TURUA TOWN BOARD.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4772, 5 November 1924, Page 1

TURUA TOWN BOARD.

e MONTHLY MEETING. 'Die regular meeting of the Turua Town Board was held on Monday evening, Mr J. Mules presiding over Commissioners C. Scott, F. Olsen, J, T. Davies, C. Bedford, J. McConnell, and S. G. .Williams, and the clerk, Mr ,J. E. Green. v The clerk reported having twice written to the Commissioner of Crown Lands asking .the position with regard to the domain reserve and urging that the gazetting of the board be expedited. No reply had been received. The secretary of the Turua Ratepayers’ Association wrote drawing attention to the state of the watertables in Raratuna Street. Mr Olsen suggested that the Presbyterian Church Committee be asked to deepen the water-table alongside the church section and lower a. cer-; tain set of pipes. The board could then do the rest. A motion to that effect was carried. Advice was received that the sum of £3B 2s 3d, being the Government subsidy on rates collected, had been remitted to the board’s credit at the bank. The manager of. the Bank of New Zealand at Thames advised that the board's overdraft limit had been extended to £260, which sum was equal to three-quarteris of the total revenue received during the past year. The manager of the Bank or New Zealand, Thames, wrote stating that, the bank was inundated with applica-. tions for local body loans and the usual avenues were not at present available. The head office suggested that if the board was not able to sell the debentures locally application should be made to the Government lending departments. METAL SUPPLIES. The county engineer wrote pointing out that there were too many “reject” stones in the metal being received for the bitumen ro,ads, and that there was .too much dugt in the chips. The clerk reported having communicated with the crushing contractors- in terms o£ the engineer’s letter, and also having notified the engineer to that effect. The engineer had replied endorsing the board’s action and stating that unless an improvement was made delivery would have to be stopped. He would not. recommend any payments until better metal was delivered. The chairman reported that he had heard that Messrs Tretnowen. and party had accepted a contract to supply metal to Rotorua. Under the circumstances they would probably ceaise to'supply the board. There was a likelihood of securing supplies from Puriri Creek, and the price might be less than for the Kauaeranga metal. Up to the present not 25 yards of metal had been delivered daily from Kauaeranga. About 40 or 50 yards would be available from Puriri, so a supply from both places at once would not be too much. The clerk was instructed to communicate with the county engineer and ascertain particulars with regard to the proposed supply from Puriri, ana the cost. McCoid and Biddle, the contractors for the unloading of the metal at Turua, wrote stating that owing to the small and erratic isupply of metal they were unable to carry on under the present conditions. Ohly 680 yards had been received in 39 days. If the board would agree to pay an extra 4d a yard for the metal already landed to bring their wages up to 13s 7d a day they would be prepared to carry on with the remainder at Is 3d a yard, provided 40 ! yards of metal arrived daily. Membes pointed out that the board had met’ the contractors at its previous meeting and had employed them on numerous odd jobs, so that they were earning about £5 a week. The matter was left in the hands, of the chairman and Mr Olsen. ROADING SCHEME. The permanent roading scheme proposal was discussed at length in committee. On resuming the following recommendation was adopted : “That the county engineer be requested to prepare a revised specification for carrying out the road loan on the main road from the Willow Dicin’ to the northern boundary only, and to enter into negotiations with the N.Z. Roads Co., Ltd., with the view of that company submitting a revised tender for the work, and that the chairman oe empowered to interview the county engineer, county clqpk, and Mr Carson (representing N.Z. Roads Co.) with the object of bringing the matter to a conclusion on the basis )f the work above-mentioned being carried out within the amount of £4OOO now available.’