WEST COAST NOTES

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19149, 4 November 1927, Page 13

WEST COAST NOTES

PERSONAL. (SFECIiI, TO IKB PRESS.) GRETMOUTH, November 3. Mrs A. Beban left .'this morning for Hastings. ■Mr C. S. Dalglcish, Fields Instructor to the Agricultural Department, will leave on Monday for Christchurch.

Mr W. Mc-Na,bb, formerly of Greymouth, arrived this afternoon from Christchurch, to act as West Coast representative for Messrs Mason, Struthers, and Co.

Mrs M. J. Phillips, Buccleugh street, who is an inmate of the Grey Hospital, is progressing favourably. Mr T. Bustard, of the Railwav Locomotive Department, Palmerston North, who has been visiting relatives in Greymouth, returned to-day to ,the North Island.

Mrs W. E. Thomas will leave for Christchurch to-morrow.

Among the outward passengers by today's express were: Misses P. Burke, D. Hawken, Mesdames J. Brown, P. Lane, T. Kennedy, T. Dunn, Messrs H. Moss, H. Williams, J. Devine, J. Brown, R. W. Archer, and. W. Stapletbn. Mr and Mrs P. Callan will leave tomorrow for Christchurch.

The funeral of the late Mr C. J. Nightingale took place at the Hokitika cemetery. There was a very largo assemblage of mourners, the country districts being well represented, and also the several local bodies with which the deceased was connected. Four members of the Hokitika "Guardian" staff acted as pall-bearers. The Rev.- J. Perkins, assisted by Canon Hamilton, conducted the services at All Saints' Church and the graveside. The death is reported from Nelson of Mrs- Bertha Letitia Whiteside, aged 75 years. Deceased was welL-known in the Grey and Bullcr districts where she resided for 25 years. She leaves a grown-up family of five sons and three daughters.

Among the Westport passengers who left for Christchurch by to-day's express wore: Mr and Mrs E. McPaddcn, Mr and Mrs S. J. Atkinson, Mr and Mrs "W. T. Slee, and Mrs Enright.

Pall from Skylight. Falling this morning from a skylight opening of the Elmer Lane engine roundhouse to the floor, a distance of eighteen feet, a railway carpenter, E. W. Tanner, suffered a fractured forearm and several cuts. He was taken to the hospital, but his condition is not serious. Mr Tanner is married, his address being 34 King street, Sydenham, Christchurch,

Grey County Council. The Grey County Council met to-day. Present: Crs. J. Eyall (chairman), D. Baybutt, A. Robinson, A. Donnellan, G. Blair, and H. G. Carter. Advice of Government payments was received as follows:—Halves and thirds for September quarter, £357 9s 2d; maintenance James Colliery road, £100; goldfields revenue for September, £862 0s lOd; main highways, £830; forestry revenue, September quarter, £258 4s lid; total £2407 14s lid. It was resolved that the Minister be requested to place the sum of £IOO on the Supplementary Estimates for Shaffrey's road, Inchbonnie, and that the member for Westland be communicated with asking him to support the application. . .

The Main Highways Board forwarded a copy of main highways estimates for the-year ending March 31st, 1928,../.show- ■ ing a total of for maintenance of No. 12' District (West Coast). The Grey County's proportion was stated as £58.0 out of £3580. The County Engineer said i he amount allocated was £3oo*more than last year. The Engineer's report; said that the principal damage from the floods of October 21st and 22nd occurred on. the main highway, where the south approach to the Bed Jacks bridge was partly washed away. Temporary repairs and protective measures had been carried out and the work of constructing two 25 feet spans and protecting the left bank above the bridge was in hand. The estimated cost of these works was £1127, and plans and estimates had been prepared and sent to the Main Highways Board, with an application for a grant of the amount stated. Other damage was - done to bridges .and roads, but considering the height of the flood, it was surprising that no further damage occurred. It would be advisable to apply for a subsidy on the cost of restoring the bridge approaches. Two possible sources of a water supply for j the township of. Blackball had been. I investigated by Mr J. Aynsley. Both were old water-races leading to a dam at the rear of the Blackball railway station. Kegarding the estimate for/reinstating the water-race recommended as the better source of supply, it was likely that the Health Department would insist on the water being carried in pipes from the intake to the dam in order to prevent pollution in which case the cost of pipes would have to be provided for instead of an open flume. The Teport was adopted. " It was decided to forward Mr Aynsley's report to the Blackball Committee, and to defer further consideration until the Engineer is able to make further investigations and report to the Council.

Permission was granted to the Briandale Collieries, Ltd., to erect coal bins on ,the west side of .the road near, Ten Mile, and, to construct a. fluming 20 feet above the level of the road subject to the usual conditions.

State Forestry Department. The attitude taken by the State Forestry Department with regard to royalties . from timber areas in the Grey County was the subject of some criticism at to-day's meeting of the Grey County Council when the Department's action in annexing royalties to which the County was formerly entitled for the maintenance of roads used for timber transport was discussed.

Cr. H. G.. Carter declared that the money spent by the Forestry Department in experimental planting in Westland had gone west, as a result of costly administration. If the Department was adopting the same methods in other parts of New Zealand then things must be in a pretty bad way. The chairman (Mr Ryall) said he did not think there was any chance of having the State Forestry scheme scrapped while Sir Francis Dillon Bell was alive. "There's nothing we can do," he continued, "unless we send a remit to the County Councils Conference recommending that the State Forest Department be wiped out altogether." The County Clerk said he did not think that much good could be achieved by pursuing that line of action. Cr. Carter: "There's no chance, of getting any timber royalties while this sort of thing is going on. The whole of the money must be going in administration costs." . , The chairman said the Council was powerless in the matter, and the discussion ended.