COMING UNDER THE HIGHWAYS BOARD.

Shannon News, 23 April 1924, Page 3

COMING UNDER THE HIGHWAYS BOARD.

RRaSPECI' OF SEALED ROADS IN TIIE COUNTY. one-timed cost of maintenance PROMISED. At Saturday’s meeting of the Haro-wheiiu-a County Council the following conimnarijication was received from tire chairman ojf No. 9 Main Highways Board;

. I* l connection with the proclamation, of main roads within your district before actually issuing the proclamation, the Board tvould like to have an assurance from your Council tl.iat it will continue to carry out the 'work of maintenance on behalf of the Highways Board at least up to the present standard, pending definite arrangements as between the Board and yourselves for the delegation to your Council of some or all of the powers of the Board in connection with the roads in question., You, of course, understand that the Board will pay oneuthird of the cost of such maintenance from date of declaration. With regard to roads which it is suggested for the purposes of section 22 -should be declared Government roads as well as Main Highways, before taking anv action in this direction, the Board Wishes to know whether your Council is prepared to contribute to maintenance on the basis of its present expenditure, leaving any further sum required to be made up from Main Highways Funds. Any arrangements made now will be subject to review from time to time until a satisfactory permanent basis is evolved.

The chairman, Cr. Monk, stated that this was the first offlclail intimation of the working of the Main Highways Bill in the Dominion. He had been rather opti bristle regarding the Bill and was gdad to see that at last things were in order to proceed with carrying it into effect. ■ Briefly onethird of the maintenance of main roads wouj,d be borne by the Government from- the date of the dedication of such roads as Maitn Hjighwlays, this arrangement to last, as explained in the letter until a permanent basis was arrived at. The County engineer was at present engaged in getting out .a report on the main roads of the district, which would be . completed in about 10 days. When this was done a meeting would be called . and the whole matter dealt with immediately. The getting out of this report early as had been done was gping to save the County months of delay and as soon now as they received authority they could go to the ratepayers for the necessary loan for the work and commie,nee ‘operations right away. Woodville- County, continued Mr Monk, was the first Gounty in the country to be working under this scheme. Some years ago that County had sought authority from /the ratepayers to 1 seal the roads in their distridt. When it was proposed to bring in the Main Highways scheme, the work was held up, pending assistance which might be available under this head. Three years. ago they had prepared 15 mile's of roafis for sealing and now were proceeding with the tarring of these roads. As he had said some time ago the Horowheniuia County Was looked upon as one which would take the earliest advantage of the scheme, and he thought that when they received the engineer’s re- - port they could put' such figures be-, fore the ratepayers that they would have no hesitation in going ahead. They already had some experience of tar-sea.ling in the County and although, the .cost was heavy they had saved so much in maintenance, already that the value of scaling was evident.. He would move that the recommendations of the Board as set forth in their letter, be adopted. Cr. Harkness seconded the motion.. The proposal was, he said, one of the most important which had come before the County during- its existence. The Government had offered to supply one-third of the maintenance from ' this time on and that was a big thing l . Personally he looked forward to the day when every important road in the County would be tarsealed. with a consequent, saving of maintenance and greater satisfaction to users.

Cr. Gatley supported the two former speakers. The main road from the Wirokino bridge to Tokomaru had cost £I6OO this year and if they could get one-third of this from the Government it would be a big consideration. He was a firm believer in the' main reads being made as good as possible, always provided they could be done within a reasonable cost.

C,r. Ryder said that some people were rather inclined to overlook the fact that the Government grant came from the ratepayers whether it came from local taxes or Government funds. The chairman: It comes from the Tyre Tax. . , , „ Cr. Ryder: That is all right then. The move" is one in the right direction and I am glad to see that it is coming.

' Cr. Broadbelt said he was glad to see. that they were .going to get Government assistance. He thought that they should go ahead and get machinerv in readiness for the work.

Gr. Jensen also spoke in favour of the motion. He thought that Cr. Broadbelt’s 'suggestion that they should get more machinery immediately was a good on©. The present machinery was no use and they should get some that would be able to cone with the work in a proper manner. .It would be necessary to> get machinery first and then they could go ahead with the work.

The chairman protested that, Cr. Jensen should not make such a sweeping statement as to say that ■ the whole of the county machinery was obsolete. The machinery, such as it was, was good, but m'ore would be required.

Cr. Jensen agreed that with the exception of the crusher, this was what, he had meant. The crusher was use--1 less. Xhe chairman contended that the > r L " JH ■' '• '’V 4

cruijhef . was still valuable and would be capable of much good work for many years to come. * The motion was then put and carried unanimously.