MATATA METAL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 42, 28 July 1939, Page 5

MATATA METAL

TAKEN BY P.W.D. COUNTY COUNCIL'S CRITICISM Complaints thai the Public. Works Department took metal belonging to the county though their own supplies were availably, and dissatisfaction at the genera! attitude" of the department were expressed- by the Whakatane County Council at jts meeting on, Tuesday when it consul, ered the county engineer's report thai the Social Security Department wished to transfer to Pikowai native scheme the natives employed under Scheme 13 at the Matata gravel pit. The department had been requested to defer the transfer for one month to enable the pit works to be cleaned ud. ''The position at the pit is unsatis. factory said the chairman, Cr VV. A. McCracken. "The department wants to go ir. and take metal whom the county has already stripped ':he face. A considerable reserve has been created for the council by the use of Scheme 13 labour, and the department should be stopped. We have already given them a portion of the. pit." "The department is taking metal from the 20,000 yards stvipped b\ T the council" said Cr F. J. Burt. ''There are other places where they can get metal. It has cost us about £13 a week for two years to prepare the face for the department. '* "There would have been something doing if the position had been reversed'' said Cr H. C. McCready. "The department takes property tliese days and pifts roads back without explanation.'' The chairman said that payments from the department were in arrears. Some small accounts w T ent back two years. Their auditor liadWritten and asked how much was owing. Hp heard something. The same position had arisen over the Arawa factory site, said Cr McCracken. Nothing had been done and thejr could not stir the department up or get satisfaction. Referring to the pit he said they did not want to sell metal to the department because they needed it and also because when they sent in an account for so much a yard the department complained that it was too dear and would not pay it. It was decided to_ communicate with the department and inform it that the council did not wish its stripped portion of the Matata p : t to be touched as the council had already allotted a section of the pit to the department for its exclusive u;-c.