INGLEWOOD COUNTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1921, Page 8

INGLEWOOD COUNTY.

FIRST YEAR'S WORK. REVIEW BY THE CHAIRMAN. At Tuesday’s meeting of the Inglewood County Council, the chairman (Mr. A. Corkill) gave an interesting review jof the. work of the council in submitting his first annual report. Mr. Corkill pointed out that during , the twelve months the county had been in existence they had had various difficulties to contend with that had naturally not been conducive to obtaining the results they had wished, and comparatively little progress had been made in reading. Very little actual work could •be done during the period prior to the election of the new council, which took place in July, but since then the council had instructed its engineer to prepare. a comprehensive scheme of road improvement, with a view to placing loan proposals before the ratepayers. The engineer had submitted estimates, but the financial stringency had held the matter up for the time being.

Tn connection with the ordinary maintenance of the roads, the council had been seriously handicapped by the shortage of the necessary plant. The area taken from the Taranaki County by the Inglewood County formed a little more than one-third of the Taranaki County valuation, and included approximately 70 miles of roads, of which 40 miles were main arterial roads. They naturally expected that one-third of the Taranaki County Council’s plant, which had been paid for by the ratepayers of this district, would/ in the adjustment of accounts between the two bodies, have been awarded to them to enable them t© carry on and maintain these roads, but all they got was credit for its book value as at March 31, 1920, and some of the assets were written down by 75 per cent. When their committee met the Taranaki county committee with a view to comipg to an amicable settle- 1 ment they offered to take one-third share of the assets at their book value, or accept credit for their actual value as at March 31, 1920. This the Taranaki County Council absolutely declined, and they were thus left to deal with the additional mileage with only the Road Board’s small plant. They were then faced with the necessity of procuring new plant at the greatly increased present-day values, and unfortunately they were unable to purchase this new plant, as would be shown by the fact a stone-crusher which had been on order for over six months was not yet to hand. As a result the main road between Waipuku and Waiwakaiho, which was in a neglected condition when taken over, was practically worn out, and, strange to say. he had noticed in a report on the financial position of the Taranaki County Council, given by its chairman, that “amongst other things they had a certain amount of plant to dispose of.” With the wet season ahead it would be almost impossible to keep the roads open. The difficulties they had to face could be realised when it was considered that they were a new county, and had to maintain roads carrying the same traffic as old-established counties like Stratford and Taranaki, the former having a toll gate with a revenue of £2500 per annum, and the latter had Inglewood’s plant. He freely admitted that some of the roads had not liad the attention necessary, but the one small crusher was kept going as constantly as possible. Contracts for the metalling of about ten miles of immetalled road were either let or well in hand, and taking into consideration the shortage of plant, cost and class of available labor, ratepayers would realise the hard row they had to hoe. There had been other difficulties during the year, but these had been so well ventilated that there was no need to refer to them again, other than to say that Mr. Neilson, who was appointed county clerk in succession to Mr. Lloyd, appeared to be filling the position satisfactorily. Now plant had been purchased to the value of £3OOO, and five large concrete bridges had been completed, viz... Kurapete £1146, Makara .1*947, two at Bedford, north of Dudley, £BlO. and Ngatoroiti £S26, a total of £3729, towards which the Government contributed £1561. The valuation of the county was £928.299 capital, and £467,348 unimproved. The approximate revenue was £9736 Ss Id. Outstanding rates were approximately £2OOO, and the overdraft lit March 31 was £3758 2s. Although the position of the county was all right, it would be necessary to exercise care during the next year or two in order to place the county in a sound financial position, a© he considered working too close to the overdraft limit the whole time was not sound business, and, moreover. every shilling paid in interest on overdraft was so much money lost to the roads. ( r. Stuart congratulated the chairman on the report submitted, which gave a fair idea of what had been done by the council during the past year. Cr. Capper said the chairman had put in a nut-shell what had been done. He. expressed regret at the controversies that had taken place in the past, and. hoped that the council would work harmoniously together in the future, and that any differences of opinion over matters of policy would not be acrimonious.