacDonald, Revie, and Simpson. ENGINEER’S REPORT. The County Engineer (Mr R. W. Fisher) (reported as follows: — During tne month uncter review the heavy trusts and inclement weather have again retarded work, and on this account I have a very short report to submit for consideration, and as a considerable portion of my time has been occupied in supervision of the excavation for foundations of the Lowburn Creek bridge and concreting for foundations of abutments and piers I have been unable to devote much time for inspection in the various ridings. Brown s Riding.—lt has been only possible to do such work as attending to and cleaning- intakes and outlets of culverts, touching up watcrtables and general attention to such portions of the roads which have sufficiently thawed to do any pick and shovel work, but I am satisfied that the work carried out in the spring of last year has shown great results, and that in spite of the conditions which have prevailed during the past winter the results have exceeded expectations.

Waitahuna Riding.—A surfaceman has been only employed temporarily executing minor works of urgency where required. There are other matters to report which can better be done verbally at your meeting.

Gabriel's Riding.—The surfaceman has been employed in blasting rock for maintenance on the road known as Jacob's Ladder, Blue Spui, anti general surface work throughout the riding. It has not been possible to attempt any work on the Beaumont Station road in the matter of putting in the pipes which have been delivered for culverts on account of the ground being too hard to excavate, and, for the same reason, no grading has been possible. Teviot Riding.—Road to Roxburgh on the east side of the river is much im- ] proved by gravelling, and is now in a very fair state, and if touched up with the tractor and grader, as I propose to do as soon as suitable conditions prevail, will be as good as ever. I met the district engineer. Public Works Department (Mr J. R. Marks) on Saturday last on a visit to Roxburgh, and he’ promised to look into the matter of providing some measure for the protection of vehicular traffic o n the river side of the railway al Dumbarton, and to ask for a report from the assistant engineer. The culverts have arrived for the Teviot Settlement roads, but it is not possible at present to get suitable men to camp out until better weather conditions prevail Benger Riding.—Work has been laid off o n -uarsh’s road at. Ettrick, and the tractor and grader have made a start this week. The lorry has been under repair, but is now in commission and will shortly be available to do something on Mr Norman s road for which the member for the Fining is pressing. Beaumont Riding.— It has onlv been possible to do ordinary surface' work lhe frost is coming out of the ground and some heavy carting along Harris’s I’ hit has done considerable damage. This is unfortunate, as a large amor tof money was spent in metalling herein the summer. No road could stand-up to such treatment. However, presumably, the carting was necessary to those c< ncerned ;i* now ly remains to await the opportunity of putting the grader over the road.

Crookston Riding.—l have a complaint from Mr Ollivcr regarding a culvert on Heriot-Edicvale road which requires renewing, but I have not yet inspected the same. Complaints have also been received as to condition of a short length on Kempthorne's Hill, on which I will report verbally. Tapanni Riding.—The surfacemen have beep engaged patch-mending throughout riding roads and main highways. Main Highways.—The state of the road between Round Hill and Lawrence is serious, but unavoidable, and can only be left until such time as the weather takes up. With this exception, and short portions between Lawrence and the Big Hill, the balance of the main highways is in remarkably good condition, taking into consideration the weather so monotonously referred to in my report. Lowburn Bridge at Beaumont.—l am pleased to be able to report, splendid progress with this bridge.—The abutment and wings at Lawrence end and centre pier are ready for girders, which have been delivered. Foundations for abutment and one wing on the Beaumont end are filled in, and if the rain had kept off yesterday the other wing would have been filled. FINANCIAL. The financial statement laid on the table by the clerk shewed the liabilities at July 31 to be £6541 15s 4d (bank overdraft, £3418 2s lid), and the assets at the same date £3263 16s lid, leaving a debit balance of £3277 18s sd. THE JOINT COUNTIES BY-LAWS. Mr F. Lloyd (Maniototo County) forwarded minutes of conference of delegates in connection with the adoption of a joint set of county by-laws. These indicated that the date of the meeting for confirmation of the by-law is September 22. He asked to be advised as to the number • of copies of by-laws required, and to be supplied with a l ; st of the expenses in-

curred by the comity in connection with its representation at the various conferences. It was resolved that 500 copies of the new by-laws be ordered. In regard to expenses incurred, Cr MLennan explained that he did not agree with the procedure that was proposed to be adopted—viz., the pooling of all the expenses, each county lo pay its proportion, lie pointed out that a good deal of legal and other expenses had been incurred before the Tuapeka County had been asked to come iir, and also that many of the counties were resented at the conference by several delegates, and he did not think it a fair thing to expect these counties who had only one representative to share the expense incurred by other counties in sending several delegates. He intended to move at the final conference that each county pay its own delegates’ expenses, leaving the other expenses to be dealt with as suggested.—On the motion of Zrs Murney and Leary it was resolved : —‘‘That this council having paid the expenses of its delegate to the by-laws conferences, it will not agree to the principle of grouping of delegates’ expenses.”—Mr Lloyd’s letter also referred to the proposal to establish an Otago counties’ association, and Cr McLennan asked for the council’s opinion on this subject.—The opinion expressed by councillors was to the effect that such an association would serve no practical purpose and only entail unnecessary expense on the countries forming the membership.—On the motion of Crs Bennetts and MacDonald, Cr M Lennan was thanked for the able manner in which be had represented the council at the by-laws conferences. —Cr M‘Lennan briefly acknowledged the compliment. The Lawrence Town Clerk wrote asking if the county would bear half cost of maintaining electric lights at (1; boundary (near Stokes’) ; »2) railway crossing, XVetherstones road: (3) county side of bridge, Gabriels Gully: end (4) west side of Kearney’s bridge, Beaumont road. Cr Simpson advocated acceptance of the responsibility and moved accordingly. Cr Leary seconded the motion pro forma and said it appeared to him that this matter was one entirely in the interests of the borough, and he did not. see why the rateayers of the county should be called upon to meet any of the expense. —The motion was lost.

H. "Foster, Tunpeka Flat, wrote com plaining of the flooding of Ins paddock near railway line, and asking that some steps he taken to imnrove the drainage. The Engineer explained that it was a railway reserve and impossible under the conditions to drain it as the section was lower than the bed of the sludge channel. —Referred to the member and engineer. J. L. Roonev wrote on behalf of the citizens of Roxburgh,.asking that the road from the end of Roxburgh traffic bridge to the railway station be named “Bennett road,’’ in recognition of the services of Mr John Bennetts in having the railway brought to Roxburgh; also, that a suit-ably-inscribed marble tablet be placed m a prominent position. —Cr MacDonald said the road in question was in his riding, and as the railway for which Mr Bennetts had fought for 50 years would be opened in a few months, the settlers wish in this was to honour Mr Bennetts. He moved that the request be granted.—Cr Simpson seconded the motion. He said he had sat in the council with Cr Bennetts for over 50 years, and could vouch for the zealous manner in which he had battled for this railway, and he was pleased ,to see the action the settlers were taking to recognise the services of Mr Bennetts. —The motion was carried unanimously.—Cr Bennetts thanked the council for acceding to the request.

H. A. Hollamby and others wrote applying to have the road io their respective properties gravelled and offering to pay half-cost of carting the gravel and give service of five men.—The offer, winch Cr Leary characterised as a very generous one, was accepted. H. J. Vernon, Dumbarton, wrote asking for some gravel to be placed on the road leading to his dwelling.—Cr Bennetts moved that as soon as the lorry is available the engineer have some improvements made to this road.—Seconded by Cr Leary and carried. J. R. Marks, district engineer, wrote advising that the permissible authorisation and cash allocation out of the Public Works Fund for Tuaneka County for the current year are £2600 and £2OOO respectively, and that the county’s presentauthorisations are as follow :—Clark’s Flat road £l5O, Edievale to Moa Flat School £lOO. Lawrence-Tuapeka West (Bulfin’s) £65 7s 6d, Lawrence-Waipori £7B 15s ; Rankleburn-Tapanui £lB 15s. He further advised that it was the Minister’s opinion that further authorisations should be restricted to cases where special circumstances exist, and it is intended to put the work in hand at once.—Received. COUNTY RANGER S REPORT.

The County Ranger (Mr D. M*?7eilly) reported that in the different ridings he had found 11 head of cattle and one horse at large on the roads, the owners of which would be brought before the courts. —The report was received.