TARANAKI COUNTY

Taranaki Daily News, 6 May 1930, Page 16

TARANAKI COUNTY

OPERATIONS OF THE MONTH MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.. REQUESTS' OF RATEPAYERS. The monthly meeting of the Taranaki County Council was held yesterday, when there were present Councillors J. S. Connett (chairman)/W. Hall. W. D. Cartwright, R. Woods, L. Carey, J. Thomas and S. Vickers. The overseer (Mr. G. Meredith) reported for the month of April as follows:— The rotary crusher has been worked 10 days at the Waiongona depot, crushing 902 cubic yards of metal and chips, 802 yards being used on the construction work south of Lepperton, and 100 yards of chips dumped for maintenance. The Hope crusher was worked 8J days at the Stoney River depot, crushing 503 cubic yards of metal, which has been used on the Katikara Hill construction work. From the Fitzroy quarries 130 cubic yards of material was delivered. The total metal and chips carted during the month was 1575 yards. Mangorei Riding.—-Grading has been ' done on the Kent, Albert, Maude, Korito and Hill Roads. The earthwork on the New Plymouth-Kaimata highway has been held up awaiting final' arrangements to be made for land to be taken at Marsh’s: corner. Waitara 'Ridihg.—Highway construction work south of Lepperton has been completed with the exception of the new deviation. The contractor has made a start with- the earthwork on this section. The regrading of the hill on the Manutahi Road has been completed. Portion of. the Te- Arei' Road has- been scarified; shaped and rolled. Omata Riding. —The surfacemen have been engaged with- miscellaneous ' repairs. The motor roller is working on . the Hurford Road scarifying, shaping and rolling. x Okato Riding.—On the Weld Road the new metal has been rolled and blinded. The sides' of the road and water tables have yet to be cleaned up to complete this work. On the Katikara deviation a start has been made with foundation course of metal. At _the Stoney River bridge approaches the contractor has made the most of the good weather, and the fillings are nearing completion. Temporary roads had to be made to take the traffic at both ends of the deviation. The metal on the Lower Puniho Road has been rolled. The surfacemen have been engaged with the crushing at Stoney River, metalling at Katikara and repair work. The Upper Plymouth Road from the Koru Road to the upper end of the metal has been scarified, shaped and rolled. Mr. Thomas 'suggested that the Stoney River deviation should be pushed on as soon as the .Katikara was completed, and he moved that tenders be called for the necessary metal within 10 days. He did not want the men “hanging r: about” any more than could be helped. . Replying to the chairman, the oyerseer said that-provided the weather was suitable the deviation would be metalled straight away. The motion was carried. The matter of the construction work at Marsh’s corner and the appointment of a foreman on the Mangorei riding in succession to the late Mr. J. Dryden, was left in the hands of the chairman anti Mr. Wood. INSPECTOR’S REPORT. The inspector reported that he had visited the balance.- of the county sections, which were mostly in very good -order. Regarding the weeds on. the Devon-Mountain Road he pointed out that the corner of almost two and a half acres had been taken over by the Public Works Department, and the onus of clearing would now jAic qn.. the council. He suggested that a corner” notice be erected on the Manutahi Road at Lppper’s corner, and one on the Egmont ’ Road at the bad corner opposite Earp’s property. The corner on the Frankley Road Was not so dangerous, but possibly it would be as well to erect a notice. . “School” notices were required at the Lower Mangorei, Hillsborough and Carrington Road schools. Notices at the Carrington Road' school had got into disrepair so that it was impossible now to see what they were. He had devoted some time to road frontages and cutting back corners. As yet he could not report very much progress, but from now on he expected to be able to report that good work had been done. A few corners had been cut back and road frontages were cleaned. Regarding the Okato rubbish dump, he could not find any other place that was suitable, The only other place was the beach at the end of the Kaihihi Road, which did not ~seem satisfactory. If the present dump were cleaned and some stones rolled out of the way so that lorries could get in, he , did not think anyone could possibly complain. It was resolved that the council arrange for a rubbish dump a.t Okato, and the matter ' of the supervision of the land at the corner of tlie Devon and Mountain Roads was left to the chairman. Authority was given' for the erection of the notices as specified. MANGAONE DRAINAGE. Tlie chairman submitted a report of the meeting in connection with the scheme for draining the Mangaone Stream from Hen wood Road to the° railway crossing. He stated that the settlers interested had agreed to the scheme and to the formation of a special rating area with a capital value of £OOOO. They had asked the council to take the preliminary steps to create the special area. Mr. Connett said that it was estimated that a rate of Id. on the capital value of £6OOO would bring in £25, and the question was whether that was sufficient to keep the drain clear. lie recognised that the settlers had undertaken to keep the drain cleared, but the-council must be in a position to levy a sufficient rate to carry out tlie work if the settlers defaulted.

It was resolved that the area of the district be increased to provide for a capital value of £lO,OOO. The secretary of the Hillsborough branch of the Farmers’ Union (Mr. Sorenson) wrote drawing attention to the very dangerous bend on the Egmont Road known as Earp’s corner. As the .road carried a very large amount of traffic the branch considered it was time some definite improvement was put in hand to safeguard the public. . Th© chairman eaid that the corner Siad already been improved, but there jr&a no doubt that it wm still bad. It

was resolved to make provision in next year’s estimates for improvement to the corner. It would, said the chairman, be wise -to spend more money on secondary highways, because every year they came up for reconsideration. If very small maintenance costs were shown it would look as though the roads were not carrying sufficient traffic to warrant their inclusion as secondary highways. The Highways Board took up the attitude that unless £lO9 per mile was expended their inclusion as secondary highways was not warranted. These roads carried a £2 for £1 subsidy, and the council certainly must hold the secondary highways they had.

WAS THE COUNCIL IGNORED?

Referring to work required in the Carringto/ Road district the chairman stated °that he had been unable to arrange for Messrs. C. A. Wilkinson, M.P., and P. Keller, district engineer, to visit the site during last month, but hoped to do so this week.

Mr. Thomas referred at some length to the action of the Taranaki Chamber of -Commerce in interviewing .the Minister of Public Works and urging the completion of the Carrington Road without giving the members of the council, and °particularly the riding members, an opportunity of pressing the claims of the council. He took exception to the short notice given, of the meeting, stating that as a result the chamber had got in ahead of the council. The member for the district should certainly have notified the council, as it seemed rather peculiar that everyone knew of the meeting before the members of tlie council; Apparently the Chamber of Commerce had- more power than the council. Riding members who were familiar with the conditions of- settlement were anxious to have, certain works proceeded with first, but certain members in the chamber who had interests there pushed their claims direct to the Minister,-ignoring the council. The riding members had no opportunity of being represented because Mr.. Smith had not advised them- of the meeting. He thought .they should - protest to Mr. Smith so as to avoid a recurrence. The chairman said he did not think there was any intention on the part of the Chamber of Commerce to get ahead of the council. He explained that the Minister was not visiting New Plymouth officially, but was on holiday, as was shown by the fact that he was not accompanied by his private secretary. Out of his good nature he bad intimated that if there were aiiy matters cf importance he would be willing to deal with them.

Mr. Thomas: Sort of hide and seek. The chairman said that the council had not been ignored. The Chamber of Commerce, which dealt with matters of importance covering a wider area than the county, as, for’instahae, the Mokau bridge, and various other roads leading to New -Plymouth, considered that it had matters of sufficient importance to bring forward to justify asking for an interview. As chairman of the council, he recognised that they had matters in connection’ with the Carrington Road to discuss, but he felt that as the matter had been placed in the hands of Mr. Wilkinson it would be advisable to wait until he received intimation from the member as to whether the Minister would take deputations on the question, and allow Mr. Wilkinson to support it. However, at 6.30 p.m. he had been phoned by Mr. Smith, who had been asked by Mr Wilkinsoa to represent him on any matters affjeting his district, and though he had protested at the short notice, he had considered it advisable to meet the Minister. The Minister was not to blame at all in the matter, as he had come to New Plymouth for a holiday. Mr. Thomas said that it had’ given interested parties an opportunity to press the claims of certain works ahead of works that members for the riding wished to press. The chairman said the Chamber of Commerce was actuated by its interest in the general welfare of Taranaki. Mr. Thomas said it would be a good thing to have the road completed, but the riding’ members did not want to see the other work pushed ahead and the worK decided on by the council set aside. The chairman said that if they wanted to get anything done they must stand together. Mr Thomas: They did not attempt to consult us. The chairman: They were trying to help ua. ” Later it was decided that members of the council would visit the locality to-day, accompanied by Messrs. Wilkinson and Keller. PUNIHO ROAD LOAN. The Egmont County Council notified that the question of- the Upper Puniho ■ Road special loan had been considered by council, but that it was, regretted that nothing further could be done until it was ascertained what amount of Government grant would be made available. The chairman would approach the Minister of Public Works in the matter. ■ The chairman said that the matter had been placed before, the Minister, and he had stated that if one local body had received a subsidy the other would also, but that he would have the matter looked into. Messrs. Gladden and Palmer, consulting engineers, notified that Mr. Hawes had made good progress during the month with the reconstruction of the Waiwakaiho weir, and by the end of the week there would be only 49 feet remaining to complete the work. Rain on April 21 and 29 had caused floods in the river, the water level being about 7 feet above normal. Neither the new nor the old portions of the weir was affected ,in any way, but one of the temporary dams was carried away, which delayed the work. The Main Highways Board forwarded' authority for the expenditure of £2835 on a £3 for £1 subsidy basis for the reconstruction of the weir. , The Commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr. W. D. Armit) notified that it had been decided by the Scenic Reserves Board that in future applications for the removal of quantities of shingle or stone in excess of 10 cubic yards from the Meeting of the Waters were to be made to the Lands and Survey Department in the first instance.

of works that members for the riding wished to press.

The eh?j man sa : ;t the Chamber of Commerce was actuated by its interest press the claims of certain works ahead interested parties an opportunity to Later it was decided that members

Mrs. I. S. Hay, Okato, wrote, drawing attention to the bad state of the road leading from the Lower Puniho Road. It was essential, she said, that the road receive attention before next spring, and she was prepared to meet the council in the matter. —Referred to the chairman and riding members. . The overseer was instructed to report on the request of Mr. P. Gill regarding the Upper Puniho Road. ’ The Main Highways Board notified

that the consideration of the council's application for an advance of £2OBB as its share of the cost of improvement to the Lepperton Junction-Jlawera main highway from New Plymouth towards Waitara 'had been .deferred until next meeting of the’ board.