HOROWHENUA COUNTY COUNCIL.

Shannon News, 2 June 1924, Page 3

HOROWHENUA COUNTY COUNCIL.

.'STATUTORY ANNUAL MELTING

At tllke- statutory annual meeting of the -Horowhenua County Council neld tins week, the chairman* Cl'. G. A. Monk presided. over a lull Council. Accounts .amounting to £306 4s Id were passed tor -payment. The h-oasurer’s bopopt (already/ publisheU) and the estimates for me year were received. ESTIMATES FOR 1024-25.

In speaking,to die inweased estimate lor office staff, tlie chairman stated that regarding die collection of native rates there were riiany blocks wliich had been in the hands Of Europeans lor some years uhd had not paid lany raids owing to tlie impossibility of keeping in touch with die whole .of die lands of lire district with the present staff. There were 1)000. ratepayers in the County and keeping in'touch with'die whole of these was a big work. It was time that they increased their staff and he was assured that it would pay handsomely to do so. . The estimate of £3OO for-increased engineering ’'staff- was necessitated hy the extra work which would he entailed by the Main Highways, scheme. When tite Joan for this purpose was carried it would he possible to Charge this amount .against, .the loan, hut us it, was necessary to do a. great amount of preliminary work as soon as the roads were gazetted, ft was necessary to make provision for salary. ! PUBLIC WORKS ESTIMATES. Cr. Barber asked that die estimate of £7O from the Shannon Borough boundary to the Manawa.tu bridge be increased by £f>o. Tt was a bad piece of road to keep and they should make adequate provision.—. Agreed to MAIN HIGHWAYS. In' discussing = the estimates for the main roads Cr. Harkness stated that lit appeared wrong that the burden of upkeep, sih,mild he put orr the ratepayers if the Main Highways Board was going to pay a certain proportion. of .the upkeep of these roads. * The, chairman stated that the position Was that they were expecting every day'to hear-that the roads were gazetted. l The Board had. promised that from the date of gazetting they would- be responsible for one third of the upkeep. The reason for not ; gazetting before this was apparently tiiat they had no anoncy in ’ band. Their funds had now been augmented by £200,000 from the Consolidated Funfl and they could go ahead with the gazetting of the roads. There ] was also the question of ihe -repair) of the strike damage. The Government had promised assistance in this j direction and the engineer was at • present, drawing •up an estimate of j this damage;'with a view to obtaining j a subsidy. The, general rates for the different ridings fn the'Gofinty were fixed as follows, the old. rate being given in brackets.-—Tokcwuaru id in ,rhe,£' (|d), Wirokiiio Riding |d (Jd); .Otaki Rid- 1 ing gel (Jd) ;- t To Horo Id (Id)'. The following motion, proposed hyCr. Monk, and seconded hy Cr. Rroadbelt, was carried':--'

. “That the ' estimates shown hereunder’bo'approved and passed :

' “General .-estimates: Expenditure £8004: receipts £SOO. Tokonitaru Riding: -' Receipts- £6567 : expenditure £6552. Wirokino Riding;. Receipts £9530,' expenditure £9230- ■ otaki Riding: Receipts - £3614, expenditure £2588; , Te Hoi'-o Riding: Receipts £5470, expenditure £5235. ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN.

Cr. Monk, before vacating the chair, said that at this time it was' usual for a chairman to ! go back and endeavour to show what lie had achieved during iris tenn oi office. This he did not intend to do. What lie would like to speak on was the necessity of getting away from the groove which the County had been in iur a number of years and dealing with the main roads .in an up-to-date manner, lie considered that the Council had been well advised In adopting die resolution to go ahead witii a sealing system oh main highways. There were one or two. matters in connection with tins .-scheme whicir must be faced during die next lew months. Thu first one was the taking of die loan for £Bo,oou lor the main highway' scheme, and in this connection he felt lie could say without hesitation ' that the rujte,p:ayers would be, solidly .behind tiie council: they were well aware off the absolute necessity of this reform and die matter could safely be, left lo their conimuuseiise. The next-• difficulty would 'be tire raising of the Joan. They had based their proposals on. the possibility of getting money at 0 per . cent., which lie thought was as much us they should pay. It had been suggested' that, the. Department of Internal Affairs should raise a loan of two or'three million pounds,' which as this was a national .scheme might be done with reason. Thai to his mind would be the solution of [he difficulty. If tile Government, could raise the money and loan it. tf> (he local bodies, it Would be much better than it the different local bodies competed against each other for the money available'in the country. Deferring to his occupancy of the

position of chairman, Cr. Monk, thanked councillors for the way in which they had backed him up in all matters .which were for the benefit of the County. He spoke highly of the excellent work done, hy the' various members of tlie staff'anil thanked the press for the publicity always .given to County .affairs: When accepting the position of chairman last year lie had fully intended to vacate the position at the end of the term, being of the opinion that it was one which should go round. He had been asked to reconsider this decision and he now left himself in the hands of the Council. If they re-elected him they could rest assured of his continued efforts for the County—if they decided, as they were justified iii doing, that a change was desirable lie would always be glad t-o give the new man tiny assistance in his power. (Applause). The County Clerk then took the chair as provided hy statute. Gr. Hnrkness in 'moving that Gr. Monk be re-elected to the chair for the ensuing year, stated that at this time, with the main highways scheme about to be commenced,, the County would be foolish to “swap horses in mid-stream.’’ Or. Monk had been in close touch with this movement from its inception and knew more about it. than any other man on the Council. He, further, had had reeen% experience of raising e. loan in his position of chairman, of the -Power Board: he was a member.of the Main Highways Board and, in all ways they had a man whom, they could not better for die position of chairman. Gr, Byder seconded the motion. '

Crs. Galley, Broadbelf, and Whyte, also spoke in favour' of the .motiion, which wa s carri ed hy. a eel a m ation. Gr.* Monk in re-taking the chair, thanked the Council for their renewed expressions of confidence. He felt that if was a very high ■ honour to have the confidence of ib:e whole Council. They were coming to a time when a big work was being undertaken in the County, in the Ma.in Highways scheme. He bad followed this scheme very closelv and thought he could be of use to the County in this direction. One of bis dreams When be bad entered the County was a good main road right through the County and if he could see this done ho would retire from the Council feeling that a, big work had been accomplished. The business of considering the estimates was then proceeded with.