Ohinemuri County Council.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 375, 8 June 1889, Page 2

Ohinemuri County Council.

The o dinary monthly meeting of the above Council was held at the Council Chambers, Paeroa, on Saturday last. Presonb : Crs Nicholla (Chairman), Str.mge, Corb^tt, Mooie, Robson, Nash, and Quinn. Minutes of the previous monthly meeting were road and confirmed. Appointment of Ranger, etc, : The following applications weie opened for the position of Inspector of Nuisances, Dog Regis'r r, Forest Hanger, Caietaker of Cemetery and Migazino, etc., at a salary of £65 a year :—: — John Maher, sureties, Jas. McGuire,and John Goonan ; T. E Shaw, svuetieH, Jas, Barrett, and C, F. Mitchell ; T- E. Casheen, sureties, J. Phillips, Ju.. and F Lipsey; Wm. Lowden, no auieiieH, informal; Wni. Tetley (ut present County Foreman of Woik^), sureties, John Phillips, Jun , and — Chandler ; J, 11. Tin no 1 , sureties, John Phillips), Jun., and N. Dickey. Resolved on the motion of Cr Moore, that the tenders be considered in Committee, after (he ordinary business of Council had been t ansacted, Coirespoinlnm. c : Npw Road to K.xr»ngihako : To Hon Miniver of Minos, forwjirdin > plans and specifl alion-3, of the propos d oaa deviation from M.iukav town to the i^ahu, via Karangahake, as prepared by Mr Alex Aitken, Engineer to Tnaine<3 County Council; olso copy of the resolution passed by the Council at their April meeting with respect to this matter. Subsidy : To Hon Minister of Mineg, stating fmther assistances was urgently needed to repair the Paeioa-ILkataia roa 1, and aslc'ng for the sum of £200, on the £1 for £1 principle. Junction Road : From T. E. Shaw, reminding Council that sometime back the residents in the vicinity of the Junction mill presented a petition to Council asking, " That somej thing be done towards getting a road to the mill, ' and on behalf of the petitioners requesting that the Council would bs pleased to j give effect to the prayer of that petition by opening up the road. On the motion of Cr Robson, seconded by Cr Quinn, it was re»olveJ to rofor iln matter to t*ie Foreman of Works to repo-'fc on at next monthly meeting. Compensation ; From stating he had completed his contract for spreading metal on Kamngahake road, but had been de la,yed five weeks in carrying out {he work, owing to the metal not 'being ready, and claiming compensation for loss of time. T/ie letter was not signed. Or Qninn ; There is no doubt that ia from Thos. Dougherty, Cr Corbett ; We cannot receive anonymous letters. Rjsolred that the letter bo not received. Cemetery ; From Walter Sullivan, on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church Commitiee, requesting that a portion of the Cemetery be set apart for the. exclusive use of members of that Church, according to the provisions of the Cemeteries Act Cr Nash : The fact is they w^nt three or four acres of the northern portion, of the Cemetery; and they can fence it off, by shjftirig the present fence at their own cxpeuse. Resolved on the motion of Cr Robson, sec mdcil by Cr Nash, U3iat the prayer of the petition be granted ; and fehat the (.-hainnan^ Cr Quinn, and the mover, be appointed a Committee to aot in this matter on behalf of the Council. Extras ; From Tho<>, Quinn, demanding 14s for two days wages for clearing out culverts on tho Paeroa-Te Aroha roxrt, near EotoLuhu swamp ; being extra work over and above his road contract and not sjt out in the specifications. The Foreman of Work", in reply to Council, said it was true tho clearing out of these culverts was not actually pet forth in the specifications but it waa part of the contract, and aa such was pointed out by him to intending contractors when showing the work to bo done. As a matter of fact he had allowed '

applicant 3s extra already on the work. Cr Quinn (son of the applicant), argned that us the work was nob mentioned in the specifications, and had to be done, the Council would have to pay the amount denianied by his father. After considerable discussiori it was resolved on tin motion of Cr Nash, seconded by Cr Moore, that the amount demanded be paid. : 'Vacant Allotments : From Thos. Snodgraas, requesting permission to fence and make use of the allotments batween his house and the Council Chambers until such time as the Council required to use them. Letter received, Council deciding nob to entertain the applica < tion, Ohinemuri "Wharf; From Edwin "Edwards again proffering hig services as wharfinger ; stating he now offerred to do bo without any remuneration whatever, suggesting that a landing stage be provided at a cost of about £3, and also stating the wharf at present was net oroperly looked after. Cr Quinn said from the position Mr Edwards held as agent for one of the sf earners he ought not be allowed to get control of the whaif ; seeing there was an opposition steamer. It was all very well for a man to wiile letters like he had done to Council, but if he got control of the wharf he might hold ib to the detriment of others. The Foreman of Works had charge of the wharf. Resolved on the motion of Or Robson, seconded by Cr Quinn, .that the letter be received. Improving the Wharf : Cr Kobson said the approaches to the wharf were too steep aud too" narrow, and movod that they be out down and improved ata co^tof about £2. After some diac-ussion it was decided not to undertake the work at present as being fche wrong time of the year, the motion therefore lapsed. Waitoa Settlers ; "From settlers in the Wtritoa "Riding as follows : We, the undersigned, ratepayers m your district, respectfully request that you will have the road formed from the road known as Bowler's to your boundary with the Waitoa Road Board. Signel: N. Cleary, Edward Bowler, Allan A. Bowler, John Mellon, F. M. Strange, C. S. Hansen, 0. B, Edwards, junr., T. Bradley, Langley Bra-lley, Thos. Brinkley. Cr Quinn laughed at and utterly ridiculed this petition, and said it was coming to something when T.Bradley, Langley Bradley about twelve years of age, and Nicholas Cleary, living at the top of the Tui, sent a petition to have a road made. Cr Strange spoke in support of the petition, and referring to the manner in which Cr Quinn had sought to ridicule the petition, said he did noi; know that because a man lived a mile or two away from his lan-1, that ib shoull cause him to be laughed to scorn in that "ashion bc-csiuss he asked for a road to give him access to his land. The land tha petitioners asked to ha\ c a road made to were sections recently taken up by them, but money had been expended on all of them. Mr B«-adle/ alone had taken up over 300 acres, fence 1 aud improved it. Cr Quinn to Cr Strange • I challenge you to prove that Cleary has any property in Waitoa. Cr Strange : Mr Cleary has land there and hns sowu a good deal of it down in grf as. Mr Hansen, one of the petitioners, by permission at this stage addressed the Council, and said : There are twelve or thirteen seitler» at work on the land referred to ; four of whom have now to go round four or five miles out of their way to get to Te Aroha through theie being no road to their hold>ngs. The cost of making a difeh and forming the road asked for would be about 109 a chain, to simply clear a road line half a chain wide, 9d or 10J a cl a n. Or Quinn : The Waif oa settlers have already bad 150 per cent expended in fche Ruling moi© thrr. their rates (orae to ; and he asked, Why shjuld the gold fields be robbed for the sake of n few settlers o i a swamp ? Cr Corbeit said on looking over the balance-* sheet lie observed that Waiiekauri Ruling came off the worst, consileriag the amount of revenue dei ived therefrom. No rosidm any other Riding was as bad >is thai, in Waicekaiuz Riding, which wa? two feet deep in mud, and oiiffht certainly have somethiug done to ife directly funds were available. On Jhe motion of Cr Corbel t it was re-olved that the petition be received, and further considered at some future time wizen the Council weie in funds. Tui Mines : From Greo. Deverill directing Council's attention to the very bad state the track Lading to the Champion Q-. and SMines was in ; parts of it needed corduroying very hi 'ly. The writer was the contractor for carting for the Champion Company, and ie-* quested that Council would have repairs effected Cr Stiange spoke strongly in support of the Council repairing this voad, which of his own knowledge was in an almost impassable coud'tion A large amount of money was being tv.pendel in connection wioh the Tui mines, but fie Council had expended very little in the direction of opening up the district Resolve 1 that LlO be expended in repairing the road referred to, under the supervision o the Foreman of Works Juntcion Road : From Jas. Rickit (Thames), directing, attention to the necessity of repair-, ing the road leading from the Junct'on roa 1 to the Oerakura settlement (Hoaras), and stating his willingness to contribute half the cost of carrying out the work, scj L 3, the work to costL6, or to do the work himself for L 3. It was staged Mr Rickit was occupying the paddock below Mr Thorp's (round the long bend). Letter received.

JRepoet op Finance Committee, Ist of June, 1889. Your Committee beg to report :—: — 1. That the Bank overdraft to date amounts to £467 6s 9d aa shown by pass book. This with unpresented cheques, Ll4 19a 6d, brings the Council's bank debit to L 482 6s 3d. 2. This lar^e debit is due to the non-arrival of Native rates, 1.341 12a lOd, now long overdue, as intimation was received from the Property Tax Commissioner that Hie voucher for the amount had been passed on to Treasury on the 11th April last, 3 The outstanding liabilities of the Council, exclusive of new accounts, are as follows \ Contributions to Hospital and Ohar.it iblo Aid, L 319 8a 7d ; Councillors travelling expenses, L 4 18s ; contracts and miscellaneous accounts, Lll2 10s. Total, L 436 16s 7d. 4, The CommiMeeiecommend the following accounts for payment * * * Total amount, L 264 9a sd. Reeolved that the report of the Finance Committee be received and adopted-

SPECIAL MEETING. A special meeting of Council was held immediately after the ordinary meeting, in accordance with Section 184 of the Counties Act, 188G, to consider the annual balance-sheet for year ending 31st March. The Auditor had made no remarks with respect thereto. Resolved that the balancesheet be adopted. Wai hi Bridge • One of the Councillors naked if fl° further communication hud been received with respect to the construction of! VVaihi bridge, Cr Corbett said 3 When the Minister of Mines was last in the district, he pointed out at Waihj the. place at which 1 c wished the bridge to be erected, the deck of the bridge to be 4 feet above the peg. He (Cr Corbett) prepared the plans in accordance with the Minjbter's expressed wifely