COUNTY RATEPAYERS' ASSOCIATION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 672, 27 May 1914, Page 2

COUNTY RATEPAYERS' ASSOCIATION.

—r ❖ ; PAEMKO RIDING BRANCH.

A meeting of the executive of the local branch of the Ratepayers' Association was he 1:1 at Pio Pio on 14th inat. Present —Mbegi's Livingstone, chairman. Power, Burrows, Hobeon, Mortensen, and Mr Jackgcm, president of the Ratepayers' Association, also attended. The meeting unanimously upheld Mr Livingstone in hi 3 favouring aa delegate to the Ratepayers' Association, the action being taken by that body to request the Wsitomo County Council to have a poll taken on the question of rating on unimproved value. Messrs Livingstone and Bobson moved that the work of getting signr. tures to the petitions to be sent to the Council in connection with the above question be equally shared by the members oE the executive.

Mr Livingstone brought up ihe question of the main road, and said he thought this was one of the first questions to be considered, seeing that the main road affected all the settlers of the district. He had worked out a scheme of his own for the betterment of that road, but before he laid it before the Association he wished to submit it to them lest he should be making suggestions to the Association which would not meet with the approval of those ho represented. Mr Livinstone said that, as a country could not develop without ports, so any portion of a country could not advance without roads, for the progress there must always be facility of outlet. So to them the whole question of roads and of all roads in the district was a problem seeking solution. There were main roads and bye-roads, roads affecting all, and roads affecting only a section of the people, and he believed that the main roads which all U3ed should first be attended to. Much as he would have liked to see all the roads in the district improved his scheme dealt only with the road from Te Kuiti to Pio Pio, that portion of the road he argued, concerned the whole district as it bore all the dis trict traffic. After Pio Pio the burden of the traffic was divided among the several roada branching at that centre. He said thut ha was not an engineer, but he thought he was pretty near the mark in saying that £fioo a mile was required to make the road satisfactory. At that rate, to make the road capable of carrying the traffic for the fifteen miles attected, Ihe total cost would be £9OOO. Taking it that the Government would grant a subsidy of £2 to £l, the ratepayers would require to find £3OOO. Interest on £3OOO at £5 129 2d per cent, would be £l6B 5s each year; 10 per cent, brings the amount to £lB5 Is. These figuten. he said, and those he was about to produce concerning the ratable value of that portion of the Waitomo County Council served by Te Kuiti-Pio Pio road, had obtained from the clerk of the Waitomo County Council. That official had reckoned the aforementioned value as fallows: —Paemako riding

£192,519, Aeia riding £178,370. Mai10a and Mangaotaki ridings £37,236,

Te Kuiti riding £48,866, total £57,981. Taking the calculated cost and this valuation, the rate would be less than id in the £. If the Government subsidy was only £ for £ the rste would work out something lesa than 3-lGd in tha £. That was his scheme which he would put to the meeting for discussion. Mr Power objested tc the scheme as put forward by Mr Livingstone hecause it lsft out parts of the district and thoEe who would be paying for the road improvement would not be having the benefit of good roads into their own dstrict beyond Pio Pio, and said that the scheme ought to be comprehensive and include all thn roads. Ho did not think the cost of making the main road very good woud be anything like £6OO a mile. Mr Burrows supported Mr Livingstone's scheme because the road from Te Kuiti was a main road and

the others were bye-roads, and said that it was necessary to improve the main roads before the task of improving tha hye-roads was undertaken.

Mr Hobson said that tha main road was of vital importance, and that money already spet.t would be lost if something was not done. Mr Jackson said that, thougli lha general conference of rlelegatea from the various counties in the Dominion was not in favour of the Government taking over the main roads, he understood that Mr Mass2y had been statirg that since only the North Island would benefit from such a scheme, they were considering bringing down £ measure to miko the North Island a special rating area in thia matter, and then taking over it? main roads, In view of thia he did not think anything definite should be done before Parliament met. He did not at all agree with Mr Power. What he suggested should have been done when the district was opened, now that some roads were mada and spacial rates had been levied on those benefiting from them, he thought the time for such a scheme was past. Mr Mortensen endorsed Mr Jackson's remarks. Mr Livingstone said he saw the meeting was in favour ot his scheme but thought that the* time was not ripe for going so far as to raise a loan, and said that, seeing they were laying aside for ths present the scheme for dealing permanently with tha road, some recommendations should be made to the Council to strike a special rate on the valuation mentioned, to maintain the road that it might not becomo worse till something were done to make it better. Mr Hobson said that the road was being ruined now after all the money spent on it, for want of maintenance.

Mr Jackson said that he understood the Government afill had a balance rsf the last grant in hand to spend in maintaining, for a time, the works they had just done, and if the County

were to strike a rate and undertake the work at this stags, probably tha Government tfould withdraw tha men they had at work at present He thought it would be well to recommend that action ba taken in this direction with regard to the roads generally. Mr Livingstone accordingly rncVid that the Ratepayers' Association be recommended to a k the County Council to strike a sufficient rate to Gravida at leEst one permanent sui*faceman for the upkeep of the roads in each riding. Mr Burrows seconded tee motion which was carried. After a short discussion cn the financial ptobl'ms of ths Association the meeting closed.