CLIFTON COUNTY COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 307, 5 February 1910, Page 8

CLIFTON COUNTY COUNCIL.

MOXTIILY MKETIXG. The Clifton County Council met at Waitara yesterday. Present: Crs. J. W. Foreman (chairman), F. Julian, McKenzie, C. O'Sullivan, T. S. McGuinness, S. lvennington, and H. Sander. GOVERXMEXT GRAXTS. The Under-Secretary of Public Works wrote that it was the intention of the Government to intrust to a large extont the expenditure of grants for road and bridge works to local bodies. He enclosed the following list of 'balances of amounts voted in tile Clifton eountv: Makaraliia. £42 14s; Moki, £314 Os 2*l; Rerekino, £23 7s Sd; Tangitn. £221 13s Od; Waitara river bridge (Tangitn). £SO; Kaka, £8 6s lid; llangapapa, £l7 12s Od; Mangatoro, £lis 0s 3d; Mataro ( £ for £), £100; Mimi to Mokau, £SO; Olcau, £SO; Okoke (£ for £), £SG 17s Od; Otaraoa, £25; l'iko. £B2 Bfi Gd; Waitara Valley (Tangitn road to Mangare road, £123 Gs; Xgatoto, £B7 7s 2d; total, £131!) 14s 4d. The chairman said he could not understand the position at all. He could not make this statement of balances fit in with the statement received last year from the Department of Roaife, les~s the amounts expended. In one inv.aiKe, the Council reckoned it had £6OO 'balance to come on the MirniMokau road, but this list gave £SO. After some discussion, it was decided that Hie chairman and engineer should interview Mr. Murray with a view of finding out the .position of affairs, and tliat, failing his being satisfied with the explanation, the chairman he authorised to proceed to Wellington to interview the Chief Engineer of Roads and the Minister in charge. MOKI ROAD. The engineer, as instructed at last meeting, reported upon hie inspection of the portion of the Mol<i road >eeently handed over by the Government and gazetted as a county road, the condition of which had been complained of at the January mooting. He reported that~tlicre were several slips on the first part of the road. Twelve nineinch culverts were required, the pioes for which were all at Tongaporutu. Difficulties of transport had prevented their being taken m. Three narrow places needed 'widening in the solid from nine or ten to twelve feet in order to make it fit for traffic. The batters were too steep. He recommended that 50 yards of boulders which had been saved and stacked in the water-channels should bo broken and spread. "Watertables should be widened, but culverts should be attended to first. He anticipated that in future the slips coming down would be very heavy. Mr. McGuinncss said he had been through the road twice last week, and there 'was no doubt that a good deal of work should be done before the county was asked to take over the road. The road was unfit for traffic. The chairman said that unfortunately the Department gave the Council no option, but gazetted the road a county road and notified the Council afterwards.

It was decided to communicate with the District lload Engineer on the subject.

PUBLIC HEALTH MATTERS. Mr. F. B. Gardiner, district heaii.il inspector, who was 'present on departmental business, explained the provisions of the Hospitals and Charitable institutions Act under which it -was possible for the various contributing bodies in a hospital district to delegate tileir powers under the Public Health Act to the Hospital Board, who wouid then take the whole responsibility and liability for sanitary Inspection, and so on. He explained that under the tentative scheme formulated by Dr. Valiiitine a sanitary inspector's salary and travelling expenses would be about £3OO a year, of which amount the Government would pay half. This county's share of the Ualanee would be somewhere about £l6 annually. He pointed out that the Council couldn't hope to do all the Inspections and disinfection in the county more cheaply than this. The duties of tlie inspector, who would be the Board's servant, would embrace inspection of suspected cases of infectious disease, inspection to ?ee that precautionary measures were taken, disinfection of premises afterwards, inspection and prevention of nuisances, and inspection of food and drugs. The chairman wanted to be assured tliat if the Council contributed to this, the Council would not have to pay in the event of. another Maori typhoid fever case being suspected and reported upon by a doctor, as at Purangi the other day. Mr. Gardiner said the Act provided for the Hospital Board to do this work with its own medical staff. Mr. Foreman eaid that the Maori question was a very important one to this Council, and to other local bodies, too. where there were large numbers oi Maoris. It wasn'T at all fair that because a district had a big Maori population its ratepayers should have to bear the cost of mecTical inspection and treatment of any natives suffering from infectious disease. The cost should be .spread over the whole of the hospital district. Mr. Gardiner said that that would, be one result of the proposed arrangement. Upon a local body delegating its powers to the Hospital Board, and contributing to the. funds as propossd, its liability in matters pertaining to the public health would automatically cease. lie pointed out, also that the European ratepayers were interested 'n the prevention of the spread of disease amongst the Maoris, with a view of preventing the disease from b?ing transmitted to their European neighbors. The Council came to no decision en the matter, pending further investigation. The question will be brought up at next meeting. PUKEARUHE LOAN. The chairman explained the position

in regard to the Pukearuhe loan. Application had been made for a loan of, ' £(>oi) under the Local liodies Loan Ac;, this amount having been decided on !«y the >.et tiers. They were now proposing to increase the amount to £BOO. The Treasury, however, had advised that owing to the repeal of the Local Bodies' Loans Act by the passing of the Xev Zealand State Guaranteed Advances Act, 190!), no more loans could be granted nr.der the former Act. The chairman added that under the new conditions monev would not be obtainable as cheaply as formerly. In the past the rate had been 3'/i per cent, for a term of 41 years, whilst under the newAct The terms were 4'/s per cent, for 30Vs years. The annual charges for interest would thus be heavier than heretofore. j Mr. TCennington understood that the £001) had been authorised under the old Act, and the only thing remainir.;: to be done was to raise the extra £2>"!o under the new Act. Th.-> chairman said that appeared to be the best course, but it was for the settlers themselves to say. Cr. O'Sullivan said he was sorry )o hear from the chairman that the money for settlers' road was going to be made dearer. He had expected the contrary to be the case. PUKEARUHE DOMAIX. The Department of Lands notified the appointment of Messrs Arthur Robert Davis, Herbert Wells and Peter Godinagh as a domain board to have control of the Pukearuhe Domain.— The chairman explained that the Council had hitherto (been the Domain Board. There were funds in hand amounting to about £3S, and the transfer of this would be authorised at the next meeting of the Council, when the members would sit as the Domiin Board. TOLL-GATE FEES, Mr. A. G. Crawford, proprietor of the Waitara-Urenui mail coach service, wrote to the effect that the Waihi toll charges amounted to the heavy impost of £3O. In asking to be allowed some concession, say, by paying a fixed amount quarterly in advance, he pointed out that he was situated differently from the carriers, who always had a load, whereas he had to run his coadi whether full or empty.—The Council regretted it was unable to make an exception in Mr. Crawford's case. EXGIXEER'S REPORT.

The engineer, Mr. C. F. Dowsett, re •ported:—

• Wailii Riding—He again requested authority to commence hauling boulde-s for completing the Wailii riding with broken metal. About 300 yards would sufhee, and no payment would be do.ceseary until after tue end of the financial year. T. West and paty expected to be starting tlie formation for metalling on the Inland North road during the current month. Tikorangi Riding.—D. Paul had commenced his contract for the supply ef boulders. T. West had completed the fencing of all the fillings on the Otaraoa road and '\vas now engaged in forming up West's Hill. The Tikorangi suspension bridge over the Waitara river had been further examined and stripped, with the result that sonvjiwhat extensive repairs and renewals ■are required, estimated to cost £231. Ngatimaru Riding.—Topping was engaged in putting down metal opposite Baxter's on the Ot.araoa road. Anderson and Crozier were engaged on the::' metalling contract on Junction r"at! and Pennington was proceeding wi;:!i similar work at Purangi. Dowman was also progressing with his timber supply, contract at Matau. In company with C'r. Sander, the creamery and site at Purangi were inspected with a view ta its acquisition and conversion into a surfaceman's cottage. The cost roughly would be about £75. Authority for the grader to proceed to Tarata, forming up the Otaraoa road en route, was requested. The names of only two roads were suggested in that district, viz.. the Autawa and Pukeho. Urenui Riding.—Coleman had commenced hie contract on the Main Xor:h road and T. 0. Waite had completed his widening contract in the Urenai township. The road frontage from O'DonnelFs corner to the post oflko. sliould be covered with gravel whilst the drays were carting into the townslip. The engine and crusher were at Uriiti and had already crushed alio.it 220 yards. The unsettled weather had rendered the fillings soft and delayed the work. The machine coped satisfactorily with the shell rock and rn excellent road should result. The improvements at Oxenham's corner wore about completed, with the exception of the metal. 'Schmidt reported making satisfactory progress with the sanding on the Okau road. The contractors for the burnt papa were engaged in ■ the necessary preliminary work in connection with their contract. On the Pukearuhe road Piripi had completed his metalling- contract. The deviation survey giving access to Mr. W. Rowe at Wai-iti had been completed, and the plans almost finished. The Pukearuhe, township deviation survey adjoining tile cemetery was in progress, but some difficulty had been experienced in finding old pegs. A new bridge would shortly be required on the Mangahia road, and if it were intended to renew same in ferro-concrete he suggested that metal for this purpose be crushed and tipped ready for use. The following were the roads formed up by the grader and 1 he cost thorcof:—Clifton 240 chains, £25 ss; Nopcra road, 50 chains, £1 ss; Manganaeho road, ,">0 chains, £5; Wai-iti road. 10 chains. £] ss: TCnipilfciri road, (50 chains £3 15<; Kelson road, 45 chains, £2 10s. ITvUTT ROAD. Mr. D. S. Masker, of Uruti. complained of the practice of taking the foreman off the Uruti road during the summer months. Everybody knew, lie wrote, that one week's work done !n the mfcldle of summer was worth six I times the amount done in winter. Tie asked that the Council give some attention to a. piece of road near the

four-mile peg. It wu., full of holes, ami very dangerous to wheel traliic. as file result of water llnwmg down the road for a couple of months past.—(Jr. M> Ciuinuess said tile roatt was in a very bad litate. liis idea was that there would never be a good road 011 the present line, and lie favored a deviation. He proposed asking Messrs Jennings and Okey, M.P.'s, to accompany him to Wellington as a deputation to the Minister of Public Works to ai=k for the deviation. , The engineer said he had given 'nstructions to have the road repair?d and widened in places. The chairman said he couldn't make out how the surfaceman Jones was doing. He was supposed to keep tlu> sileroads in order, -but his experience was that the formation on some of them had had ''precious little done to it'' for years. Cr. O'Sullivan said there had been a good deal of work done on the Mangahia road, mentioned by the chairman. The surfaceman, however, was for a .good <leal of his time on the main road. TIKORANGI BOUNDARY j BRIDGE. . The engineer submitted a supplementary report dealing with the Tikorangi suspension bridge. He had thoroughly inspected it, and found it vquired very extensive repairs. New stringers, transomes, braces, chords and decking were required, running into about 5500 feet of Rimu. The cost he estimated at £293 10s, leaving a go id margin for contingencies. He rec-om- ■ mended that the bridge be e!os:d against all tnif pedestrian traffic. The chairman stated that the Taranaki County Council was liable for a Third of the cost of maintenance, and ,it was decided to submit the engineer's .proposal sto that. body. . . GENERAL. • It was decided to proceed with the .metalling of the roadway in Urenui ■township to the full width, at a cost not exceeding £SQ. All ainendmeul limiting the expenditure to £3O was lost.—lt was reported that the residents principally interested had declined to contribute to the cost. Mr. 35. F. Jury, of Tikorangi, complained that theWaihi road near his .residence was impassable in winter, and asßed the Council to have it graded and ' metalled, as soon as possible.—No funds. Mr. G. T. Murray, resident road engineer, wrote, in' answer to a communication from the Council, that it was the expenditure of the sum 011 this proposed that the Council should have year's Estimates for the bridge across Bull creek, on the Piko road, near Mr. Whittaker's house. Messrs Jupp and Mallett, of Uruci. applied for a slaughtering license. The Council declined to admit liability for the value of four yards of gravel claimed for by Mr. J. 11. Colesby. who alleged that the gravel, which was his .property, haid been used by the county surfaceman. The matter had been before the Council on several 0 casions. The Council accepted the offer of the Tarata Dairy Co. to sell its old Pu..rangi creamery building and site to the Council for £3O, for use as a surfaceman's house. Tenders will be called for alterations, etc. Accounts amounting to £770 16s lid were passed for payment.