NETHERTON RATEPAYERS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4489, 8 November 1922, Page 1

NETHERTON RATEPAYERS

MEETING OF ASSOCIATION. UNPAID RATES.. A meeting of the Netherton Ratepayers’ Association was held in the Netherton HaH on Saturday evening, Mr.T. Vo.wles presiding over a small attendance. Mr. A. Chatfield (county councillor) attended by request, Mr H. Hare, hon secretary, reporting on the county engineer’s recent visit, thought the engineer was particularly pleased that he ('.he engineer) had come along. He ihad said there was about £2OOO in i ates to be collected. No money was available to do the necessary repair work. If only a few people were to pay their rates some work could be done. The speaker understood that seme people had since paid their rates and that shortly something could be excepted to be done to the roads. A Voice : Why don’t they pay their rates ? Mr J, A. Reid understood that Wilson's Road was to be metalled this coming summer, but a great deal of work had to be done before it was metalled. The road had also to be drained. About unpaid rates, he said, it was one thing to ask for work to be done and quite another to get money to do it. The engineer had had nieces of road to metal, and it was quite impossible to dp them with the riding accounts as they were at present. Tlhey were very much behind and the roads were, top. . RIDING ACCOUNTS.

Mr E Wa'ton (clerk to the Haur.aki Plains County Council), replying to a request that detailed figures concerning the riding expenditure for the past two and a half years should be furnished, wrote stating that' the books were at present in the possession of the auditor and the information would be supplied when the books were returned. BRIDGE MATTERS. The president thanked Mr Chatfield ( for coming along. The reason was not to pull him to pieces. He asked Mr Chjatfield if he had anything of interest to put before the meeting. Mr Chatfield said if; such meetings had been called earlier in the day. <t would have been better for all concerned. He said there had been a misunderstanding in the matter of bridges. He had been under tihe impression that Netherton wanted the Hikutaia-Netherton bridge. It came as a thunderbolt to him that the Netherton people did not want the bridge. The Councils’ bridge scheme was quite a fair thing to Netherton with the Hikutaia bridge in the scheme, but with it out the scheme was not a fair thing. He tbpught the hands Department would give a- £ for £ subsidy on the Ngarua bridge. Personally he would like to see a bridge lower down the Waihou River but he did not see that the Netherton riding should pay for it. In the first place he had voted against a rating area for the Kirikiri bridge without taking a. vote, Outside the council he had never been keen on the Hikutaia bridge, but lhad thought the ratepayers wanted it. ’.rhe president maintained that councillois should not get the feeling of the ratepayers by talking to them.

Mr Chatfield understood that it was the Farmers’ Union which had recommended the Hikutaia bridge. Mr C. Potter said he had attended every Farmers’ Union meeting and the Hikutaia bridge had never been discussed.

Mr Chatfield said he was out of touch witllir the ratepayers to a certain extent, and that was why he would like meetings such as that one. The . president moved : “That the ■secretary write to the local Public Works engineer asking that he take steps to have all openings at present in the stop-bank closed from the Netherton factory to Mr Laughlin's boundary, as, shoujd a flood occur in the Waihou river, we are of the opinion that we would suffer flooding.” Mr Reid seconded the motion, which was' carried.. “THE BALKANS.” The president asked if there was any discussion regarding the corres.pondence relating to County matters appearing recently in the local papers. There was a little informal discussion, Mr Harp said there was an idea that a ratepayer had a right to criticise a councillor, but a councillor had ho right to criticise a ratepayer. “Still I think Or. Mayp went a bit top far,” lie, concluded. A voice: When he called us the “ Balkaps.” Mr Chatfield thought Cr. Mayn said that as a joke. The president considered it was no joke by tbp sarcastic reply in a letter he wrote to the “ Gazette,” DRAIN H. Mr C. A. Stem bridge moved that the present dam in drain H be opened and placed above Wilson’s road so that the water may be lowered ti give the Council ab opportunity of draining Wilson’s Road. Mr Heappey seconded the motion, which was carried. Mr Reid moved a vote of thanks to tiieir riding representative for attending the meeting, and hoped it would be one of many visits. The vote of thanks was carried by applause. The president said lie was glad to see Mr Handley present, and hoped that more of the Paeroa ratepayers who were In the district would attend the meetings.