TARANAKI COUNTY COUNCIL

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1930, Page 15

TARANAKI COUNTY COUNCIL

WORK ON ROADS AND BRIDGES n : ~T- *’ PROGRESS FOR THE MONTH. lI. LOAN PROPOSALS DISCUSSED. • The control and maintenance of roads and bridges -were considered at a meeting of the Taranaki County Council yesterday. There were present Messrs. J. S. Connett (chairman), W. Cartwright, W. Hall, R. Wood. L. Carey, W. Thomas and S. Vickers. A revised proposal ' for the' Dover Road, loan is to be* forwarded to the v ratepayers concerned. .The amount of [ the loan is abbut £920,. instead of £640 t as originally expected. The Public o Works Department was prepared to carry out the formation work free and subsidise £1 for £1 the metalling. The financial position of the ridings as at June 30 was as follows, all being credit balances: Mangorei £3086 17s 4d, Waitara £3766 2s 3d, Omata £975 16s. Okato £2lOl 3s 7d. The chairman reported that he had arranged for the purchase of the year’s supply of lubricating oil and other oil at the original rates. His action was . confirmed. He reported that an agreement had been made with the ratepayer concerned to retain the anchor for the overhead cables on the eastern end of the Waiwakaiho weir. Compensation, fixed by the council, had been settled at £5. The overseer, Mr. G. Meredith, reported that during the month the rotary < crusher had been worked in the railway 8 pit, Sentry Hill, 18 days, crushing 1648| cubic yards of metal. Material received from Fitzroy quarries totalled 104 ’ yards. The total metal and chips cart- • ed was 1752 yards. When not crushing ) the staff had been engaged making pipes, t mixing asphalt, patching asphalt on the , Devon”and Main South Roads, forming ' i Te Arei Road between the Mangoaraka ’ bridge and Mountain Road, and erecting ’ a protection fence on the Mangorei hill. ■ • Junction Road. The bridge carpenter ! I had been making alterations to the metal bin, repairing and painting the j portable wharee and repairing the decking on the Tapuae bridge. Hurford Road. 'ln the Mangorei riding the motor ' roller had been worked on the Alfred and Kent Roads shearing . the grass shoulders off the metal and scarifying and rolling where necessary. WAITARA RIDING WORK. . . | In the Waitara riding the foremen had done metalling work on the Kelly, To Arei, Manutahi and Waitara Roads; approximately 55 chains had been recoated on the Kelly Road and 40 chains on the Waitara Road. Asphalt patchi' ing had been done on the Devon Road. . The contractor was pushing on with the j earth work on the deviation south of | Lepperton as weather permitted. i The side acks on the main road m the Omata riding had been patched with metal and the asphalt patched where necessary. The approach to the Sealy Road had been widened and metalled. ] . General maintenance, work had been > carried out in the Okato riding. Metal I patching had been done and watertables attended to on the Puniho, Carrington, Kaihihi, Hampton, OxfordSaunders, Dover, Leith, Surrey Hill, Koiu, Plymouth and Kiribati Roads. Asphalt patching had been done on the main road. The main road from the top of Betts’ Hill to the foot of Katikara hill has been scarified, shaped and roll- ' ed. Scarifying, shaping and rolling had 1 been done on the Upper Pitone Road, i The -grading work had been completed i on the Surrey Hill Road. I The county inspector, Mr. R. Aroa, I reported that he had gone through the register and taken a list of drivers who had not renewed their licenses. Manv of them had left the district and others were not driving at present. A fair number of wandering stock had been found on the roads, some at night. It was stated that water was running ■ down the centre of the Katikara devia- ; tion roadway, ' Mr. Wood pointed out to the Okato '■ ridino- members that the bends north ' of the Oakura bridge were overhung with growth and required other attention. " Mr. Thomas reported that -the Okato I riding members were ..favourable to i sealing the by-roads gradually -out of revenue, as preferable to eon tinned and ecstly patching. This was favoured by other councillors. . • The Upper Puniho Road, was in a bad state, .wrote a Tumahu settler, Mr. G. R. Old, who asked that the council attend to the matter. Nothing further, he- continued, had been heard coneern- : ing the loan for the road. Nothing could ■ be done, it was resolved, until the esI timates were received. Permission to plant pohutukawas, two to the chain, along the west side of the Wair-au Road from the .South Road to the beach was granted the secretary of the Oakura Beach Improvement Society, Mr. A. E- Mahon, • The council’s schedule of works for ■ which application had been made for grants for the current year would he borne in mind during the compilation of estimates, advised the Minister of Labour (the Hon, S. G. Smith). RADIAL ROAD CONSTRUCTION. Mr. P. Keller, Main Highways. Board’s representatives advised that the board had agreed that the original radial road reconstruction programme should be adhered to for the Auckland-Wellington via Taranaki main highway. The secretary of the Taranaki Local I Bodies’ Association forwarded the following resolution' eohCewihig- :thc di'scr!"..

bution of heavy traffic fees, which was carried by a special meeting; That the principle of the present sciieme be adhered to, allocations continued in accordance therewith, subject, however, to the payment by the Taranaki sub-dis-trict of the following subsidies from its net collections —10 per cent, to the Inglewood sub-district, 3 per cent, to Stratford, 2 per cent, to Eltham, 2S per cent, to Whangamomona, and 2J per cent, to the Egmont sub-district. After a discussion it was resolved that the permanent staff was in excess of requirements and that the overseer be instructed to submit recommendations for placing some of the permanent employees-on the casual list. The corner at the junction of Hoani and Main South Roads at Okato, it was agreed, should be improved and application is to be made to Mr. James Brophy for portion of the land required. A request that the council renew, a bridge and improve the road was made by a settler, Mr. J. McFelridge, of the Upper Timaru Road. It was decided to obtain estimates for erecting the bridge. A deputation of five of the seven ratepayers on the King Road, Tarurutangi, consisting of Messrs. W. Rodgers, Waldock, D. Smith, F. W. Jackson and S. G. Rodgers, waited on the council in connection with a gap of about 20 chains of flat, unmetalled road which it was desired to complete with a view to linking up. the two metalled portions of • the road. It was explained that some years ago a loan for £l5OO bad been raised to metal the King Road, but it had been found insufficient to complete the job and the 20 chains was still umnetalled. There were only two ways, of completing the work, explained Mr. Vickers. They were the raising of a further* loan or finding the cash.- The work .would probably cost about £2BO. The county could meet them up to £56, leaving them £224 to find. It was agreed to supply particulars lof the cost to the ratepayers, so that they might consider raising a loan. The council agreed to the suggestion of the Public Works district engineer to construct .the Devon Road-footpath from the Waiwakaiho to the showgrounds as unemployment relief work with a subsidy of £ll3. This was on the present £2 for £l-subsidy on 14s per day, the total cost for labour being estimated at £l7O and the full cost £2lO.