BOROUGH WORKS PROGRAMME.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 724, 25 November 1914, Page 5

BOROUGH WORKS PROGRAMME.

ALLOCATING THE EXPENDITURE. THE RIVER DEVIATION. - A SCHEME ADOPTED. A special mestingofthe Te Kuiti Borough Council was held on Monday evening to consider the report of the Works Committee in respect to the expenditure of the unexpend-d balances of the last loan and alkeating the amounts of the £2OOO now being raised. Following is the report: "The Committee beg to report that, with the £2OOO loan proposal No. 7 recently sanctioned, there is a sum of £2918 in hand on Loans Nos. 2 and 5 for street expenditure, and now recommend to the Council that the money be allocated and expended on the following streets: £. Awakino road GOO Sheridan street 100 Seddon street 40 Edward street 250 Tonga street ■ * 50 Rora street from Alexandra street to public school 400 Rora street, tar-macadam 157 Esplanade, to Ngaronga street '6B River deviation scheme 800 Outstanding liabilities at date 267 Total £2732 leaving a balance in hand of £lB6 to meet any contingencies. The Co-nmittee report having instructed the Borough foreman as follows: — To proceed with the work of laying concrete foundation for new Cambridge ga* producer and erection of building to cover same, accordance with plans submitted by Fraser and Sons and approved by Mr Frpdk. Black. To extend the.3in water main from public Behool acros3 the river to bottom end uf Massey street, a distance of approximately five chains, for the purpose of supplying six consumers. To place in position a culvert in Nettie street at a cost not exceeding £lO. The committee approved of the foreman's plan of drainage connection to W. J. Black's workshop premises in.Taupiri street. Cr M. J. Jones, in moving the adoption of the report, said the recommendations had. only been arrived at after the mo?t* careful consideration. In respect to tha amounts proposed to be expended on the various, streets he did not think there would be much diversity of opinion with the exception of the Awakino road. However,"there wai a chance of obtaining a £ for £ subsidy from the Government for the rnad, which was being' metalled by the Public Works Department further out. The matter of the river deviation was of the greatest importance from the fact that a £ for £ subsidy up to' £2OOO had been granted for the work by the Government. It was necessary that this amount should be provided for in order to ensure the Governmentgrant being obtained. Further, the sum of £SOO was available out of the grant and would require to be authorised before the end uf March, otherwise it would have to be* revoted by Parliament. In view of these facts the committee recommended the allocating of £BOO out of the funds available in the Borough. This, together with the loan of £I2OO previously raised for the work would provide the amount necessary to lift the subsidy.Cr James seconded the motion for the adoption of the repjrt. Cr Mosty'n Janeg drew attention to the faut that the Rangitoto road had not been mentioned. It was understood the matter of metalling that road to the borough boundary was to be considered by tha. committee. Cr M..J. Jones said ha had forgotten to deal with that matter in his opening remarks. The reason advanced for having that ro3d metalled within the borough was that the settlers were promoting a loan for metalling the road outside the borough boundary. He had enquired concerning that proposal and found that no steps had yet been taken ny the settlers to raise the loan and the work could not be done this Eeason. Cr Mostyn Jnneß strongly advocated the metalling of roads leading to the out-districts in order to provide proper access to tha country settlers.

The Mayor, in dealing with the report, endorsed Cr M. J. Jones' remarks, and dwelt on the importance of taking steps to ensute the acceptance of the Government subsidy. In view of the dry season and the consequent low state of the river there was an unrivalled opportunity of getting the wurk djne at the lowest possible cost. In tha circumstances it was quite likely the work would be done considerably under the engineer's estimate, and everything pointed to the dssirability of having the w)rk put in hand at once. In the-first borough loan there had been an amount of £9OO allocated for the river protection works. Of this amount only about £3OO had been expended, so that they were doing little more than repaying the amount originally intended for tba work.

At this stags Cr Mabbett said he Washed to make a personal explanation concerning the report. As a member of the Works Committee he had objected to dealing with the river deviation scheme without submitting it again to th.9 ratepayers. He would alio like to see the standing orders suspended to allow of a free and full discussion on the report. The Mayor said this was best accomplished by going into committee as a whole, and this coursa was adopted. After the report had been discussed in committee the motion for the adoption of the report was carried, Crs Mabbett, Mostyn Jones, and Elliott voting against it, the other who. were . all present,