TARANAKI COUNTY

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1928, Page 5

TARANAKI COUNTY

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL HIGHWAY AND BY WAY WORK. OPERATIONS OF PAST MONTH. - The monthly meeting of the Taranaki County Council was held yesterday, present: Crs. J. S. Connett (chairman), ,W Hall, R. Wood, W. Cartwright, L. Carey, and W. Thomas. Leave of absence was granted Cr. S. Vickers. The overseer (Mr. G. Meredith) reported for the month as follows: The rotary crusher was shifted from Stoney River to Surrey Hill Road, where a site was built, the plant set up and had been worked six days crushing 403 yards of metal which had been delivered to Wood’s Hill on the Main South Road. The staff had been engaged sealing with bitumen the 95 chain Faction on the Main South Road between the Timaru and Piton© Roads. £Th:& work consisted of one coat only, the first coat being put on last month. {The bitumen plant was then shifted to the Tapuae Hill, where 00 chains of sealing had been done, two coats of bitumen being put on this section. The regrading of a portion of the Honeysuckle Hill w’ould be put in hand immediately. Shingle carted. —From the Tipiaru Road dump to the Main. South tßoad, Tataraimaka, 56 yards; from Oakura dump to Tapuae, 80 yards; from Fitzroy quarries to Tapuae, 55 yards of 7-Bin chips. The Hope crusher had completed the crushing at the Kailiihi depot, 1232 yards of metal being crushed during the month, making a total of 2132 yards of metal crushed at jtlris depot. A total of 1698 yards was spread on the Upper Timaru Road Joan work, 188 yards were dumped on the Main South Road for maintenance, and Eld yards crushed for Mr. Scott. The crusher had been shifted to Korito Road. A site had to be built and as soon as the crusher was set up the contractor was ready to start crushing lor the Korito Road loan work. The carpenter had been engaged completing the decking on the Tapuae bridge, Plymouth Road, repairing the Spouting and piping on the cottage at Dkato, and also renewed the fence In front of the cottage. He was at present engaged with the repairs to the jVaiongona bridge on the Devon Road. • Mangorei Riding—The foreman's time had been taken up clay blinding the tnetal roads and dressing the asphalt yrith sand and chips where necessary. The Korito Road formation work was practically completed. A pipe culvert yas required on the Upper Korito Road land with Cr. Woods’ authority he had Bent the 6ft 9in pipes out. Mr. Swan a settler on the road, offered to pnt the culvert in free of cost. Waitara Riding.—General maintenance work had been carried out. Most of the foremen’s time had been taken up clay blinding the metal roads. The a phalt had been dressed with chips and sand where necessary. Grading iiad been done on the Tate, Waitara, •Mangati, Wills, Egmont and Tikorangt poads. The contractor doing the formation work on the Te Arei Road loan Work should be finished about February k The contractor doing the metalling Was also pushing on, having laid apbroximatelv 25 chains to date. With regard to the Kelly Road loan work, he •estimated that, with the £3OO available, a further 25 chains of formation nnd metalling could be done. On the portion of the Hursthouse Road recently graded three 9in pipe culverts had been put in, a total qf thirty 9in. pipes Jbeing used. Omata Riding. —The foremen in this riding had been engaged practically the Whole of the month clay blinding the fiietal roads. The asphalt portions had been dressed with chips and sand where pecessary. On the Frankley Road loan the formation had been completed p*l the contractor had practically all the boulders out to the site. A start Lad been made with the repairs to the asphalt and re-sealing on the Main ■South Road between Beach and Barrett Roads. Okato Riding.—The metalling on the .Upper Timaru Road (loan work) had been completed with the exception of the rolling. The foremen’s time had been taken up clay blinding the metal roads, dressing the asphalt with shingle >nd ehips where necessary; assisting Jwith the bitumen sealing on the Tapuae gnd Timaru to Pitone sections; grading >nd metalling Wood’s Hill, and with the usual repairs. The unmetalled portions of the Lower Plymouth and Croyfien Roads had been rounded up with the grader. A portion of a wooden culirerit on the Upper Carrington Road had been renewed with six 18in pipes. Three S6iii concrete pipes had been sent out Xc complete a culvert on the south side of the Momona bridge. A portion of this culvert was renewed about two years ago. but owing to the bad state of the road at that time the balance of the pipes couid not be got to the site.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT. The county clerk (Mr. R. Ellie) submitted a statement showing the financial position of ridings as at December 81, 1927: Mangorei Riding. —Allocated for expenditure, rentals, etc., £2507 18s 8d; balance available December 31, £9Bl J3s Id. Waitara Riding.—Allocated for expenditure, etc., £5567; balance overdrawn, £217 19s lOd. Omata Riding. —Allocated for expenditure, etc., £2007 9s Id; balance available, £1271 12s 2d. Okato Riding.—Allocated for expenditure, etc., £7590 15s lid; balance available December 31, £4090 17s 4d. With reference to the fiuaneial statement the chairman said they ought to bi able to get through on the whole, (phev nad been a long way over the allotted expenditure last year and could pot hope to pick up in one year. The inspector (Mr. R. Area) reported that most of his time had been taken up in collecting the dog tax. He was Pow well into the Okato Riding and should be finished early next week. He bad had two cases before the Court during the month. He had found the roads very free from unlighted vehicles ta It d wandering stock. Fees collected during January were: Dog tax, £124 17s 6d; heavy traffic £32 2s; motor driver licenses, £3 15s; fines, (£3; total, £163 14s 6d. It was decided to contribute £2o toWards the cost of assisting the IngleWood County Council in improving the was granted P. J. R. Warden to put a water pipe across the - O. Via™ .... Appointed the council’s representatives

on the Egmont National Park Board. He did not want the matter to be held up now that there was a reasonable chance of it being done, said the chairman with reference to a loan to metai the Saunders Road. He said the settlers should hold a meeting which he would attend if necessary. Cr. Thomas said be would discuss the matter with them. «. The request of A. J. and R. A. Cole to move their fence on Carrington Road was referred to Cr. Wood. A request was made by the Mayor if Wellington for the council to give the people of the district the opportunity to contribute to the Moncrieff-Hood fund. The chairman said he thought it was a matter for the Press. MAIN HIGHWAY REQUIREMENTS. It was reported that Mr. T. M. Ball, the chairman, the riding councillors and the engineer had inspected the bridges over the Kaihihi aud Stoney Rivers aud had instructed Mr. Palmer to prepare plans of the whole main highway requirements in the Okato riding. It was decided to approach M. Hill, Ngariki Road, with a view to having his hedge at the corner of Ngamotu and the Main South Road cut back a distance of 29 feet. H. A. Luxton and Mrs. Pease are also to be approached for the purpose of similar improvements at the corner of Beach Road and the Main South Road. The inspector is to apply to L. Brown at the corner of the Koru Road and the Main South Road for the same purpse, and H. Ward is to have the overhanging gorse on the Plymouth Road cut back. Mr. E. Maxwell's request on behalf of the Forestry Company for improvements to the Surrey Hill Road was considered. It was decided to inform him that the council was unable to metal the road as requested at its own cost, but were prepared to subsidise any amount put up by the applicants. At the present time the cost would be £123, said the overseer. The overseer estimated that the cost of regrading aud metalling 48 chains of the Dorset Road would be £930, but this would only give a grade of one in eight. It was resolved that the matter be further investigated. With reference to the elimination of the Hawera railway crossing, the chairman said 5 per cent, was to be provided by the Hawera County Council, 5 per cent, by the Hawera Borough Council, and 5 per cent, by the rest of the bodies in the highways district according to their heavy traffic fees. The remainder of the cost of £5OOO would be paid by the Railway Department. What the Taranaki County’s contribution would be he did not know. The expenditure of £25 was authorised for formation work on the Frankley Road. At the request of B. Blackball, Lepperton, a reasonable amount of work on . bis road was authorised, provided he assists.