COUNTY’S ACHIEVEMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 637, 13 April 1929, Page 6

COUNTY’S ACHIEVEMENT

HA&RAKI PLAINS’ FINANCIAL RECORD CHAIRMAN’S APPRECIATION (From Our Own Correspondent) NGATEA, To-day. Over £250,000 was spent by the Hauraki Plains County Council in the last three years. This statement was made by Mr. E. L. Walton, county chairman, at the final meeting of the council before the election last Thursday, when reporting on the work of the council in its last term of office. Thirty-four miles of road had been metalled, six miles bitumenised, 116 miles of main highway reconditioned and brought up to highway standard, and 22 miles of county road recondi* tioned. In addition, all roads had been so maintained as to excite favourable comparisons ’ with those' of other districts. Two big bridges had bene opened, two water supply schemes brought into operation, two ferries established, and two houses built. Over £255,000 had been paid out. This represented loans, subsidies, rates, hospital levy, and interest. In the same three-year period the receipts had been £242,000, the difference being due to loan balances in hand. Rates spent in ridings amounted to £26,000, and to this must be added highway subsidies, £26,500; loan money, £111,000; grants, £2,000; subsidy, £21,500; while there was £IO,OOO subsidy yet to be collected. This gave some idea of the magnitude of the council’s operations, said Mr. "Walton, and whether the ratepayers were satisfied or not, the council had cause to be gratified with what it had done in the past three years. All councillors had undoubtedly heard complaints such as of a

workman leaning on liis shovel, and. while allowing that some of these may have been justified, fair-minded ratepayers would realise that while the council might have erred in some things, it had not erred on the big matters. The council had been able to earn subsidy amounting to over £.50,000 in the past three years, and no ratepayer could say that it had been lax in getting its share from the Consolidated Fund.