TOWN PROGRESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 May 1944, Page 3

TOWN PROGRESS

STREET AND OTHER WORKS 19 YEARS’ RECORD REVISION OF BOROUGH BYLAWS A summary of the work carried out by the Masterton Borough Council during the last 19 years, in which period Mr T. Jordan had been Mayor, was given at last week’s meeting of the- council by the Borough Engineer, Mr- C. R. Mabson, and by the Borough Inspector, Mr T. A. Russell. New street construction, said Mr Mabson, totalled 25 miles 394 chains; street flanks tar-sealed, 59 miles 61 chains; footpaths tar-sealed and resurfaced, 84 miles 68 chains; kerbing, 18 miles 18 chains'; new water mains, 16 miles 51 chains, and sewers, 9 miles 39 chains; while seven large reinforced box culverts and 30 reinforced concrete pipe culverts had been put down. Materials used were: Gravel, 34,868 cubic yards; broken metal, 23,973 cubic yards; filling and blinding, 21,342 cubic yards; kerb blocks (approx.) ; 30,000 blocks; honin and asphalt 2,510 cubic yards; tar and bitumen, 845,158 gallons; sand, 29,124 cubic yards.

Other works carried out were: Waipoua River diversion; a new suspension bridge over diversion; a new 40ft span on the Colombo Road bridge; concrete pipe-lining; new machinery and additions at the Abattoir; a new sewerage system for Lansdowne and several miles of extensions in the rest of the borough; a new workshop and garage at. the borough yard and the mechanisation of the borough’s street equipment. Reporting on sanitation and other progress during Mr Jordan’s term of office, the Borough Inspector, Mr T. A. Russell, said the borough by-laws were revised and printed in book form in 1927 and the .new bylaws, with amendments from time to time, had resulted in a good deal of progress. Perhaps the most progressive was the dairy milk bylaw, which was entirely due to Mr Jordan’s initiative. This had enabled the quality of the town milk supply to be improved and the herds to be T.B. tested. Other bylaws prevented itinerant trading, to the benefit of the business community; reduced the number of hoardings; licensed tenement dwellings, for which a good standard was required; licensed food premises, which had to comply with the regulations; prohibited certain foods to be displayed in doorways; licensed hairdressers; stipulated a good standard of work in plumbing and drainage, equal to any other borough in New Zealand, and controlled dangerous goods and noxious weeds. Mr Jordan had taken always a live interest in traffic control and it was due to his efforts that fines for breaches of traffic regulations which formerly went to the Crown now came to the borough, less five per cent. Mr Jordan, said Mr Russell, had always stood solidly behind his officers, could speedily arrive at a decision, and was absolutely impartial.