FRANKLIN COUNTY COUNCIL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 2, Issue 155, 19 December 1913, Page 3

FRANKLIN COUNTY COUNCIL.

' < - * ••'■ The December Meeting. . ' ______ Those present at the December / meeting of the Franklin County ;: Council, held on Wednesday, were— Crs W. C. Motion (Waipipi) in the chair, J. A. Eenall (Awhitu), Dynes ' Fulton and H. Wilcox (Pukefcohe), 1" J. Flanagan (Drury), B. Lyons ' (Mercer), G. Campbell (Hunua), K. * Higginson (Waiuku), and J. Henry (Mauku). The date of the first meeting of the New Year was fixed for January Bth. CARELESS MOTORISTS. In reply to a letter from the county the secretary of the Auckil land Automobile Association wrote regretting that it had been the experience of the Council that - motorists should have displayed 1 1 carelessness and little consideration far the roads in this district. "It is always the endeavour of the SK Association to instil into motorists £ v- .the necessity for being at all times . courteous and considerate when on the road and my committee trusts that you will not hesitate to report to the Association any motorist wh( is guilty of misbehaviour.

QUARRY AT MAUKU. A. Hanna, solicitor, wrote saying . - that he had been consulted by Mr James Finl&y with reference to a I ; large deposit of 6tone, exceptionally good for road-making and other purposes, which exists on his proj{ . petty at the Maukn. Not only was V the stone excellent bat the supply ? t was almost unlimited. Close to the water which could be used for power >\ purposes. The preliminary survey for the Waiuku railway indicated, that the line will pass close by the quarry and that the railway station ■ will also be very close to it. The . quarry could be leaseu for a period ' and at such rent and royalty as could be mutually agreed upon, [jk " The chairman said he believed there was a good amount of stone !v ; there; the quarry was at Patumahoe. If the railway siding was likely to be there it was worth conA' sideration, as they might get a branch line to serve all round. Cr Henry moved, That a reply be & sent saying that the letter would be ''l given consideration when the matter V; of quarries was being gone into. Cr Lyons : There is no need to do S ? anything till we get the railway ? 1-0 jThe chairman said it would be a fw - good thing to get the right of the if quarry. , •' NOXIOUS WEEDS.' The inspector of noxious weeds, Me., Auckland, acknowledged the Council's letter asking him to take Jp; steps to compel property owners to dear the noxious weeds on road frontages in this county, but he t". questioned whether he had any authority to deal with any weeds other than those declared by the second schedule of the Act, viz., blackberry, Canadian or Californian thistle, and sweet briar. If the V", Council desired the growth of' other weeds to be checked it should declare same to be noxious within the terms of the noxious weeds act. Cr "Wilcox certainly thought gorse should be included. Cr Henry : So do I. &%:>' Cr Lyons said it was very necessary that the three things mentioned should be kept clear. Hp' Ragwort and ox-eye daisy wfere also mentioned. Decision was deferred until next Council meeting. ENGINEERS' CONFERENCE. The chairman and the engineer (Mr McArthur) were appointed to " attend the annual meeting of the . institute of local government engineers to be held in Auckland on March 14th, 1914. KOHEKGHE ROAD CONTRACT. Gleeson, Jones and Furniss, of L*./ Waipipi, applied for a progress payment of £BO on account of the contract on Kobe Kohe top road, ."•* Awhitu riding. On Cr Renall's motion, the payment was made. A MERCER BOTHER. C. Watkinson and C. Wallace again wrote about the Dairy Company erecting a building at Mercer for their men to batch in. " Has not your Council power to stop them 'i If not anybody can build on the road and I do not see how you can collect our rates if you have no control of the road. Goodness knows we have put up with the smoke nuisance and running noise at nights but we do not want to interfere with an industry or we could have objected long ago ; but we do object to have a batch house put up in front of our premises. I spoke to the manager and he said he had no permission from , your Council. Well, if you can't do anything in /, this matter we will be forced to take A it to court as it is a disgrace to have ' * a building stuck up in front of us. Kindly reply at once." The chairman said that Cr Lyons, the engineer and himself had inspected the building which did not seem to interfere with the road in any way. In the interest of a good many settlers who supplied the factory there he did not feel disposed to do anything in connection with this letter. Other councillors agreed that it was not for the Council to act under the circumstances as the road was not interfered with and it was decided to reply to that effect. "It is only a case of spite," said one councillor. GET THE GRANTS SPENT. Cr Higginson said the Council this year should get the Government I grants spent. i Cr Henry agreed. There were, he said, two or three grants in Li-s district which had not been spent because the tenders wero considered too high, and now these had been lost altogether. He understood that now when a grant was not spent it would not be recommended to be revoted, so they should be spent straight away. He would move, That tenders be called for whatever work have votes granted in his district —mentioning Pilgrim's road, Quinn's road and the straight road to Waiau, This was earned

THE TRAMWAY ROAD. E. Giifori, Mauku, wrote saying that those who petitioned some time ago wi f h lv'-'.-enee to the sale of one chain off Tramway road would like to know what was going to be done in the matter, as some present fences wanted renewing and the owners did not wish to erect new fences in the o!d places and have to shift them again later on. Others had since stated their willingness to buy, and he thought the Council should act while the people were in the humour. Cr Henry said he wrote to Mr Gillon asking him to obtain the signatures of all the people interested agreeing to purchase. He also had a letter from Mr Wily, of Mauku, agreeing to buy a road at his place and suggesting the price should be the unimproved value of the land, the money to be spent opposite or contiguous to the property sold. Cr Fulton said the people of Tuakau were prepared to buy. The chairman said he would move to close half of the whole of the twochain road from the Waikato to the Manukau. Cr Renall said if the people opposite did not buy the land the Council could sell it to somebody else, so long 1 as an entrance was given. The chairman said if they did not buy they would have to keep the road clear to the middle. Cr Henry thought eveiyone would be willing to buy. The motion to dispose of one chain of the road throughout its whole distance was carried. KARAKA AND DRURY. . Messrs Glasson, Bremner and Brooks, members of the Drury Road Board, waited upon the County Boundaries Committee with reference to the proposed alteration of the Karaka and Drury road district boundaries, so as to take part of Runciman into Drury district. In reporting the result of the conference to the Council, Cr Campbell said the Drury representatives were wrongly under the impression that the county could alter the road board boundaries, but that point being understood their representations were somewhat altered. H. E. Glasson, clerk of the Karaka Road Board, wrote :—" The Drury Road Board has applied to your Council to alter the boundaries of this district by joining a part of our No. 1 ward to Drury road district. At a meeting of the Karaka Road Board on November 15th, it was unanimously decided, on the motion of Mr Johnston, the member for the subdivision mentioned, to object to the proposed alteration on the ground that it would not be to the best interests either of Runciman or of the residents of Karaka to whom Runciman station is the outlet." ' WAIUKU-DRURY ROAD. T. D. Reid, of Qlenbrook, asked that the Waiuku-Drury road should be improved. Cr Henry said the road was certainly in a bad state. He moved, That the Government engineer be written to to see if part of the £125 that was on the Estimates could not be employed on the section of the road lying between Karaka and Waiuku boundaries.—Carried. • [This report will be completed in Tuesday's issue.]