MASTERTON BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9170, 19 August 1908, Page 6

MASTERTON BOROUGH COUNCIL.

ORDINARY MEETING. The Masterton Borough Council held its fortnightly meeting last evening. There were present —The Mayor (Mr P. L. Rollings) and Crs J. Yarr, J. Prentice, J. C. Ewir.gton, J. Elliott, J. H. Pauling, W. Pragnell and W. Morris. Cr J. Hunter apologised for non-attendance through indisposition. At a short special meeting held prior to ordinary business the special order confirming the making of a special rate to secure the gas loan of £12,000, was confirmed. Mr O. C. Cooper waited upon the Council on behalf of the Solway syndicate to request that the Council absolve the syndicate from the obligation to put in drainage pipes in the new street through the northern end of Solway. The Mayor said that he thought that on account of che great distance of the locality from the drainage area, and especially in view of the drainage loan being rejected it was rather a hardship to impose on the syndicate to require them to expend money in this direction. He moved that the request be acceded to. Cr Morris held the tame views as the Mayor, and seconded the motion. Crs Ewinglon and Elliott favoured asking the syndicate to substitute a water main for a sewer. Mr Cooper said the sections on one side were already supplied with spring water. Ultimately it was ui.ani-nously resolved to relieve the syndicate from the necessity of putting in drainage, and on the rr.otion of Cr Ewington it was decided, after division, to ask the Syndicate to put in a three-inch water main instead. The ng-Town Clerk was instructed to fill a temporary position being vacated on the office staff. An application for the position of caretaker of the baths was referred to the Works Committee. i The use of the Park Oval was unanimously granted to the Fire Brigade for demonstration practice. The question of widening Kuripuni street was brought up by the Mayor, who considered that the matter had been postponed long enough. Various sub-committees had failed to report, and it was only a question of whether the money in hand was to be spent in removine houses to make the road a chain wide, the road itself to suffer proportionately, or whether the road should be threequarters of a chain wide, and the money in hand spent in making a good road. He moved that the Engineer take stepa to acqi/ire the land necessary under the Public Works Act for making the road threequarters of a chain wide. Cr Haughey seconded the motion, and said he was of the opinion that it would be better to spend the money in hand on the road in preference to shifting houses, leaving it to a later time for the road to be widened to a chain wide if necessary. Cr Ewington was strongly against a road less than a chain wide. He thought it would be inadvisable to proceed with a threequarter chain road until it was found that the money in hand was not sufficient to move the houses back. He favoured postponing the matter until after tenders had been called. After further discussion Cr Ewington moved, as ati amendment, that the road be widened to a chain wide so far as the money will go, the making of the road to be left until later. Cr Morris seconded the amendment. The amendment was then discussed, but finally it was decided to give the sub-committee which has the matter in hand a chance to bring top a report at next ordinary meeting of the Council.

The tender of Mr C. Clarke, at £2l per year, was accepted for the lease of 37* acres of the waterworks reserve.