MOA ROAD BOARD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 203, 17 August 1908, Page 3

MOA ROAD BOARD.

The Moa Road Board mct on Saturu«J., 1 resent: Messrs. H. Trimble Chard, S>uU,erland Capper, and Young A BAD CROSSING. oaid o pay lu.lf.eost of .putting in a I'pe culvert at the corner of Kin-Tud tW " total cost be g : , '.| wov;tl,! anl f Sa,d Rework would i„ut it n ;""' c t0 tllc lio,lr,i '« wad, but ,t Wol ,ld have been better to sink thpipe, deeper, or else the road ~,,'tt • led over them by the Board. At pr - Milt the pipes were less than a foot •leop and heavy carting in wet * a he must break then,.-Af!er discussion V s 1 1 ct ' ld f d to ,nfor »> the Council that tha Board would pay half-cost of th« whole work if the pipe, were „,„.'

SI'KCUI, HATE. tion^ P l'? ye « ou , No,folk ''"ad west petitioned the Board to raise a special rate o one-third „f a penny for a P year o"r the properties included in the area subJ<*t to the special road loan. The „ctifl!Tl Wi 'f ff gncd b} ' more tl,an twothuds .it the ratepayers rcprcscntiit" over half the val„ation.-Agreed to ° HEAVY TRAFFIC, the chairman brought up the matter of heavy traffic on the roads. Two of the foremen had reported the cartage of excessive loads of firewood, some of the toads containing upwards of a cord, the drivers had been warned, but still persisted in breaking the by-laws, which provided that only three-quarters of i eord could be carted on.one pair jf wl.ee s. Mr. Trimble said it wa(l fm . the Board to decide whether or not to prosecute. - Members said they must hack „p the foremen. j t was useless to have by-laws and invest the foremen with power to measure loads if the offenders were not to be pmiislied.-Jt was decided to cuter proceedings against the offenders, James Hodges and J lodd.

i PROPOSED DEVIATIONS. Mr. Harris waited on the Board and suggested a deviation of the Upla-id road at Morison's hill.- He was willi.i" to help, but he was unable to ,;ay whether the owner of the laud ml joining would sell to the Board.—Deferred for a mouth, for enquiries by Mr. Chard and for the settlers interested" to .place their requests in writing. llr. Chard reported oil the proposed deviation of the King road, opposite section 08. The settlers were prepared to give the necessary land and do the formation and other work required if the Board would survey" and lay off the work. —Upon the settlers' promises being put in writing the Board will proceed with the deviation. A SUSPENDED CONTRACT. Mr. H. Thomson interviewed the Board, complaining of the action of the Board in not resuming the metalling on Lincoln road. The contract had been stopped at the commencement of the winter. In the excellent weather of the past three weeks it was but reasonable that work should have been resumed, particularly in respect of ten chains (near Mr. Storring's) which were badly in need of metal.

Mr. Chard said it was not reasonable to order a contractor to start work on the road at this time of the year, for the weather was too uncertain, and he might keep his plant there idle for weeks at a time.

ilr. Thomson reminded the Board that the non-completion of the contract was the fault of the contractor and not of the Board. As a matter of fact, ne had left the road worse than ever. The engineer said the work done on the road had undoubtedly improved t. llr. Thomson said he' was surprised that the settlers had not moved in the matter.

Mr. Lawrence said he had spoken fo some of the settlers concerned, and while they were anxious for the metalling, they recognised that it would be a liardship to order the contractor back to the work now. The road looked dry, no doubt, but it was only a dry crust. Heavy traffic would make it a quagmire with one day's rain. Mr. Thomson asked if the contractor would be fined for delay in completion.

The chairman said that he was liable to a fiuej and the question of indicting it would have to be considered upon the completion of the contract. Members thought it undoubtedly a hardship' that Mr. Thomson could not have his milk carted out, there was no help for it at this season of the year. ENGINEERS* REPORT. Messrs. Orbcll and Mnckay, engineers, reported that the Motukawa road tunnel and filling had been completed for some weeki. The original line of the tunnel had had to be abandoned, owing to soft ground being met with. TV tunnel had a bend in it, but it appeared to lw in good ground. They had also inspected the bridge on the Motukawa road near the metal pit, and found the whole of the umlorstrucluru required renewing. The grounds sills were co'iipletcly rotten, whilst the upper portiin, with' the exception of some decking planks, might last about a couple ot years. They gave estimates of the cost of repairing. In answer to questions, Mr. Urbyll said he thought the best plan would be to erect a new bridge. The chairman said the Board was not in a position to do this latter work. The only thing was for the settlers to raise a special loan. Mr. Cliamney thought the Board should give £IOO out of the bridge loan. Members declined to adopt this suggestion, and the matter was deferred for a month. SPECIAL ORDER. The Board confirmed a special order to raise a rate of 3-llkl on the loan of £llO for the John's road loan. TENDERS. Two tenders were received for cutting a drain on the. Bedford road, and tint of J. Lothenbeck, at £3B 10s, was accepted. Only one tender, that of G. .turner at lis per yard, was received for repairs and gravelling on the Dudley road east. A DISPUTE. Foreman Ward attended m connection with a dispute over the measurement of some stone on Messrs. Swan and James' contract—lt was decided to pav on the foreman's measurement, NORFOLK. ROAD. Messrs. Masemann and Penny waited on the Board and asked that something be done to prevent the drains ovcrilo ,v----in" and scouring out the Norfolk road vest—lt was arranged that Mr. Masemann should be employed to clean out the drain from their properties t 0 the Bedford road crossing.