ELTHAM COUNTY COUNCIL

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 September 1924, Page 4

ELTHAM COUNTY COUNCIL

MONTHLY MEETING. \

The monthly meeting of the-. Eltham County Council was held on' Saturday, when there were present: Crs Ci J. Belcher (chair), R. J. Knuckey, - A. McWilliam, A. V. Messana, M.;j\Y. Barker, A. Campbell, W. E. Car.ier, C. E. McGuinness, and E. J. GiffqfiD The State Advances Office noticed that the sum of £2ooo' had been lodged to the credit of the council in respect of the South Riding loan.— ; A telegram was received from .'Hir O. Hawken, M.P., to the effect thlt he had finally got the Tirimoaria Omona loans of £ISOO each i —Received. , ’

“This South Riding loan is like.; i millstpue round the neck of the coup- . cil’s finance,” said the chairman when ’ he pointed out that in view, of the! recent legislation the council could not lift more than £SOOO of loan moneys each ye.ar. He thought that the coun- \ cil should apply for the balance of the j South Riding loan (£3000) in order to, 1 , clean it up and allow other portions; < of the county to get their turn of loait money. ' v

Cr Campbell said they had been doing their best to get the South Riding loan money as soon as possible, but the money had not been coming to hand as quickly as it should. The £2OOO which tney now received notification of should have come to hand last February.

It was pointed out by councillors that the council received no loan money last year, and it was consequently decided to apply for the , balance of £3OOO of the. South Riding loan and £IOOO each of the Tirimoana and Omona loans, the applications to be treated as those of last year. Five settlers on the Mata road petitioned the council to raise a loan of £6OO for metalling 25 chains of -their road. The petitioners were T. Willy S A. Jenkins, S. H. Jenkins, J. J.’ Slater, and C. Hitchcock.-. The matter was left in .the hands of the chairman, Cr Knuckey, and the clerk, with power to act.

The Taumarunui County Council wrote asking the Eltham Council to pass a resolution in support of the payment of half of _ all Revenue frdm the sal© of Crown timber to the counties from within whose §reas the ‘timber was cut.——The. council decided, .to support the Taumarunui Council. ! Mr M. Walmsley wrote asking permission to erect a cream stand on the side of the Mata, road.—The matter was • left in the hands! of the chairman and the engineer. In reply to a letter sent by the county clerk to the Kaponga Town Board, stating that his attention had been drawn to the fact that a car belonging to the Town Board had been driven over the intersection of the Hastings and the Eltham roads at a speed of about 45 miles! per hour, the Town Board wrote, stating that on the occasion in. question the bar was driven by the engineer’s assistant, a lad of 18, who had been sent to Eltham for some material which was wanted urgently. There was no i doubt that, knowing the need of haste, the lad’s desire had outran his discretion, but the boy had taken the warning seriousty’ ond the County Council members would , have no further carise of complaint. H

_ OVERSEER’S REPORT. The overseer’s report was as follows:

South Riding;—During the month watertables and culverts were attended to on all roads in this ridihg. Side tracks were patched on the Boylan and Mountain Tar patching was done on the Rotokare and Fraser roads. ■):

Mangatoki Riding.—General maintenance work was carried out on the Duthie, Lower and Upper Hastings, Hunter, and Stuart roads. ' A guard fence on the Lower Hunter; toad was repaired, and an old woodeii; culvert was replaced by concrete pipbs. The side tracks on the Upper Stuart road were filled with clay in readiness for metalling. ’ . M Omona Riding.— and culverts were attended, to on the Rawhitiroa, Mataiwhetu, Karewa/4 Waitiri, and Matemaroke roads. 1 Metal patching was done on the Rawhitiroa road. The filling at Matemateoiiga has been completed. V' Kaponga Riding.—The surfacemen in this riding have been engaged most of the month in getting out crushed shingle in readiness for the bitumen sealing of . the various roads to be treated this season.. About 40 yards of maintenance metal was crushed at Kaponga. While the .crushing plant was in the riding we did three days’ crushing for the Kaponga Town Board. The is now at the depot, being overhauled. •

Eltham Riding.—Slips and whtertables wfcre cleaned, and patching was done on the Rawhitiroa and Tirimpana roads. Side tracks were patched: ‘on the Mountain road. Drains and 'the bridle track on the Wingrove road were attended to. ; General.—The erection of the chip crushing plant is completed and has been put under cover. The. plant is working well, the output to date being 490 yards of clean chips. The, bitumen sprayer was converted into a power unit by Messrs Nixon and C0.„,0f New Plymouth. Before taking delivery [of the machine a demonstration was given before the chairman and overseer; .everything worked quite satisfactorily. New gears are being fitted to the roller, as the old ones are baaly worn. As authorised, a spring cart has been bought, but so far we have hot been able to procure a suitable hotse. One of the horses out of - the team at the depot has gone lame, and will not be of much use to the council 'in future.—Adopted. . i