KARAKA.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 226, 14 November 1916, Page 4

KARAKA.

KAEAKA. ROAD BOARD MONTHLY MEETING The regular monthly meeting of the Karaka Boad Board held on Saturday last was attended by Messrs J. Batty (chairman), J. McPherson, J. P. Kidd, D. Jamieson, J. Schlaepfer, with the clerk Mr H. Glasson. Mr 0. F Smith notified the Board of his intention to fence section 631 and asked the Board to clear the road fo that he would have access thereto.-It was decided to request the property owners concerned to clear the frontages to their properties.

A letter was received from Mr S. Falls drawing the Board's attention to the dangerous state of three fillings on the Furry road an! to the necessity of widening and improving the grades of the large ones and of cutting and forming a portion of the road at the head of his section.—lt was agreed that the work should be put in hand before the Board's teams leave that portion of the district.

Letters asking for drainage improvements to the road on which their properties are situated on were forwarded by Messrs J. 0. Brown and E. G. EUett respectively.—lt was resolved to comply with the request, Mr Kidd to attend thereto. The Franklin County Council acknowledged acceptance of correspondence from the Board and in reply offered to accept the dedication of .the piece of roai leading to the Hingaia bridge. In regard to the metalling thereof, a distance of 2*2 chains, however, it was suggested that as it was entirely used by settlers in the Karaka and Mauku ridings that the Board should bear £3O of the estimated cost of £ 150, the balance to be borne in equal proportions by the Drury and Mauku ridings.—On the chairman's suggestion it was agreed that the Council's offer in respect to the metalling work should be accepted and that the Board should grant £3O towards the project as requested. Mr Jamieson urged that a deviation leading to Mr Stephen's property should be metalled.—Agreed to. On Mr MoPherson's application it was resolved to attend to " fillingin" required on the Pukekohe West road.

Means and ways of paying off the liability on the Board's teams and plant were considered, and members agreed to give a guarantee to the bank for £BOO to enable the amount to be paid off. So that work, for which loan money was in hand, could be pushed ahead with all possible haste a decision to engage another team was unanimously arrived at. WILL THE ROAD BOARD MERGE?

A statement made by Mr Mcpherson, a member of the Karaka Eoad Board, at the monthly meeting of that authority on Saturday last, to the effect that the rates in the Karaka road district were increasing and that the Board would have to merge, was the forerunner of an interesting discussion, durirg which members expressed favourable views on the point, conditionally on Karaka being constituted a separate rding, with a representative on the Council. The chairman (Mr J. Batty) at first opposed merging until the Council brought back the money they had spent in the Mauku district, which the clerk estimated at £13500 (over a period of four years), but later, on being reminded by Mr Jamieson of the work the Council bad done and had in hand in the district, Mr Batty remarked : " They are doing something now. I was not opposed to merging." He went

on to eay that it was not for personal aggrandisement that he had contested a seat on the Council, but with a view of objecting to the treatment the district had received at the hands of the Council. Speaking in support of the suggestion Mr Jamieson explained that it would suit the interests of the ratepayers in the Ward he represented for the district to merge as they now had to pay county rates despite the fact that there was not a single road on which the Council could legally expend money. Mr Kidd expressed the opinion that provided the district was made a separate riding and had its representative on the Council there would nut be three objfictors in the district to merging. The discussion was brought to a close by Mr McPherson proposing that the Bjard, as a whole, with the ratepayers, should wait on the Council with a view to having the road .district formed into a separate riding of the county with a representative on the Council. Mr Kidd seconded the motion which was put to the meeting and carried unanimously.