EGMONT COUNTY AFFAIRS'

Taranaki Daily News, 13 August 1930, Page 15

EGMONT COUNTY AFFAIRS'

FLEETING OF COUNCIL QUESTION OF SAWMILL TRAFFIC. REQUIREMENTS OF RATEPAYERS. The monthly meeting of the Egmont County Council waft held at Opunake yesterday, when there were present: Messrs W. C. Green (chairman), L Young, Holmes, A. J. Lilley, J. S. Tosland/G. Gibsen, A. E. Collins, J. F. Shepherd and R. C. Watson. The engineer (Mr. J. G. Mclvor) reported as follows on the work of the month:—The Oaoiti Stream bridge is practically completed and will be. opened for traffic shortly. The footing of the south abutment of the Oeo stream bridge has been concreted and the reinforcement and boxing for the walls are in place. Excavation for -me north abutment is proceeding. The Oeo deviation cutting is almost through and most of the filling completed. Progress will necessarily be slow till the budge is completed. patching has been done at the lu.nehu stream. Shoulders have oeen graded from Oaonui to Opunake and banking done where necessary. An extensive parking area has been made at Pun<rarehu and a little draining done. Banking and water-tabling have been attended to on the Eltham Road. On the lhaia Road 68 chains oi drains has been cleared and watertabling cleared. • Patching and tabling have been done from the Main South to the Patiki Road, on Skeet Road. The remainder has been blinded. . Oeo Riding.—Patching and tabling have been done on the Kiri, Patiki, Stratford and Hone Roads and watertables cleared on the Oeo Road. Opua Riding—Opua, Namu, Upper Kina and Arawhata Roads have been patched. A fair amount of work has been done on the Wiremu Road, but it is difficult to maintain this road for traffic in winter. The outlet drain on the Upper lhaia has been dug. The grader has trimmed shoulders on the Upper and Lower Kina and the Lower Arawhata Roads. Rahotu Riding. —A total of 60 chains of new metalling has been done on the Kahui Main Road. Patching and draining have been done on the lower end. Seventy-two cubic yards of crushed metal was used to metal 13 chains of the Rahotu Road. Upper and Lower Parihaka and Tipoka Roads have been patched. Watertables have been cleared on the Opourapa and drains on the Gregory Road. Manihi, Witiora and N°a°iki Roads have been graded. The upper portion of the Ngariki Road has cut up badly and if wet weather continues heavy traffic will have to be stopped until proper repairs can be done. Newall Riding—Most of the roads have received attention. Twenty chains of the Pungarehu Road has been refaced and the road patched throughout. Ninety-five chains of drain was cleared on the Stent Road. A fair amount of patching has been done on the Warea Road and Hucker’s pit has been fenced. Mr. T. Willcox wrote drawing attention to the deplorable state fo the Ngariki Road. “Deplorable,” he said, “was indeed putting it very mildly, as the metalled portion of the road was m parts almost submerged for chains at a stretch, the damage being almost irreparable, besides making the road impassable for ordinary traffic.’’ He had never known a road to get into such a condition in so short a time. The blame, he alleged, was due to timbei traffic. He understood the council was receiving a royalty on timber carted, but he thought the revenue so derived would pay only a small portion of the damage already done, Repair work was in hand but was being ruined immediately by the continuous traffic. It was a great hardship to the ratepayers on the road, some of whom were paying for two special loans and all of whom were. still paying special rates on the larger original loan. He asked that the council immediately apply the heavy traffic by-laws to the Ngariki Road and sec that they were vigorously enforced. Mr. Tosland agreed that the road was getting into a bad state a month

ago. Mr, Gibson said lie was on the road when it .was beginning to deteriorate and had drawn the attention of the engineer to it with the result that repairs were being affected. The council was considering the settlers in a wider sense in permitting the sawmill traffic for which they received a royalty. The chairman said the matter had already been brought before his notice and he had issued instructions to the engineer to have the road repaired. The weather had been so wet that the repairs would not have overtaken the damage. However, the miller had agreed to stop carting until the road was repaired. They had always found the miller most reasonable. As a big ratepayer on the road he would like to see the carting stopped all the winter, but there was another aspect to consider. Closing down the mill would throw 17 or IS men out of employment. Replying to Mr. Toeland, the chairman said that so far £57 royalty had been received from the sawmiller and there was probably another £4O accrued. The engineer pointed out that the sawmiller, attended to the top end of the road himself. Only one settler, Mr. W. Wright, was actually affected. It would cost £lOO to put the portion of road in repair and he understood the royalty would amount to about £l6O per annum. It was resolved to inform Mr. Willcox that the matter was being attended to. The secretary of the Taranaki Local Bodies’ Association notified that at a special meeting of the association the question of the distribution of heavy traffic licenses was settled. . Egmont County Council would receive £589. The chairman said the collection of the fees now was a matter for the Egmont Council to consider. At present the Opunake Town Board was the collecting authority, but it had not proved very satisfactory. He thought the time had arrived when the council should do its own collecting. It was resolved that the chairman’s action in accepting 2J per cent, of the New Plymouth quota additional be confirmed. Mr. Young considered a commission should be set up so as to see that every local body .received. what it was entitled to. It yas resolved to ask the Town Board to .meet <a committee from the council and discuss the question of collection. The chairman, Mr. Shepherd and the clerk, were appointed a committee. .. . ~

The Public Works Department notified that the portion of the Wiremu Road from the lhaia to the Ngariki Road, a distance of four miles 46 chains, had been handed over to the council. The clerk pointed out that the Government was prepared to assist with a subsidy if the settlers raised a loan for metalling the road. . . The Hon. W. B. Taverner, Minister of Public Works, in reply to the council’s letter urging the necessity for the metalling of the Wiremu Road from Oeo Road to the Okahu Road, stated that he would have a report from the departmental engineers so that the matter should have full consideration when the Public Works Estimates were being prepared. Mr. P. Keller, the Main Highways Board’s representative, notified that the board regretted it was unable to make purchases of bitumen on behalf of local authorities. , In reply to the request that reliei workers should be employed extending and improving the Arawhata Upper, lhaia Upper and Kaweora Upper Roads, Mr. C. A. Wilkinson, M.P., forwarded a communication from the Minister of Public Works advising that inquiries had been made. There appeared to be no doubt that as a considerable area of land was being brought in it was necessary to give the settlers access. ■ The work on the roads was of a nature suitable for unemployed relief work and the matter would therefore receive due considerrtion. Newton King, Lid., wrote asking whether the council would sell a portion of the land at the saleyards, Rahotu. The firm was agreeable to the council using the saleyards as a pound. The chairman favoured selling the property, but Messrs Tosland and Young were opposed to selling it, favouring arrantrincf a renewable lease on teims to suit 0 both parties. It was resolved to reply accordingly and a committee comprising the chairman and Messrs Gibson and Young was set up to meet Newton King, Ltd. The Treasury forwarded a subsidy on rates amounting t<r £1129 19s lid. This was allocated as follows:—Oeo riding £3S4 2s Id; Opua riding, £263 14s lid; Rahotu riding, £26-1 Ils; Newall riding, £217 Us lid. Mr. G. R. Old, Tumahu Road, wrote asking the council to-push on with the raisin" of the loan for the metalling of the Upper Puniho Road. The road was in a very bad state and the settlers asked that it be completed this year as. they had already paid dearly through having a mud road. It was resolved to reply that the council was still waiting for a reply from the Government in regard to the application for a grant. Mr. H. de Thierry, Paora'Road, Puniho, wrote drawing attention to the necessity for lowering a drain and culvert on the Main South Road. He offered to contribute £5 towards the cost. The engineer stated that the drain in its present state was not damaging. the county roads and it was resolved to give the ratepayer permission to carry out the work. Mr. J. Wouldes wrote drawing attention to the state of the approaches to -the bridge over the Parihaka stream, which was preventing him carting fertiliser. —The engineer stated that the matter was receiving attention. It was resolved to inform the New Plymouth League Cycle Club that the council would offer no objection to the round the mountain race being run on the roads.

A committee consisting of Messrs Green, Lilley and Gibson was set up to go into the question of disposing of the horse in the Newall riding and replacing it either with horse or motor transport and report at next meeting.