Manchester Road Board

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 121, 5 April 1890, Page 2

Manchester Road Board

The ordinary meeting of the above was held this afternoon. Present— Messrs Lethbridge, Pearce, Purkiss, Wheeler and Reeve. In the absence of Mr Macarthur, Mr Lethbridge was voted to the chair. The minutes of the last ordinary meeting were read and confirmed. Among other correspondence, which was dealt with in the resolutions, the following letter from Mr Macarthur, the Chairman, was read : — April 3, 1890. The Acting Chairman M.R.B. Sir, — I shall unfortunately be absent from the meeting of the Board on the 5th instant, and have therefore to ask you to read the following letter to the Board : The ballot for retiring members (3) must take place on the 5th instant as the elections to supply their places are held in the first week in May. This ballot should have been taken at the first meeting of the new Board last year, but owing to various causes I need not now refer to, it was overlooked. As I do not intend to stand again if drawn, and wish to retire in any case, I should feel obliged if the Board would take my name as drawn to retire, leaving two names only to be balloted for. I have now served continuously on the Board since its first institution in 1875, and think that I have earned the right to retirement. I should have withdrawn before, but that I did not wish to leave the Board until its finances (which were disordered by the Adsett lawsuit a few years ago) were in a satisfactory condition. This, I may say, is now an accomplished fact, as our liabilities on the 31st March were— Bank overdraft, £143 ; and deposits on contracts, £191 ; total, £334. Our assets are— Crown and Native Lands rates, 1889-90, £90 ; subsidy, 25 per cent, of total, £90 ; and arrears of rates, £244 ; total, £424. There will be a small payment on General Account for March, but not a great deal, probably under £50. I should explain that the unusually large amount of arrears of rates is due to the fact that the valuation roll was supplied to the Board last year at so late a period as to give the Board only some seven months to collect the rates in, instead of twelve months, as will be the case in the current year. Since I have been in the Board £77,163 have been expended, and 215 miles of metalled road made, nearly all through bush country, besides the large bridge at the Gorge, which cost between £6000 and £7000. The great bulk of the roads in the Manchester District is now completed, and when the few remaining roads in Wards 2, 3 and 4 are finished (as they will be if the ratepayers authorise the loan proposals, which will doubtless be laid before them), the Manchester District will be one of the best roaded districts in New Zealand. If I might advise the Board, they should take an early opportunity of arranging with the Railway Commissioners to convert the Railway Bridge across the Oroua at Aorangi into a traffic bridge under the powers given by the Public Works Act of last session. Failing an arrangement of the kind steps might be taken under clause 15 of the same Act. The works in No. 5 Ward are nearly all under contract, and if the weather keeps fine should be finished before the beginning of winter. I have written applying I for the balance of the loan, and hope it will be paid into the Bank account by the 5th. Though severing my official connection with the Board, I shall always be happy to give any inforn ation, or elucidate any matter which my long experience on the Board has put me in a position to be specially intimate with.— Yours faithfully, D. H. Macarthur. [Left sitting.]