INGLEWOOD COUNTY

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1930, Page 15

INGLEWOOD COUNTY

WORK ON ROAD AND BRIDGES PROGRESS DURING THE MONTH. MEETING- OF THE COUNCIL HELD. Bridge construction and road, mainj tcnance and control within the Inglej wood county were discussed at a meeting of the council yesterday. There were present: Messrs. A. Corkill (chairman), R. Stuart, J. Hunter, W. N. Wilkins, J. Grieve, D. Brown, H. R. Jones, J. Stachurski and A. E. Cowley. The county clerk. Mr. B. Larsen, submitted a statement of the expenditure for the month, the figures being for estimated expenditure, the total spent and the amount available for expenditure:— Main county roads, £250, 25, 125'; main highways, £7006, 2089, 4917; north ridng, £731, 184, 547; south riding, £llB7, 304, 883; .east riding, ££o6, 7'3, 133; west riding, £1167, 646, 511. ' A brief report on his visit, to . Wellington for the Counties’ Association conference was given by the chairman. , Tie ha(l approached Mr. W. J. Polson, M.P., and the Hon. S. G. Smith concerning the provision : of relief work in the * county, particularly to alleviate the ’ position of the casual employees affeet- ' ed by the recent decision to retrench. He had been unable to see the Minister ' of Public Works, but he had had a fairly satisfactory interview with the ' Minister’s private secretary,; with, whom he had discussed relief work subsidised _ on a £l. for £1 basis ,on the Bedford Road., In Stratford at the .end of the week he had seen the district Public j Works engineer and was expecting early |. ..action,. ; . i ; ... ... ; f .. . The He.creta.ry,; .of the, Local,,. Goveriimeat Loans. Bo,ard..advised .that consideration; would. be given to the application for the transfer of Bedford-Upland loan balance when formal, procedure i | was received. . . REQUEST FOR ACCESS. : Urgent access by track to his section cm Derby Road, off Surrey Road, was 1 requested by Mr. H. Bridgeman, who • said at present it was impossible to ride a horse to the section owing to a strip of wet ground about three chains wide. The river and creeks required fords. All he wanted was a sledge track. He offered to help with the work should it be started early. The matter was referred to the engineer. The Taranaki Hospital Board notified a levy of £1515 for maintenance -and £357 for capital expenditure for the current year. Permission was granted Mr. F. Bayley, Tarata, to erect a telephone line across Otaraoa Road. ■ Messrs. Peterson and Haine, Waiongona, wrote asking the council to repair the lower portion of the Lepper Road adjoining their farms. They pointed out that they paid about £BO a year in rates, and yet “next to nothing” had been spent on repairs, the portion near Mr. Peterson’s property being almost impassable at times, while the portion used by Mr. Haine was in a very bad state. —It was decided to obtain an estimate of the cost from the engineer. A request from Mr. H. Fazackerly, Norfolk Road sawmill, stating that wood carting and other traffic (coupled with his own) had weakened the road in places, was referred to the engineer to report. A schedule of percentages of heavy traffic fees granted on the Skoglund system forwarded from the Local Bodies’ Association, was approved, Inglewood sub-district receiving 10 percent. instead of 21 per cent., as previ-. ously. ENGINEER’S REPORT. The engineer, Mr. 8. C. Judd, reported that maintenance work had been carried out in the north riding on the Lincoln, Richmond, Davis and Rimutauteka Roads. In the south riding similar maintenance work had been done on the Kaimata South, Ratapiko and the Tariki Roads. At the Tariki Road tests had been taken ,to arrive at an economical distribution of metal for a sound- wearing base. - -Patching and watertabling had been done on the Hursthouse, Kaipi, Rugby, Durham, Surrey, King, Durham East and Dudley Roads, the reconstruction of the latter road being completed, leaving the entire length in first class order. After inspecting the Norfolk Road he was of the opinion that it was in good order, except for the top end, which, however, was in a reason- ; able state of repair for the amount of traffic it was called on to carry. The Ngatoro bridge groyne had been constructed and a good job had been made of the work. In the east riding watertabling and repair work had been done on the Otaraoa, Toro and Oapui Roads. The east riding surfacemen had been employed full-time on the Junction Road recon-

struction to keep down travelling expenses . with local men, thus necessitating the temporary stoppage of patching work on other individual roads. Referring to the main highways, the report stated that on the Junction Road (Kaimata to Purangi), the 10-mile peg had been passed with the reconditioning work- of scarifying, grading, watertabling and rolling, and although the time of year was not the most suitable for working on this type of road a good surface and an economical job were resulting. On the Mountain Road * banking ■ the bitumen shoulders with sods had been the stand-by work for surplus staff, and practically all the south portion of this road was completed in readiness for an early take with the grass. The concrete bridges on the Mountain Road south had been painted, advertisements taken down and the bridges now presented a clearly defined structure for night driving. This had -proved of great benefit to the travelling public. The engineer’s .general report stated that during the month 23 miles of road were scarified, strengthened with shoulder metal, graded, rolled and the watertables cleaned. Men affected by the county’s reorganisation and not required for duty worked 3J days per week. Suggested work for the month of August was: Patching holes in the Mountain Road and completion of Junction Road, reconditioning the Tariki, Kaimata South, Mana. Mangaotca and Salisbury Roads. The ranger reported that he had impounded one horse and se.zed six head of horses. Altogether, 804 dogs had been registered up to date, and £lOB 15s.

, collected. About 15 more dogs remained I to be registered. He had been on the roads at night and. had held up 16 motorcars on the main highway with only one light showing. In the majority of cases a slight adjustment was all that was necessary to make the light show. In a report on ratepayers’ reqm|.ts, the engineer recommended spending £3l 14s. sd. on the Toro Road drains, which Mr. Askew asked to be attended to. The Kaimata South Road had not yet received attention, but would come under the roaxls reconstruction programme in the Tariki pit area this month. He had inspected the Bristol Road hill in connection wth Mr. O’Shannessey’s request, and though he had no doubt an mprovement should be, effected to the corners he could not recommend an early commencement as there were far more urgent roads parrying much more traffic requiring attention in the county. He suggested that when opportunity permitted pot-holes be filled in on the last 60 chains of Bristol Road when men were working in’ the locality with a truck; and that on the Mangaone Road live chains to Mr. Blackbourn’s gate be metalled, also a cream lorry turning made.