GREY COUNTY COUNCIL DISCUSSES MACHINERY & PUNAKAIKI BOUNDARY

Grey River Argus, 4 June 1948, Page 2

GREY COUNTY COUNCIL DISCUSSES MACHINERY & PUNAKAIKI BOUNDARY

At yesterday’s meeting of the Grey County Council, a request from the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce for the support of the council to have a School of Forestry re-established in the South Island was supported by Cr J. Mulcare. A suggestion that the help of the Member for Westland, Mr J. B. Kent should be sought was made by C'r J. Ryall, who moved that the council give every support to the representations. Seconding the motion, Cr Mulcare said that the South Island did not receive the forestry revenue that it was entitled to, as a good deal ..of the money spent in the North Island came from South Island timber. The chairman, Cr J. Ryan, presided, also present being Crs J. Ryall, M.L.C., W. Fisher,. J. Mulcare, T. G. Jamieson, J. Clayton, A. McDonnell, J. W. Hannan and Mr H. Higgins (engineer), and Miss E. M. Heaphy (county clerk). "In reply to your letter forwarding a petition from the residents of Punakaiki, I have to advise that this council will oppose any plan to alter the present boundaries,” stated the Buller County Council to indicate its attitude towards the residents of Punakaiki, who are petitioning in an endeavour to have the Punakaiki areaincluded in the Grey County.

Cr Ryall moved that a copy of the Buller Council’s letter be sent to the Punakaiki residents, together with advice that the petition be sent to the Minister of Internal Affairs. This was seconded by Cr Jamieson, who said that the least the Buller County could have done was to have stated why they had objected to the proposal. A circular regarding the recent Municipal Association Conference I was received from the Wanganui Electors’ Association, who requested the council’s support for resolutions protesting against the association’s proposals that loans should be raised without the approval of the ratepayers, and that the rating limit on local authorities should be raised. The Electors’ Association advanced a proposal to obtain all local body finance from the Reserve Bank at a rate of one percent. with a stipulation that all existing loans should be gradually converted to one per cent. It was decided that the council receive the letter and advise the Wanganui association that the council hesitated to express an opinion, as it was not borrowing money. Referring to a letter frorii the New Zealand Counties’ Association coni cerning Government grants, which ■ said that a matter causing concern to the association was the large number of these grants in the hands of the councils at the end of the year, the engineer (Mr Higgins) said that the amount expended by the Grey Council was very small, amounting only to about £l2O in one case, while £lOO was over-spent on another project. The association pointed out that if councils continued to withhold the spending of the full amount due to them there might be a tendency to reduce the amounts in future, and councils would then have themselves to blame. However, the association realised that present shortages of machinery and labour made the full expenditure of money available in grants rather difficult. New Machinery Wanted Cr Clayton said that it was his opinion that the council should sell their mechanical digger and buy a loader-bulldozer. A machine of that description would help to so?ve the country road building problems more readily than the present machinery. He estimated the cost of a loaderbulldozer at £4500. He thought it possible to make an exchange for an expenditure of approximately £lOOO. The Engineer: "I would not entertain that idea for one minute, as I do not think that a loader-dozer would do the work as efficiently as eother a digger or a bulldozer.” He agreed that a loader-dozer would be an asset to the council. Cr Hannan said that a report should be obtained by the engineer on any new equipment he thought was warranted, as the council’s finances had gone down this year. The County Clerk, replying to a ' question, said that would be down about £2lOO. On the motion of Cr Hannan, seconded by Cr Ryall, it was decided that the engineer report to ■ the council any changes in equipment he thought would be required and also report on the efficiency of the mechanical digger. Applications for the following renewals of slaughterhouse licenses were recommended: Messrs W» Fisher and Sons (Nelson Creek), Fisher Bros.’ (Ngahere), A. Bruhn (Rutherglen) and P. and J. Burrows (Totara Flat). Nelson Creek Hall Committee wrote requesting that the council tar-seal the frontage of the hall and offered to contribute towards the cost. It was resolved that written guarantees of payment be obtained from the applicants, and that the engineer be requested to attend t'C the matter.

It was decided that no objection would be made to an application by Mi’ J. McLaughlin to build on a road reserve at Red Jacks. The engineer reported that the Automobile Association had offered £25 towards the improvements to the Arnold Valley road. He said that the work would cost the council £450 to complete. It was decided to seek a subsidy from the Public Works Department to complete the work and to inform the Automobile Association what action had been taken. In pursuance, to the policy of rewarding old servants for their services to the council, it was resolved that grants of £lO each, be made to Messrs Lewis, Johnson, Wafer and Roper. Cr Ryall said that when the Highways Board took over the road to Barrytown the question of making a grant to retiring employees of the council had been deferred.