WAITOTARA COUNTY COUNCIL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18021, 9 November 1920, Page 8

WAITOTARA COUNTY COUNCIL

The Waitotara County Council met yesterday. Present: Crs. W- Morrison (chairman). C. Smith, J. H. Burnet, N. Jones, J. Farley, G. Russell, S. G. Handley, 1). Ross, C. G. sellThe chairman congratulated the councillors returned at the recent election and welcomed Cr. C. Smith, a new member. SUGGESTED BY-LAW. The Farmers' Union wrote urging the framing of a by-law to prevent vehicle.s crossing bridges while stock is crossing same. Cr. Farley considered the remit, was not in order as it should refer only to stock under proper control. Stock might be straggling out for 'miles. V The letter was received only. MISSION LINE. Mr F. H. Allen waited on the Council as a deputationist and urged the Council to open up the Mission Line between the riverbank and BrunswickCr. Ross said the grade was alright and that at some future date it would be one of the most useful stock roads in the county. Cr. Burnet said there were few connecting roads. It was decided to get the engineer to report and the chairman stated that the Council would probably apply for a grant when the time came. MISCELLANEOUS. The riding credit balances were reported as follows:- —Brunswick, £2320; Waitotara, £7546; Westmere, £2261; Tokomaru, £2195. A vote of £5 was made to the Maxwelltown Public Library. The State Advances Department wrote entertaining a proposal to borrow £5OOO for the Rangitautau East Road. I The councillors agreed that it was j a very satisfactory position. I A tender of £549 from Mr F. M. McCullough was accepted for the Brunswick-Kai Iwi Road. ENGINEER’S REPORTThe count}' engineer (Mr T. Dix) reported:— The. work for the past month has been the clearing of slips. It is pleasing to report that the most recent rains did comparatively little damage "to the roads. With the exception of the Paparangi Hill, Rangitatau East Road, all the roads have cleared sufficiently to allow of vehicular traffic. The roller has been taken to Mowhanau to drive the crusher, but so far, owing to the boisterous weather. only one day’s crushing has been done. A contractor is prepared to carryout the improvements to the Rapanui Road at the Mowhanau Bridge at my estimate. It is not proposed to start this work until the crushing has been completed. Several roads have recently been flooded owing to the watercourses at private crossings being blocked or the culverts being too small. Notices will be sent to the owners asking them to make suitable provision for flood waters. Main Road.—The shingle for resurfacing the tarred portion of the road through Westmere is slowlycoming to hand. Delivery has been delayed owing to floods in the Wangaehu River. Approximately '6O yards of shell rock for maintenance work, have been dumped by the motor truck at several sites between the top of Waitotara Hill and Bushy Park Junction. More lasting repairs will be carried out when the Pakaraka and Okehu pits are developed- Quite a number of small slips have occurred between Kai Iwi and Maxwelltown, traffic being held up for a short time on two occasions. Shell rock has been procured for repairing the outlet to the brick culvert in the Pakaraka Gorge and repairs will be carried out when the stream is normal. Tokomaru Riding—Vehicular traffic on the top end of the Ahu Ahu Road was stopped for about a week owing to slips; the road is again open for traffic. Connor’s Ford on the Kauorapaoa Road is being repaired. There is difficulty in procuring suitable shell rock for paving the stream bed. Westmere Riding.—The motor truck was utilised—when the roads were too wet for metal carting—for hauling the grader when cutting off the grass edges of the Francis Watt and Rapanui Roads. We hope to start the metalling of the Kai Iwi Beach Estate (Duigan’s) roads next week. Sufficient boulders are to hand at the crusher to metal about 50 chains of road. The contract for widening Fox Road is progressing slowly, only two teams are being used at the work. A larger culvert is required on Fox Road near Lincoln Street; the existing culvert is too small to carry the flood water. A considerable amount of flood water lies on portions of the Parke’s Estate owing to the bed of Churton’s Creek being too shallow where it runs through private property. The creek overflowed the Boundary Road owing to its tortuous course- A larger cul-ert is required to cope with flood water. • Wheel traffic on Smith's Road was held up for a day owing to a blockage by a large slip. The Rapanui Road at Westmere Lake was again flooded. If the lake were kept at its lowest level during normal times it would have sufficient area to impound the flood water. The existing culvert would be sufficient to cope with the water outside the catchment area of the lake and prevent the flooding of the road. Brunswick Riding. Practically the only other work done during the month has been the repairing of the flood damage done at the beginning of October. Small slips came down

on most roads during the recent rains but nothing of a serious nature occurred. A start has been made in making repairs to the Blueskin Road. Owing to the scarcity of good gravel it is proposed, to utilise Wangaehu shingle to fill in the deepest ruts, then scarify where there is a sufficient depth of old metal, and finally finish with a thin coating of Grange metal. Waitotara Riding—About 50 yards of shell rock have been carted out by motor truck for maintenance work on the Okehu and Nukumaru Station Roads. Owing to the shortage of labour and wet weather, slow progress was made on the contract for metalling the Rangitatau East RoadShell rock has been procured for re-metalling the road near Mr Moore Hunter’s black gate; this is to replace the metal that was washed off the road during the recent flood. No work other than clearing the pit has been done in connection with the contract for remetalling the Rangitatau West Road. The Lower Waitotara Road was blocked during the recent rains but the slips have been removed sufficiently to allow of vehicular traffic. The approaches to two bridges on this road have been undermined. These will be repaired when opportunity offers.