RATEPAYERS’ MEETING, EAST MALVERN.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1682, 11 July 1879, Page 3

RATEPAYERS’ MEETING, EAST MALVERN.

The adjourned meeting of ratepayers was held in the Boad Board office on Wednesday evening, Mr McMillan in the chair. The Chairman—Gentlemen, —l have no remarks to offer as to the object of this meeting, but will call on Mr Bossiter, who is chairman of the committee appointed by ti e Board, to report on the advisability or otherwise of opening the Dtans’ Gully road. Mr Bossiter then read the following report: — 7th July, 1879. To the Chairman of the East Malvern Bond Board. Sir, —The committee appointed by the Board at its last sitting, namely, Messrs Barr, Searle, and Bossiter, accompanied by the snrveycr. proceeded on Thursday, 3rd instant, to Beans’ Gully, to ascertain the probable expense and feasibility of opening the road to the Waimakariri. The first twenty-five chains is a road reserve and can be made and gravelled in the ordinary manner and at the average cost. Deans’ Qnlly we found to be a natural watercourse seventy chains in length with a very easy grade, excepting a few chains near the head which was steep, and where the bed was worn in deep holes, and much scoured by what must have been a torrent of no inconsiderable magnitude, rendering it at present unsafe for horse traffic, the remainder of the gully would present no more difficulties for roadmaking than any other river bed. subject, of course, to the_ inconvenience of being impassable in heavy rains and to constant supervision and repair. The gnlly opens out on a large grass flat at a distance of about thirty-five chains from the river, and, like the first part of the road on the terrace, will require only ordinary roadmaking. A short distance at the further end is in the bed of the Waimakiriri, and although not requiring to be formed, must be taken into consideration, as the full length to the edge of the section must be bought; also the seventy chains of fencing being iu the river bed will be rather expensive. The length which the proposed road must run through private property is rather over 100 ehains, and the proprietor makes it a condition of sale that the whole is to be securely fenced, and the fences kept in thorough repair, or consideration allowed to him for keeping them in repair after being finished. In view of the heavy cost of making and fencing off a road down the gnlly, your committee venture to recommend to the consideration of the Board and ratepayers of the district the advisability of purchasing the whole of Deans’ Gully and as much of the land on each side as is enclosed in the fences shown on the plan, the area being about 35 acres. Apart from the consideration of first cost, the advantages of this plan would he great—lst, the property being securely enclosed with live fences, for which no charge is to ho made, would obviate the necessity of erecting an expensive fence and the ever recurring expense of keeping it in repair; 2nd, the roadway, instead of being confined to one chain, could be allowed to make use of all the natural advantages of the ground, thereby avoiding as much as possible the periodical devastations incidental to floods ; 3rd, the land being planted would, in coarse of time, become not only a picturesque and romantic domain, a valuable resort for the health and recreation of the inhabitants of the rising townships of Sheffield and Waddington,_ but would doubtless be the means of attracting visitors from a distance, thereby adding to the prosperity of the district. On the one hand we have a large block of land securely fenced, and with the valuable privilege of choosing the best ronto down a water-worn gully; on the other we are confined to the narrow space of one chain in a more or less direct line, an irresistible temptation to such a flood as must have poured down the gully on Sunday last, liable to inundation, and consequent repairs after every flood; 140 chains of expensive fencing, subject to the same chances, ai.d which the proprietor of the land declines to keep in order for any present compensation whatever. Patting the matter into figures, the cost of land and fencing the proposed block and whole length, would thus stand Thirty-five acres, Deans’ gully, at £7 per acre, .£245 ; three and a half acres on flat, thirty-five chains of road, .£24 10s ; fencing on flat, seventy chains, .£7O ; compensation for keeping same in repair by proprietor, £SO ; total, £3BO 10a. The estimated cost of making the road your committee must leave to abler hands. As has before been observed, about sixty chains are tolerably easy, while the remaining 70 chains would furnish matter for calculation by an expert. The estimated expenditure for cost of land, &c., as recommended by the general meeting, would bo as follows : Seventy chains iu Deans’ gully, £49 ; thirty-five chains on flat, three and a half acres, £24 10s ; 140 chains fencing, Doans’ gully, £140; seventy chains funcing on flat, £7O ; compensation for keeping fencing in repair, £SO; total, £333 10s making difference of £SO in favor of the chain road, against which the price to ho paid for keeping the Deans’ gully fence in repair mnit he represented by an unknown quantity In conclusion, your committee regret to have to state that they consider it a difficult and expensive matter to make a road, or even a track, down Deans’ gully, and that there is nothing at the end of it when you get there. Yours obediently, "War. Bossiter, Chairman of Committee. The Chairman—Gentlemen, you have heard the exhaustive report on this question. If you have any remarks to offer wo shall be glad to hoar them. No ratepayer having anything to say on the matter, Mr Popple proposed and Mr Graham seconded —‘‘That, a’ftc-r hearing report of the committee, this meeting is of opinion that the expense would be such as to warrant tho Bond Board in not taking any action in the matter of opening the Deans’ Gully road.” Carried without a dissentient. The Chairman—l must now call on Mr Bossiter to read his report relative to his interview with the Commissioner of Crown Lands. Mr Bossiter—l did not think that my absence from the last ratepayers’ meeting would have been called in question, as I was sent as a deputation to Mr Marshman by the Boad Board and not by the ratepayers. I may say that I only reached Sheffield that evening. Tho train was twenty minutes late, and I was suffering from a very severe headache. Mr Bossiter then read tho following report : To the Chairman of tho Past Malvern Bond Board. Sir, —Being lonored with instructions from tho Board to wait on tho Commissioner of Crown Lands respecting the terras upon which certain reserves rceinireil by the Board for plantations could he acquired, I obtained an interview on tho 10th June last. It was very gratifying to find the Commissioner congratulating the East Malvern Boad Board on inaugurating a scheme of such permanent benefit to the country, and in a manner likely to make such plantations popular, and that ho was liberally disposed to aid tho Board in any manner possible and likely to contribute to success. Eeferring to his letter sent to the County Council, in answer to its application, he stated thntjthe Board were fully at liberty to enter into possession of such parts of reserve 421 as ' may bo deemed necessary, always providing

tint tho land was taken according to regulations in a right-auglo block, and without undue encroachment upon frontage, in fact, so that tho remainder of the block wore left available for settlement, and it was suggested that a piece ten chains wide on tho west side of tho reserve, reaching from the police and Government enclosures to the river, vtonld be suitable, and that if this met the views of the Board and be acted on, Mr Marshman would at once communicate with the Government to give the Board a title to the land. With regard to the education reserve, tho Commissioner considered that an application should be made by the Board for such land as was required to the commisioners of education reserves, and that such application should offer—first, a peppercorn rent for perhaps twelve years, while the plantations were growing, and after, when self supporting, a fair rent should be offered for the land again. An alternative might bo proposed that at the end of a certain time the Commissioners of Fducation Keserves should be entitled to any profit arising from thinning the plantation, without destroying it. Regarding the third block applied for, railway reserve 4!5, it was recommended tbat application should first be made to the Public Works office, when, if the railway engineer gave it as bis opinion that the laud in question could not possibly bo wanted for railway purposes, the Commissioner was of opinion that no difficulty would ensue in tho vesting of the reserve in the Board, always supposing that the reserves were solely used for creating plantations. Yours respectfully, W. Eossitbe. Mr Roasiter—Perhaps I did not lay sufficient stress on tho last lino. It was fully understood at tho former meeting of ratepayers that the Board was not to lake any action till it got the Crown grant. We have a letter from Mr Marshman, which is almost as good ns a Crown grant ; but what guarantee have wo to give the Government that wo should not use the land for other purposes than those for which it was acquired. No further remarks being made, a vole of thanks was passed to the chairman, and the meeting was dissolved.