VEALE ROAD LOAN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 69, 12 September 1911, Page 5

VEALE ROAD LOAN

EXPLANATION BY MR. H. OKEY, M.P. Mr. H. Okey, M.P., writes to tlie Taranaki County Council as follows, under date September C:—< , "*i<f|l!f|| "Councillor Browne, at the last meeting of the Council, must have spoken without making himself acquainted with the true position in connection withNthe Vcale road loan raised some nine years ago, as the stone he referred to was not paid out of loan money. If Mr. Browne will refer to the contract book kept by the Council and audited by the Government auditor, he will And' that the full amount of the loan raised was spent in forming and metalling a portion of the road and cutting down and grading certain hills. The stone put on by the contractor was machine-broken. The heaps referred to by Mr. Browne were farted out during the next season and broken bv hand, and paid for out of general rates that accumulated during the time the loan was being expended. Most of this stone, it was anticipated, would be. required to repair a portion of Tatton's Hill, which had previously 1 been gravelled with gravel out of Hawke's Hill pit, but it was found that this gravel would not stand on the hilJ. Most of the stone was afterwards used for this purpose, a) few yards going for repairsp on the Prankleigli Park road. In all the metalling 1 contracts' on the Frankley foacl the Board made it a rule to get a price for t.h<i delivery of stone along tile road for repairs, as it could be done more cheaply while the contract was being carried out. This was paid for out of revenue from general rates, which were not required for repairs during the expenditure of the Joan money. Mr. Browne's statPhient. that the foreman had been passing this stone almost daily for the last eight or nine years is just as wide pf the mark as the other statement, and is- not fair to the man, as he has only been employed on the road for about, three years,"' Mr. Okey was ehainna'n of the Frankley Road Board for a? gf'eafc many years, and it. was the management of road matters by this Board which Mr. George Browne so strongly attacked at the ■September meeting of the County Council. The Road Board lias since been abolished, and the district merged into the Taranaki county.