AERODROME APPROVED

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1934, Page 3

AERODROME APPROVED

DECISION AT STRATFORD DRAINAGE SCHEME ACCEPTED. CASTING VOTE OF THE MAYOR. The Stratford Borough Council last night decided to exercise its option over 210 acres of land at the end of Flint Road, for the purposes of an aerodrome. This decision followed the recommendation of a public meeting earlier in the evening which approved an amended scheme cd drainage. The council was evenly divided and the proposal was adopted on the casting vote of the Mayor. The option expires to-night. Information that the Public Works Department was reasonably certain that the proposed site could be satisfactorily drained and that the work would be commenced as soon as Stratford made £825 available, was given the special meeting.

The engineer-in-chief to the Public Works Department, Mr. C. J. McKenzie, notified that the estimated cost of doing the work for items other than labour was £1075. That would be necessary to cover such items as team work, manures, grasses, tile draining, gravelling, etc. It was considered that £S2S would be required from local sources. Even, with the money in hand the speedy completion of the work was contingent on sufficient unemployed labour being available for its effective prosecution- A maximum amount of £250 would be made available from the civil aviation vote. On the receipt of advice from the Stratford council that £825 was available he would put the • improvement work in hand.

The district engineer of the depart- , ment, Mr. P. Keller, forwarded state- ; ments from his report to his head office ; on the draining of the area. Borings re- ! vealed the presence, nearly throughout. ’ of some 10 to 11 feet of saturated clay. . mud or pug overlying a very hard, ira- , pervious grit of very considerable depth. ; and underlying the one foot to two j feet of subsoil. He felt reasonably cer- . tain that the area could be satisfactorily ; drained by an open cut-off drain, into the hard grit, along the northern edge of the area. No particular material cost would be required for that. Then there would have to be parallel four-inch tile drains at four-chain intervals running from south-west to north-east to intercept the flow of surface waters after percolation through to the impervious grit. It was probable that the tile drains might not need to function to any great extent once the main cut-off drain and surface grading were established. Considerable labour would be involved on the drains but the length of tiling was reduced on that as discussed by Mr. Gibson, engineer attached to the Aviation Departrhent. The Mayor, Mr. J. W. McMillan, presided over an attendance of 40 including the assistant engineer. Mr. J. E. Anderson, of the Public Works Department at Stratford, at the special meeting. DIFFERENT DRAINAGE PLAN. * He was sorry to have to call the ratepayers together again, the Mayor said, but after the question of draining was raised the Public Works Department went very carefully into the matter and offered a scheme that was considerably different from that which the ratepayers previously approved. The new plan would have to be financed on a different basis so that the council would have to find about £BOO in cash and in addition face an annual cost of about £2OO. That sum would have to be found by a vote of about l-5d or 2s 9d a year on every £lOO of unimproved value. The l-5d would cover interest and principal instalments so that at the end of 20 years the property would become the property of the council.

What would be the position if after the draining scheme was put in the tod was still a bog? Mr. A. H. Trotter asked. The Mayor: The department would have to do it again. The town clerk, Mr. P. Skoglund, read a letter from the district engineer at Stratford contracting to, among other items, drain the area to the satisfaction of the Director of Aviation.

The council had already had trouble with estimated costs, said Mr. C. Jackson, and he would like to be assured that the cost to the council would not be more .than £825 before he voted for the plan and Mr. J. B. Richards wondered if it were necessary to put in all the tile draining outlined. It might be possible to put down half the scheduled number of tile drains and see whether that number would be sufficient before embarking on the full plan. He knew that Government engineers, in planning work of that type, always endeavoured to make sure and therefore the plan outlined might give more drainage than was necessary. However, the area had been surveyed by competent engineers and he hesitated to voice an opinion on his own accord.

“If we tile drain on Mr. Richards’ suggestion and then find we have to complete the scheme as planned now you would have to lose the use of the ground for that time,” Mr. Anderson said. “Naturally we like to be sure of what we do.”

“I know Mr. Anderson’s is the surer way but I also know that one can oiten drain an area with much less work than is originally anticipated,” Mr. Richards said. “I’m not making this suggestion in the way of criticism but merely advancing a proposal that the department might consider.” IRON OXIDE QUESTION. Owing to the ovide of iron in the swamp choking up the drains he was not satisfied that the land could be drained, Mr. C. H. Speck said. Mr. W. L. Kennedy asked how long would it take to drain the swamp. Mr. Anderson replied that that depended on the number of men available but he would be surprised if the draining was not done inside 18 months. The drainage scheme applied not to the whole property but to the area to be used as an aerodrome.

Mr. W. Hewitt said he could not understand why some of those at the meeting, who professed to know the property, could not understand that the aerodrome area was the only wet portion of the total area. There was a crqp of turnips down at present in one part of it.

The Mayor said that as a ratepayer he had no hesitation about the scheme. A. total of £571 in butter-fat was taken off the property last year and that sum did not "include the return from sheep, pigs or other sidelines. The sum was taken in a year of low pay-outs. Times must improve and the property would be developed so that he could see nothing to fear. “We would be lacking in foresight if we missed this opportunity,” said Mr. R. H. White in moving that the land b* acquired. Mr. D. J. Malone seconded pro forma. “There has been no ulterior motive on the council’s part in the delay in securing the report of the Public Works Department,” said the Mayor. The delay has not been the fault of the council or the department at Stratford, but it seems that perhaps some element has not wished Stratford to have an aerodrome for our option on the land runs out at the end of the month. The Mayor said the tptal cost would be about £lO3O. J