CLIFTON COUNTY COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 210, 4 March 1912, Page 7

CLIFTON COUNTY COUNCIL.

MONTHLY MEETING. The monthly meeting of the Clifton County Council was held at Waitara on Friday, when there were present: Crs. R. J. Elliott (chairman), R. J. Hicks, C. 0"'-ullivan, M. Bower, J. C. Gleeson, 8. J. Kensington and H. Sander. ENGINEER'S REPORT. Mr. C. P. Dowsett, county engineer, reported that the Otaraoa road deviation was now in hand, the contractor having been in the hospital for some time, hence the delay. The contractor foi the Matt.ro road had completed hi» widening contract, and further work would be laid off next week. Paul expected to complete his metalling contract this week on the Okoke road, and Pariss Taylor was proceeding with the earthwork. Whittaker anticipated finishing up on the Piko road, and it was Sloped during the month to lay off further work. Falconer was progressing with his formation contract on the Waiiti deviation, and had the culverts in place. His time had expired, but indifferent weather and scarcity of labor had contributed to delay. Failing other arrangements, Mr. Parsons would eject fencing at Rowe's deviation as time permitted. The contractors had laid down about seven chains of burnt papa and reported that two kilns were ready to burn at the top end, whilst the third was almost ready for firing. The contractors were offered the work of expending the current year's grant in a similar way, but thiß was declined for stated reasons. There were two alternatives, either burning papa by a day party, or putting do' 1 shell, rock. Drake Bros, had sig" and returned specifications for metall ' a; Matau and were busy erecting accca bridge to obtain their supplies.

FOREMEN'S REPORTS. Foreman W. Kuhtz (Mokau riding) reported that all the roads in his riding were in fair order. The laying down of the burnt papa was proceeding very slowly. Foreman C. Turner (Mokau) reported that he had been sandstoning during the. past month and had therefore been unable to do much general work ori the roads. ' The application of Messrs J. M. Telfar, A. Hutching, C. Turner and C. Jones, surfacemen, that surfacemen's wages should be raised to 9s per day, was held over until next meeting. WAITARA BRIDGE. Tie elerk of the Waitara Borough Council (Mr. Thos." Buchanan) wrote intimating that his Council had, by resolution, accepted the offer of the Clifto» County Council to contribute £IOO per annum for a term of 3fly 2 years towards the cost of the bridge over the Waitara river, in the Waitara borough. Cr. Sanders thought that the Clifton County Council had been rather hasty in -making the offer. The Taranaki County, Council would not even agree to pay the. small sum of £l2 until a commission had been set up. He thought that this Council would be well advised to withdraw its offer. The chairman said that the Council had already made its decision, and it would be useless to re-open the question. Cr. Hicks thought that the Council had acted wisely. Had a commission been set up ,it would, probably have cost the Council more than £IOO per annum. A motion by Cr. Sander to the effect that the previous-,resolution be rescinded was ruled out of order, as it was considered-that a notice of motion would Cr. Sander still protested, holding that the question had been dealt with in a very loose manner. Cr. Bower felt that the Council had made a good bargain. Messrs Roy and Nicholson forwarded deed of agreement between the borough and the County Council.' The chairman was authorised to execute same after perusal and approval by the county solicitor. MIMI-MOKAU ( ROAD.Mf. A. E. Sutton, Uruti, drew attention to the bad condition of the Mimi : Mokau road, and asked that it receive immediate attention. Cr. O'Sullivan remarked that there was a Government grant of £2lO for expenditure on this road, and he moved that alternative tenders be called for metalling a portion of the road with shell rock or burnt papa. OTARAOA ROAD. Five settlers on the Otaraoa road drew attention to the state of this road from the Ngatiruanui boundary to Foreman's Hill (deviation excluded). The'greater length of the' road had not received attention for years, and was very lumpy. The rates had considerably increased sinse the recent valuations, and they thought they were now entitled to mora attention on the road. They also complained that the contract for the deviation on the road was practically not started yet, though it had been let for some time, and the county engineer was reported at last meeting as having said that the contractor was making satisfactory progress. Mr. Dowsett, in reply to Cr. Sander, said that the delay had been caused owing to the. illness of the contractor, who had been compelled to-go to the hospital. Cr. Sander remarked that other parts of the road were being neglected, and were in a dangerous state. After considerable discussion, it was deeided, on the motion of Cr. Sander, that the foreman be instructed to put the road in order. EXPENDITURE OF THIRDS.

A number of settlers at Rerekapa protected against the expenditure of their thirds on the Tui track. The Roads Department, they considered, should continue to keep this track open until the Kiwi road was opened, and their thirds thould be expended in making the Maungatuna road available for wheel traffic. The thirds were, in their idea, being frittered away. The thirds in the Rerekapa block will be held over for expenditure On the Maungatuna road, as asked by the settlers. ROADING THE MOKAU BLOCK.

Mr. C. A. Loughnan, attorney for the Mokau Coal and Estates Co., Ltd., accompanied by Mr. Sladden, engineer to the company, waited on the Council in connection with the roading of the block. Mr. Loughnan pointed out that 30 miles of road would be required in the block, which consisted of 53,000 acres, viz., 34,000 in the Clifton county and 10,000 in the Ohura county. He pointed out that the Act provided that where a block was comprised in two counties like this a special rating area of the whole block could be created for the purpose of borrowing money for roading. This was what he proposed to ask the Council to do in this case. About £20,000 would be required for forming the roads, of which Clifton's portion would be about £12,000. The interest on this would be guaranteed by the land. There would be no difficulty in getting such ;. loan carried, as at present there were only four or five ratepayers in the block, who would be unanimous on the question. After the land was roaded and cut up he hoped to provide the Council with quite a number of ratepayers. The Clifton and Ohura councils could, of course, arrange for one body to administer the loan, or the company's own engineer eould undertake it; subject to the luperyision of the Council's engineer.

If the loan were raised the rate would not be Id in the £, at any rate not more than settlers had to pay for ordinary roa-d facilities.

Cr. O'Sullivan pointed out thatsowe time ago, when Mr. Sladden waited on the Council in connection with tlw grades, etc., they understood that the company intended to make the road and hand it over to the Council.

Mr. Loughnan said that it was always intended to raise,a special loan. After Mr. Loughnan retired, Mr. J. E. Wilson, solicitor to the Council, advised on the matter. His advice and the (subsequent discussion were taken in committee. On resuming, the Council reported that the following resolution, moved by Cr. O'Sullivan and seconded by Cr. Sander, had been passed:—"That this Council cannot see its way to aeeede to the request of the Mokau Coal and Estates Co., Ltd., to raise a loan for the purpose of .forming roads to open up th« Mokau block."

On being made acquainted with the decision, Mi". Loughnan expressed surprise, and said that he had evidently not made the position clear. He adduced further argument in support, but the Council decided that it could see no reason to alter its decision. GENERAL.

Mr. G. T. Murray, Resident Road Engineer, wrote agreeing to hire the Council's grader on the conditions imposed hy the Council.

The request of Mr. H. Wells to remove loose stones from the factory hill at Pukearuhe was acceded to, provided the stone was put down in continuation of the present metal.

The Council was unable to accede to the request of the settlers to metal five, chains on, Ohanga road. The Public Works Department notified that portion of the Tongaporutu-Manga-roa road had been declared a county road. It was resolved that the Department be requested to make it a 12ft track throughout (it is only tfft in placei now) and that .the road be first put in good order. Mr. P. Burgess wrote in connection with the proposed improvements on the Pita road, and stated' that there was another bridge required to avoid fording a creek, which was dangerous at flood time. He would also like the balance of the money expended in widening a track up near his camp, which was barely 2ft wide on an average.—Referred to Ct. Sander.

Mr. J. Graham, jenr., Matau, offered to construct the tunnel and filling, on the Mangaoapa road, the tunnel at 'ss per foot length and the, approaches 245, with all earthwork lOd per yard, also to remove the bridge by day work.—Held over. ' • Accounts to the amount of £823 3b 8d were passed for payment. MIMI-MOKAU BRIDGES. Mr. C. P. Dowsett, county engineer, ai instructed, presented a report on the condition and cost, of renewals or repairs to bridgei on the Mimi-Mokau road. He gave a detailed description of the bridges and the necessity for new structures or -repairs to the old structures. Summarised, the following bridges required attention: Re-building: Hawera (urgent), at £180! Mangaeho, £495; King'* (urgent), £348; Jones' (urgent), £280; Repairs: Oxenham's, £10; Uruti, £SO; Tupoki, £7O; Mangahia, £25; Mirai, £•50; Murley's, £5; six flood outlets, £400; Purangi, £187; or a total of £2IOO. • In addition, quite a number of other bridges in the county are known to be faulty and unsafe, and probably a de-. tailed inspection would add further to the list of those requiring attention. In discussing the report, councillors expressed the opinion that it would be a heavy expenditure to finance, and that it would perhaps be advisable to go in for a bridge loan. The question of replacing some of ,the bridges in permanent structures of concrete was also' discussed, but nothing definite was decided, pending the receipt of a report on the state of the bridges throughout the county, when the question of a bridge loan would be discussed.