FIFTEEN WHARVES COST ONE SHILLING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 229, 16 December 1927, Page 13

FIFTEEN WHARVES COST ONE SHILLING

HAURAKI COUNTY DEAL PIAKO WATERWAY (From Our Oirn Correspondent.) PAEROA, To-day. Fifteen wharves on the Piako River and the Waitakaruru Stream are to be purchased by the Hauraki Plains County Council from the Minister of Lands for the sum of one shilling. Negotiations have been proceeding for many years with reference to these structures, which were erected, for the development of the district. The Lands Drainage Department presumably intended to be compensated by sales of land. Some time ago it offered to cell the wharves for some thousands of pounds, but the council, contending that the settlers had already paid for them, offered the nominal sum of one shilling for the lot. The council was granted a right-of-way to all wharves, and an easement over the beds of the rivers, to enable repairs to be done, but the department was not to be liable for any repairs, and the structures were to be taken over as at present. The department was to have free use of the wharves, but was not to encumber them unnecessarily. In the event of a river board being formed, the county may hand over on payment of reasonable compensation for improvements undertaken by the county. Additions to Johnstone’s Wharf, rendered necessary on account of river improvement work undertaken by tho Lands Drainage Department, was to be a charge on the county, and the right was reserved to deposit spoil on the wharf reserve.

The council provisionally accepted the draft agreement, pointing out that it would first have to ascertain its legal position and responsibility.