MASTERTON COUNTY

Wairarapa Daily Times, 11 May 1932, Page 3

MASTERTON COUNTY

MEETING- OP COUNCIL, The chairman, Cr. W. I. Armstrong, presided at the monthly meeting of the Masterton County Council, held yesterday. Others present were: —Crs. 11. H. Mawley, Gordon Lee, P. R. Welch, J. W. C'olquhoun, J. W. A. Falloon and G. Moore. The chairman of the Main Highways Board wrote stating that the board had decided to continue the main highways maintenance' subsidy on a S,o foi £1 basis as from Ist April, 1932. The letter was received. The Chief Surveyor, Department of Lands and Survey, advised that the plan of the railway reserve at Opaki had been approved and had been forwarded to the Railway Land Officer for the necessary action under the Public Works Act, 1928. A firm of solicitors wrote stating that they had not yet been able to investigate the position of the Upper Plain water supply thoroughly, and would be glad if the council would arrange for them to place their clients’ views before the council at the June meeting. The county solicitor reported on points referred to him for consideration. The request that a deputation be received at the next meeting of the council was agreed to. The Commissioner of Unemployment wrote acknowledging receipt of the council’s application for trees to be planted with unemployed labour, and stating that the request had been foiwarded to the State Forest Seivice, who would communicate with the council as soon as the extent of the surplus not required for State planting was definitely known. The orders received for ,pinus insignus had already exceeded the number available, and in the event of any or all of the species ordered not being available, the council was asked to advise if suitable substitutes would be acceptable. An application was received from a ratepayer for the right to engage through the county twenty unemployed relief workers under the No. 5 scheme to undertake drainage work on his property. He was prepared to provide transport. It was decided to advise the ratepayer to make his own arrangements with the Local Unemployment Committee.

The ranger reported having dealt with 24 head of cattle during the month. Fees received for April amounted to 16s, making the total received since Ist March, 1932, £2 4s. The finance committee’s report was adopted, and accounts amounting to £3713 2s 7d were passed for payment. MASTERTON CEMETERY. REPLY TO MAYOR. “The county may well entertain the opinion that the language used by the Mayor, in respect of the county balances and to the council’s administration of its finances, is not usual in the procedure of local bodies, and that it does not tend to promote that good feeling, without which co-operation for the promotion of the public interest is very difficult of attainment,” said the chairman, Cr. W. I. Armstrong, in the course of a detailed reply to a statement made recently by the Mayor of Masterton (Mr T. Jordan). The Borough Council wrote thanking the council for its contribution of £3O towards the upkeep of the Masterton Cemetery for the current financial year, and regretting that the county could not see its way to make a contribution for the previous year also. \l> Armstrong said he wished to refer to the insulting remarks made by the Mayor (Mr T. Jordan) at a recent meeting of the Borough Council, regarding members of the County Council. Mr Jordan was reported to have stated that he was unable to understand the mentality of a body of public men who would not contribute towards the cost of burying their dead. Mr Jordan should have explained, said Mr Armstrong, the mentality of the Borough Council, -which, since the year 1926-27, had contributed only £IOO. The county was first asked to contribute towards the upkeep of the cemetery in October, 1930, and up to 31st March, 1932, had contributed £3O. The comparisons the Mayor had endeavoured to make from 1924 up to the time the county was first asked to make a contribution in 1930 was unfair. Nevertheless, in order to allow the county ratepayers and the borough ratepayers as well to sum up the position for themselves, Mr Armstrong said he would go back to the period from Ist April, 1927, to show that since that date the county council had, in comparison with the borough, contributed its fair share towards the upkeep of the cemetery. Since 1926-27, Mr Armstrong stated, the county’s contribution to the total sub-scription-—he emphasised “total” sub-scription-—of local authorities, had been in the proportion of 30 to 130. This was approximately the proportion of the county population to the gross population of the borough and county, namely, 3000 to 12,000. No contribution had in fact been necessary from either the borough or the county since 31st March, 1927. The year ended 31st March, 1925, closed with a credit balance of £9 14s 2d in the cemetery account. In the following year the borough quite unnecessarily voted £IOO, and the year closed with a credit balance of £ll3 0s 2d. If the borough had made no contribution, the ccmetei\ credit balance would have been £l3 0s 2d, a profit of £3 Gs on the year s operations. Therefore, the borough’s contribution was not required, and had never been, expended. The borough made no contribution in the year 192930, and the contribution of the previous year was still unexpended, as the profit without that contribution had increased to £29 4s 6d. In the year 1930-31, the borough contributed nothing and the county contributed £3O, but, Mr Armstrong added, the borough did not have the courtesy to disclose that fact in its balance sheet for that year. The couni ty’s contribution, which the borough pleaded for, was not required, as, without it and after carrying forward the

borough’s original contribution previously referred to, the year was completed with a profit of £B3 14s 7d. Last year, 1931-32, neither body made any contribution, as no contributions were required. After deducting the £IOO contributed by the borough in 1927, and the county’s £3O contributed in 1930-31, the cemetery profit had increased to £99 14s Hd. Even if it had been necessary on other grounds for the county to make a contribution, the county was assured by the Town Clerk that the general clean-up in the cemetery was done by utilising some of the unemployed, and that was not a charge on the Borough Council at all. Clearly, therefore, continued Cr. Armstrong, up to 31st March, 1932, the cemetery had been run continuously at an increasing profit since Ist April, 1927. The position at 31st March, 1932, was that the cemetery account at that date was in credit to the extent of £229 14s lid. This included the borough’s £IOO and the county’s £3O contributed during the period 1927-32. After considering those facts Cr. Armstrong considered that the county and the borough ratepayers would, with little difficulty, observe that no contribution from the county was necessary for the year 1932-33. But notwithstanding that, the county had made a contribution for that year to the extent of its legal powers, lhat contribution would certainly not have been made if the county had believed for one moment that it would have been received in such an insulting manner. It now remained to be seen whether the borough intended to make a contribution for this year. “What can be thought of the mentality of a Mayor who can suggest that the county had refused to contribute to the cost of burying its dead, when for the last three years his own borough had declined to make any contribution to the cost of interring the borough dead?’ asked Mr Armstrong. If MY Jordan had taken the trouble to examine the borough cemetery account, the county chairman continued, he would have seen that the borough council had been running the cemetery at a comfortable profit, and that his complaints of the county’s failure to subsidise those profits was “unblushing mendicancy.” It made him wonder, and he felt sure councillors would feel likewise, whether the Mayor of Masterton was sincere in his statements, which he was reported to have made from time to time, regarding the working together of town and country. “I was astounded to read Mr Jordan’s remarks in the Press,” concluded Mr Armstrong. - Other members endorsed the chairman’s remarks, and the letter from the borough was received. OVERSEER’S REPORT. The overseer, Mr B. L. Larson, reported, inter alia:— Opaki Riding. Wellington-Napier Highway: Re-formation second 4m. The metalling of the shoulders of the road in connection with this work has been completed, including approximately 20 chains of work north of the 8-mile peg. Eangitumau Riding. —Bluff-Rangitu-mau Road: This road has been widened at its junction with the WaingawaCamp Road. Spoil has been taken from the cutting at the railway crossing, and the road has been scarified, re-shaped and metalled. Upper Taueru Riding.—Te Ore OreBidoford Highway: All culvert work on this highway has been completed. The patch metalling of riding roads ex roadside dumps has been completed. Te Whiti Riding. —Masterton-Martin-borough Highway: Three 15-incli pipe culverts, each 40 feet long, have been installed on this road, and the road has been graded during the month. Uriti Riding. —Homewood Road, contract No. 71, metalling from Kaiwliata River: Good progress has been made with this contract; but work has been hold up by the recent rain. BlairlogieEast Coast Road: Metalling from Riversdale crusher dump has been carried out between the 244-257>M. Metalling from To Ore Ore has been carried out at the 19-20 M. Masterton-Tinui Highway: Good progress has been made by the surfaceman and a gang of unemployed in road widening at the 81M. Wainuioru Riding.—Wcstmerb Higliwav: This road has been graded, grass trimmed off shoulders, and metal raked in. Metalling over culverts has been completed with limestone from Weraiti quarry. Unemployed Relief Works. —Falloon ■Settlement Road: The cutting of the corner of Dagg’s Road has been widened and improved for a distance of approximately five chains; Dagg’s Road has been built up with surplus spoil to ease the corner. Burnett’s Road: Further work has been carried out on this road, which is now in good order. Wai-ngawa-Camp Road: Improvements to railway crossing; the southern approach to the line has been widened, and the bank battered back to improve vision. Upper Plain crushing depot: A new crusher site has been prepared at this depot. The crusher has been removed from Mt. Bruce, set up at Upper Plain, and crushing has been commenced.