WHANGAMOMONA COUNTY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 70, 22 November 1913, Page 8

WHANGAMOMONA COUNTY.

REINSTATEMENT OF THE OHURA ROAD. Owing to tlio heavy and incessant carting of tho Public \\ orks Depai tmcnt, during the construction ol the Stra-tford-Te Koura railway, over the Ohura road in the C’entral Hiding ot the County of Whanganioniona, the said road has heqn rendered almos. impassable and tho original burnt papa with whicii it was metalled is now a thing ot the past. The Government has recognised that it has been responsible for the damage done, and, estimating the cost of re-nietailing to ho £6OOO, has offered the County Council the sum ot CihOO provided that the Council provides £I6OO for the work. Tiie Council called meetings of the ratepayers of the Central Hiding to consider the Government offer and the host means of raising the quota required from the County Council. At a meeting held at Kohnratahi on 1 nesday morning last, at which the County chairman, Cr. A. Meredith, presided, the whole matter was very fully considered and discussed, tho feeling or the meeting being that the Government offer should not he allowed to go by default. It was resolved, on the motion of Mr Win. McCntchan, dun., seconded by Mr E. W. Wilson, that the Council he empowered to raise a loan of filoOt), extending over a period of .'Ki 1 . years, for the work of metalling the Ohura road from its-junction with the Manga re road towards Kohnratahi for as far as the funds will permit. The rate for same to he jd in the £ upon the unimproved values of the whole of the sections in the Central Riding having frontages on the Ohura road, and of half of the other sections in the Hiding.

The same afternoon a second meeting was held, this time at Whangainomona, and was well attended by representative ratepayers. —The Chairman said that the Council would, he had no doubt, consider it imperative upon it to secure the Government grant of £3500, and it would be guilty of a. distinct breach of duty if it allowed the same to lapse through not providing the balance of £l-500 required. r !'he ratepayers of the Centra' Riding therefore would have to consider the best means of raising thir sum, and it lay with them to decide whether they would raise it by loan, and then and there agree to a special rating area- and rate For the interest or leave it to the Council to deal with, [f. the ratepayers could not come tc some unanimous conclusion'the Council, sooner than lose the Government money, would provide the 11500 mil of its ordinary’iluimls and strike a separate rate, each- year, upon the Centra! Riding, sufficient -to''repay +< the County Fund Account within live years the amount advanced to the. Riding by the Council. In arriving iat a decision, the ratepayers should bear in mind that, if they raised the money by loan from the Government on a thirty-six and a-hnlf years’' basis, the Government • would pay one pe: cent, of the interest theiconifor the first ten years, land one-halfi per cent, for the second ten years, the ratepayers only paying the full rate foi the remaining sixteen and a-hal years.—After some considerable dis mission it was moved that tho Council he authorised to raise the loan up on the same terms and under the same conditions as were decided upon at the meeting held at Kohuratahi earlio: in the day. - An amendment that tin hy-road sections only provide the -interest on half the loan was lost, and the meeting then ended.

The same evening a special meeting of the AVhangamomona County Council was held, at which were present Crs. A. Meredith (chairman), W. A.

McCutchan, X. 11. Cleland, W. Bacon and E. B. Roherton.—The County Clerk was instructed to notify the Public Works Department that tin Council accepted its offer of £-1500 as against £ISOO, and also its offer of £2OO for raising the two bridges in the township. The clerk was also instructed to make provisional application for the loan required, and the engineer was instructed to prepare

llie necessary plans and specifications I’oi' submission to the Public Works Department for the metalline;. ll was also decided that, upon receipt of advices that the loan was granted, the clerk immediately take the necessary steps towards taking a poll of the ratepayers on the proposals..