HOROWHENUA COUNTY COUNCIL.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXVIII, 13 October 1920, Page 4

HOROWHENUA COUNTY COUNCIL.

ENGINEER’S REPORT. Tlie engineer (Mr W. N. Anderson) reported to tiic Council on Saturday under: — Te Hoio Riding. The roads in this riding are all m fair order, although some of the dn--rr'.et ones could do with a-littlc patching. During the month I visited the Otaki Gorge in company with Cr. Coley, and inspected the proposed 12ft i road from end of present formation to Nnnx’s swing bridge. 1 have not had time during the month to make the necessary survey, but will have same completed at an early date. Wo also inspected the proposed new road on . north side of Otaki River, but in my • opinion the work cannot be carried on ; for the amount of money which is j available. Before anything further -s | done I would like to do some ne.v J location work, and will report to the Council later. Several culverts ami small bridges in this riding requiio : attention, and these will be attended j to whenever timber and surfaeeim a j are available. Otaki Riding. I have verv little to report on in connection with this riding—work gene tally appears to be very satisfactory. The main road is in good order, but some of the district roads could do with a little patching. Wirokino Riding. , Although the main roads generally ate in fairly good order at present, yet several sections will not stand much icm-er without cutting up badly. One sccTion known as “the avenue” is practically worn out for a very considerable distance, not more than lm ~f metal remaining in some parts. Should we experience n sjitdl of wot i.ov drv weather, this portion of ;1„. road «ill go to pieces. 1 have had Pimps of gravel put down on the Lev in fox ton mad and the Main Ninth toad, but the difficulty is get ’ jn „. (cams to curt from these dumps, •flie branch roads tire till more or 10.--in need of repair; but the worst parts •have been or are being attended to. t Vi,;.u West road will require a good deal of metal; likewise Koputaroa Levin-Fox ton road. Kegatding tie. water nuisance at the Muhunoa East subway, this is being caused through one of the settlers on this road having drained his farm into a ditch an I turned the whole of the water on to the county road, and during heart rain.a fairly large stream Hows down the road into the subway. To obviate this I have had a culvert put acrosthe road near the subway, and a sump put'down on the road towards t!v Ohau railway station. In connection with the working of this rid' ng. things do not appear to be very sdc factory, and In my opinion a good de-i. more spervision is required. I a,; - therefore arranging to have all tinsurfacemen put into a gang undei Overseer Darrall. Tokomaru Riding. The roads in this riding are a good deal out of repair, and will require a lot of work and metal to put them it. order again. Whenever the roller m available 1 intend sending it into th > ruling for n time. As I have alreadv the trouMe to i;*‘t teams C.» other conveyances ior caiting gia\eContracts. Owing to broken weather and also to breakdowns of gravel- lorries very I little progress has been made on an.. | of the contracts during the month, i Tar Work, j Tar has been ordered for the topI dressing of parts of the main road at i Te Horo and Otaki, also for the differ | cut bridges throughout the county, i mid this work will be put in hand | wlien tar comes te hand and weather i is suitable. It is also my intention (with the Council’s permission) to tar seal a short piece of the Levin-Foxton road in the vicinity of the Oturoa 1 road. Bridges. During the. month I have inspected a number of the bridges throughou’ the county, and found a fairly large percentage in need of repair, and several in very bad condition. Praeticallv a new bride is required or. .Muhunoa East road just past Mr.Kirkcaldie’s residence; also new bridges on Potts road and Hokio beach road, whilst several others require ne.v decking. Timber is on the ground for the re-decking of the Ohau bridge on Muhunoa East road, and a start has been made with this work. As a fait amount of decking and other timber is required almost immediately, and athere are no prospects of lauding hardwood timber before the beginning of January. I would advise the Council to order as soon as possible. The ironwork on most of the bridges should also be attended to at an early date. Shannon Bridge. I have visited this bridge on several occasions during the month, and up till Saturday last I noticed good deal of improvement, a gradual silting up at the Shannon end having taken place. On Saturday last I again visited the bridge, when there was s. ; very heavy flood in the river, and since then further erosion has taken place, though not verv- serious. This erosion, in my opinion, was caused through a large tree having been caught on the end main pier, thus . turning the current and throwing it directly on to the end of the bridge. While at the bridge I had this obstruction removed, and the result was practically dead water where a few minutes before was a very strong current. To stop any further erosion in the meantime, I have made arrangements to have some large' willows hauled to the bridge and anchored for : the time being and note the result. I • may state that I again visited rhi i bridge on Wednesday and found the :

main current in the river almost | directly in the centre of the bridge. 1 -Road Roller. During the month the road roller broke down and'was sent to Palmerston North for repairs. When a close inspection was made and certain parts had been dismantled, it was found to be in very bad order.' Most of the bearings are badly worn and grooved; in fact, the whole engine wants a thorough overhaul. Or. Coley spoke in support of the report on the Te Horo riding, and safe lie would see settlers interested in the matter of the road, and would have money spent to as much advantage nr possible. He asked that the approach to the l’ahiko bridge be given attention. Or. Bryant said roads in his riding ivere in good order. The Chairman said he inspected the I subway and thought the work done should be effective. He intended to ; look into the legal aspect of the mat I ter.

| Or. Hurkness said there had been J I joinplnint about Muhunoa road, ant asked that the matter be given attenj tion. Beach road also wanted attenj .'ion; it seemed too low. while a ciilj ,'ert at Bruce road wanted seeing to. | /he suggestion to work men in a gang as a good one, but he wished this dis ussvd in committee. Or. Whyte asked if the engineer had icon over the Tokomaru road, and rereived an answer in the negative, improvements at Mukerua, he said, •liould be carefully considered, as land here was under the Drainage Board. Or. Barber thought improvements ntld be done at Otauru, and thought 1 warning notices should be put on the bridge as it was unsafe. The Chairman considered the road roller should be overhauled periodi•ally. at present it was in a very bad bate. t The Engineer suggested that the than and Waikawa bridges should ii eceivc attention, and stated that oU ,j „;r cent of the planking on the Otaki nidges was bad, while other bridges j eeded a deal of attention. The Ohau ! tid Otaki bridges also wanted screw- t :ig up, and there was much work for a j bridge carpenter. Some £SOO worth of '* timber was required, and if a breatt-| lon a occurred now through floods or I unforeseen matters there would be no jj limber to do the work. If ordered now jj the timber would not reach here till [j imiliary. He favoured steel girders in l| places, with concrete. I The report was adopted, and the en- ,| gineer authorised to secure necessary timber. The engineer asked for a storeroom for tools and plant. Tools were all ever the place, and nu record had been kept. He suggested shifting the present gear to the Council’s site across the railway, and that a store be but!: and a storeman appointed. He also considered the present horse too heavy for the work at present used for. Cr. McLeavey thought it best to have a tractor, but as this opened up a big question the Chairman suggested the matter be left till the coming financial year, when a special loan could lie secured for road machinery. Cr. Hurkness favoured the store, and thought it would be a paying propo.-i----t ion. Resolved that, a store be built. The Ranger. The ranger reported that 43 head of -lock had been seized during the uontli. and several offenders fined. Cr. Coley said between Te Horo and Waikanne he noticed several heads of nock, which were proving dangerous. Report adopted. Water Supply. Cr. Harkness introduced a deputation trom Bruce and Buller roads, who wished a loan for high-pressure water. Mr J. C. Neill, one of the deputation, -aid they sought assistance from the i Council, while Mr R. V. Brown considered the matter would not be costly. They had a district mapped ■ out. Decided to take the necessary steps to form a special rating area for the purpose of raising a loan. Deputations. A deputation from Lindsay road (Levin) asked for road metalling so as to enable them to get to and from their properties. The Chairman said £6OO was necessary to do the work. Mr Averv said the settlers were willing to And the money, and maintained now was the time to get the metal on. If left till winter the cost would be more. The formation was in perfect order, and he desired the work to oe I done expeditiously. The Chairman promised to have the work put in hand as soon as possible. The contract had been let, and the Council only needed the money. Geo. Bromfleld (Levin) attended, complaining of a pool of stagnant water which was allowed to remain opposite his residence in Quc-en street east. —Left to Crs. Broadbelr and McLeavey and the Engineer to attend to. Hydro-Electric Scheme. The Chairman submitted his report on the hydro-electric conference, recently heid at Levin. He pointed out ! that the matter was coming into conj filet with the c-ounty election, and ' asked if it was advisable to leave the matter of electing representatives till after the election. Report adopted. It was decided that the present committee c-arry on in the . meantime. Accounts, Accounts amounting to £1564 Kb lid were passed for payment. Damage to Roads. A letter was read from the Minister of Public Works relative to damage to roads caused through the railway curtailment, and stating there were no signs of abnormal damage to roads m tie Horowhenna County. He-regretted . therefore he was unable to authorise the expenditure of any money to : assist the Council. A later letter L

stated the matter would be re-eon- • sidered. W. H. Field wrote relative to the J same, .stating he was amazed at the : action taken by the Minister, further that he had written pointing out the fairness of the Council’s claim. The letter from the Minister, said the Chairman, might be a little startling to councillors, and on being read caused sonic astonishment. The-clerics had written on the matter, and it was J on account of this that the question was to be re-considered. The Chairman suid Mr Field considered there was a hope something would yet be done. He considered the Council should not have put in such a modcarte claim. If £SOOO had been claimed, he maintained, the Council would have got something. It was ridiculous for the Government engineer to go over the roads a year after the claim, and Cr. Monk stated that if not attended to the roads would have been impassable. Cr. Harkness contended much damage had been done, due to the railway curtailment, and because the Council had repaired their roads they had been turned down. On Cr. Coley’s motion the action of the clerk was endorsed, it being agreed that the Government, had acted unfairly in the matter.