COUNTY CHAIRMAN AT WELLINGTON.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 425, 23 December 1911, Page 5

COUNTY CHAIRMAN AT WELLINGTON.

EXPENDITURE OF ROAD ! GRANTS. SATISFACTORY ARRANGE ! ME NTS AIADE. i Owing to Severn] technical matters in connection wi'.h the various loans applied for by Hie Wai'omo County Council having to lie attended to it was decided at last meeting of the County Council that the. chairman and ■ clerk should proceed to Wellington and interview the Minister on the subject. Messrs Seholos and Mora accordingly left for Wellington by 'tie .'! ! a.m. express on Wednesday. The fol- : lowing acount of the mission his been ; received from the chairman and will ;be of interest to settlers throughout every portion of the county: "We waited on the Minister of Public Works on Friday in reference ito various county matters, the To Kuiti-Awakino road grant being one. : The Minister said he had signed the : authority and instructions were given : to communicate with the council to J that effect, and to proceed with the ! work at once. lam therefore wiring : the county engineer to prepare specifications for the work without delay. | "Other matters whereof the council j were somewhat in an awkward position in regard to were subsidies J granted in connection with certain j loans, viz., Mairoa. Honikiwi and : Pukearuhe. When the loans were S raised they were worded so as to pro- | vide for metalling only. The vari- ! oua road engineers claimed that where | a loan was raised for metalling only the money so raised and the £ for £ | subsidy could only be used for metali ling. S "However, the council did not take i the same view, and as there was j plenty of money provided in all the ! allocations they instructed 'ho county engineer to provide in his specifications sfor metalling, certain amounts for culverts, and necessary widening. These specifications were submitted to the various road engineers for approval and in each case they were returned to the council with a cover note to say that they could not be approved because certain amounts was an illegal charge against the loans and subsidies in question. Tin's, we pointed out strongly to the Minister. who was thoroughly in sympathy with us. He, however, asked us to call again at 3 o'clock', when he would have the under-seeret.ary present.

"At the appointed time we again met the Minister, and also Mr Blow. the under - secreatry. The position was explained to him by the Minister and he said that the engineer? hail taken up the position mentioned. The Minister said it was ridiculous that these various works should be hung up on that account, and more especially seeing that the Estimates £ for .£ did not mention metalling only, with the exception of the l'ukearuhe subsidy. The Minister ruled that the pipes and widening were quite legitimate charges, and instructed the. under-secretary to communicate with the road engineers to that elTect at, once, and also told vis not to leave Wellington until we had these matters fixed up satisfactorily. "We then accompanied Mr Blow to his office where lie gave instructions that the engineor-in-eharge at Stratford be written to informing him of the Minister's decision in reference to these matters, and asking him to communicate with the different road engineers to that effect, and also that the council's specifications in connection with the Pukearuhe, Mgapenga, Pungarehu, Mairoa, Arapae, Te Kumi Te Kuiti should at once be approved, so as to enable the council to proceed with the work at once.

"We have an appointment with the Prime Minister to-day with reference to other minor matters.''