GERALDINE COUNTY COUNCIL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 10734, 27 December 1924, Page 3

GERALDINE COUNTY COUNCIL.

MONTHLY MEETING. The ordinary meeting of the above Council was held on Mon- - day. Present: Mr K. Mackenzie (chairman), and Crs. F. R- Platman. P. Mulvihill, J. M. H. Tripp, J. C. Kelland, J. J. Ellis, T. Lyon and the County Engineer (Mr C. E. Bremner, C. 8.) The following resolution was passed;—“That this Council- desires to convey to his Excellency Sir Fergusson, our new Gov- - a welcome to the Dominion upon his taking up the responsibilities of his new office.” The Finance Report was as follows: —Receipts since last meeting £944 9s lid. There was a debit balance of £1572 6s lOd at the Bank of N.S.W., and a credit balance of £llß 15s 4d at the Bank of New Zealand, Temuka. Cash, in hand £132 Is Id, making the debit balance £1321 10s sd. The cheque for the Timaru Harbour Board levy, £2277 95,10 d, passed at last meeting, had not yet been presented, the secretary very considerately keeping it back till the end of the month. Accounts to be passed for payment that day amounted to £926 -'ISs, which with the Harbour Board cheque still to be met would bring their debit balance to £4525 ISs 3d. A sum of over £9OOO was still to come in on general rate. The report was adopted. CORRESPONDENCE. Hearty good wishes for Christmas and New Year were received from His Excellency the GovernorGeneral, the chairman and members of the Waimate Council, Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., and Mr and Mrs T. D. Burnett, M.P. Mr T. D. Burnett, M.P., wrote that the Government Life Insurance had no funds available for the Downs W.S. District, and suggested that money might be obtained locally as Christchurch was doing. The Coiunty Clerk, Ashburton, wrote that the County Engineer had the matter of the planking of the Rangitata bridge in hand, and would attend to it at once. The manager, Dominnion Insulators, Temuka, wrote asking the Council to do the work of clearing dullows at Mill Creek and to’ charge cost to the company,—Left to engineer. Two cases of infectious diseases were reported in the County for the month. ENGINEER’S REPORT. The Engineer reported as follows: — Temuka Riding.—ln this period the teams have done the following work:— Metal-patched Winchester, Orari, Badham’s, Clandeboye, Epworth, graded whole length of Main North Highway, patched and topdessed portion of Temuka-Pleasant Point Main Highway. For the above purposes 209 c.y. of metal have been used and 18 miles of surface graded. Contract No. 26, Rangitaira Road (metalling), Government grant—Government authority has come to hand authorising proceeding with this work, which will be put in hand by the contractor immediately after the holidays. Tenders were invited, and closed last Saturday for proposed metalling' bxi Spur Hut and Maxwell’s roads in the Waitohi district and these will later be submitted to you for your consideration during the sitting. If these are accepted, it would be necessary to ■ curtail further fresh contracts in this riding during the current financial year, as the appropriations *made for new work during this term will be exhausted. Geraldine Riding.—The teams’ work for the month has included the following:—Shouldering and metalling Templer’s Road, grading and metalling Main North Road, metalling Geraldine-Orari railway station road, metal patching Packham’s road, etc. For this, 448 c.y. of metal have been laid and 3| miles of grading done. Groynes were also put in and road reformed at Quaid’s road crossing of the Te Moana river. It was found necessary to discontinue the crusher work for the present, the staff’s services being required on more urgent, works which were in abeyance while the latter was in progress. To operate the - crusher economically requires the whole riding staff, and this can only be done for short intervals at certain seasons of the year when maintenance work may happen to make less demands on their time, or weather conditions may be more favourable than usual. Restrictions of finance will therefore hold up material improvements in the Council’s class Orf this work even with the small help rendered by • the Main Highways Council. Contract No. 25, Geraldine-Opnha Main Highway (metalling), is well forward, and should be finished at an early date. If quarried materials are available it would he well while the teams are in the district to arrange with the contractor to make some repairs towards Gapes Valley School on a section of the line which is at present in need of attention. Mr A. V. Simmons’ requirements will have the attention of the staff as soon as their services can be made available. Additional widths of foot planking will he laid to supplement those now serving at the crossing to Mrs Bray’s homestead at Gapes Valley. The foreman will under- • take the construction of the motor bridge at Sweetwater Creek, the subject of Air McDonnell's recent application, as soon as possible. Messrs Unwin and others’ application was examined, and it is suggested that before bridging the stream the outfall below the bridge site should V e improved so as to considerably reduce the depth and width of the water on the road .crossing. Should this not prove satisfactory, provisions could he made in next year’s allocations to bridge the stream for light vehicular traffic where it is now spanned for foot passenger accommodation. Mt. Peel Riding.—The surfaceman with his team reports the completion of the following works in the month:—Metalling repairs Peel Forest toward Ben McLeod, and repairs to the various creek crossings in this line, 'building groynes at Middle Creek and Lynn bridge approach and making heavy traffic crossing on the Lynn creek. Approved plans, etc., were received from the Public Works Department for Nolan’s Waihi bridge, and tenders for this were closed on Saturdiay, 13th inst., and will be

placed before you for considerati to-day, and can be dealt with si ject to authority of the departure whose grant is made towards t work. General. —The work of the bricl staff includes the following ope: tions since last meeting:—Buildi groyne at Te Moana Quaid’s pro ing, building motor bridge nc Proudfoot’s comer; completi building tar tanks, tarring a sanding Victoria, Badham’s, Rolh ton, Twoomey’s, Sharpe’s and W: Chester bridges. An accident Saturday week at the Arum bridge through failure of the dec ing under a heavy lorry load si pended traffic for a time, but tl was temporarily repaired and i opened to traffic within a few hou: Orari-Rangitata Water Supi District.—There are one or t 1 complaints this month of shorta and excess of water in the raci and these received attention by t ranger when notice was sent to hi of the matters. His report for t month will be read to the meetin RIVER DISTRICTS. In the Rangitata River Distri the short length of additional ban ing was dona on D. Sugrue’s lai to further protect Edgar’s adjoi ing land downstream. The riv throughout has been in a swolh state sufficient to prevent the su gested expenditure at the settlei groyne. In the South Orari Di trict, Mr Rae complains of willo obstructions diverting the curre: in flood time on to his land, ai applied to have these removed afford a clearer channel in a mo; central course. This work is o posite the Ohape Settlement so fliers’ selections. The staff of me working in the Upper Orari-War District are still on the Rautawi Settlement frontage, and have la erly encountered heavy work ther Your committee inspected this loca ity at last meeting and recommem ed that something be done belo the Mill bridge before closing th: year’s work. It is expected to t able to do this in the early pai of January, 1925. I regret to r< port an accident .to one of tli Council’s employees at this worl necessitating his removal to the T maru Hospital, where he is no making good progress towards rs covery. WATER SUPPLY DISTRICT. Mr P. G. Withers reported tha Messrs J. Brenton, W. Grotty, £ Worner, P. Neu'tze and P. G. With ers had been appointed a commit tee for Kakahu-Te Moana. Mr J. Harris reported no meel ing had taken place at Woodburj and he would carry on as usual. The ranger, Mr A. B. Mahan wrote that whenever he went dow; to see Mr Grant’s race there hai been a fair amount of water com ing down, though he believed th flow had been irregular durinj some part of the day. Mr T. Lyon reported a good meet ing at Waitohi Plat, when the fol lowing committee was elected: Messrs Hogg, Smart, Green, H. Tal bot and T. Lyon, the last nainei being elected chairman. GERALDINE DOWNS W.S.D. The solicitor to the Council, M: W. H. Walton, wrote enclosing ; resolution confirming special orde; to be passed that day, and seal at tached. After this was done, tin new district would be , properly constituted, and it would be neces sary to proceed with the steps re quired to be taken in connectio.’ with raising the loan and obtain ing, authority to do the work o constructing the water race. Tin first step was to adopt the roll o; ratepayers for the district, and ht enclosed copy of the special rol which was to be deposited in tin Council’s ofllce for 14 days. It was proposed by Cr. Ellis, am seconded %■ Cr. Kelland: “That th; roll attached be a special roll o the Geraldine Downs-Raukapukf W.S.D., and that the special roll b< deposited for public inspection a the office of the Geraldine Countj Council for 14 days from Januarj 6th, _ and that notice thereof In published in the “Geraldine Guard ian.”—Carried.

The chairman said that they should go on with the poll after the holidays, so that they would be able to go .on with the work as soon as money became available.

It was resolved to charge Mr A. J. Davey, Waitolii Flat, £1 per annum for water to his drain, on the understanding that he pays the outstanding rates for 1923-24. Mr W. Pearse also to be charged £1 per year for water to drain.

The following rates in the several water race districts were levied for 1925:—Woodbury 4d, Geraldine Flat 2d, Waitohi Flat 4hd. Rangitata-Orari 2 |d, Orari-Waihi 6d, Kakahui-Te Moana, maintenance Is, interests 3d, Hanging Rock bridge loan 3-Bd.

The rates were adopted. One tender, that of G. F. Hooper was received on contract 27, Waitohi Road, at £165 15s. Messrs Tubb and Goulding tendered £335 12s for the erection of Nolan’s Bridge. It was decided not to accept this, but to do the work by the Council’s staff. Gr. Mulvihill said he had heard good reports of the Council’s bridge staff from all sides.

RIVER BOARD

The Couincil transacted routine business as >a River Board, at the

conclusion of which the chairman wished members the compliments of the season, and the meeting terminated.