RUATORIA TOWNSHIP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19887, 15 March 1939, Page 4

RUATORIA TOWNSHIP

SEALING OP HIGHWAY COUNCIL PREPARATIONS ENGINEERING WORK DONE (Special to thn Herald.) RUATORIA, thus day. The recent publication of a letter from the Minister of Public Works to the Bay of Plenty member, Mr. A. G. HultquLst, has given rise to some discussion concerning the delays in having the highways sealing and footpath construction work needed in Ruatoria township put in hand. The Minister’s letter stated that a grant of £1545, at £3 for £l, had been made available for the sealing work, but that the Waiapu County Council had failed to take advantage of this offer to date.

The suggestion that the council has been lax, in allowing the grant to lie in the department, is refuted by the chairman of the Waiapu council, >Mr. D. W. W. Williams. In a statement covering the position of the council, Mr. Williams said that the engineering survey of the proposed sealing job. and also of footways, water-channels, and drainage facilities. had been carried out by the council’s staff, and that plans for submission to the Public Works Department, were being prepared, and in their final stages. This work has not been done without difficulty, for before a general scheme could be laid out, it was necessary to secure agreement among property-owners as to the alignment of shop premises in the township, the removal of shop verandahs where these would interfere with the projected improvements and arrangements for a supply of metal. The council’s staff has been engaged largely during the past year in making good the damage done by the floods of the 1938 winter, and most of this work was urgent, so that it was necessary to carry out the Ruatoria survey as opportunity offered.

There is also the consideration, in the mind of the council, that as the Main Highways Board proposes to seal the highways through Tokomaru .Bay and Te Puia township, it will be more economical for the council to call tenders for Ruatoria sealing at the same time, and thus get the benefit of competition for a series of contracts.

This explanation was offered by Mr. Williams to readers of the Herald who may have drawn the conclusion, from the text of the Minister’s letter, that the council had ■been remiss. The council has been dealing with the matter of highway sealing and footpath construction in Ruatoria with as much dispatch as was possible in the circumstances.