WHANGAMOMONA COUNTY COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 59, 27 July 1912, Page 6

WHANGAMOMONA COUNTY COUNCIL.

MONTHLY MEETING. Tlio Whangamomona County Council let on Wednesday. Present: Crs 4 Meredith (chairman), W. A. N. R. Cleland, Robertson, M. I. Jury' Coyne, Diggins, Bacon. ' COUNTY FINANCE. Mr. W. D. Anderson, county solicitor, advised upon the question of county finance the levying of rates, and allocation of expenditure.

WHANGAMOMONA CEMETERY. Messrs J. Gleeson and Hodder waited on the Council as representatives of the Whangamomona Ceratery Trustees (all oi the others having resigned), with a view of handing over the cemetery to the County Council. Mr. Gleeson acted as spokesman, and pointed out that the! cemetery had been cleaned and improved by the settlers, hedged and planted. There was a further reserve of eight acres, obtained from' the Government as compensation for portion of the original cemetery reserve taken for domain°purposes This reserve was a good asset, and there was a credit of £IG He added that the cemetery had been in existence for 14 years. Cr. McCutchan moved that application be made to the Government to have the cemetery vested in the Council, the trustees having, with one exception, resigned, the other residents having declined to fill the vacancies. He remarked that the thanks of the community were due trJ -Mr. Gleeson and his co-workers in the 1 past—Seconded by Cr. Bacon, and carned. ENGINEER'S REPORT.

The county engineer, Mr. E. C. Robinson, reported:—

Makahu and Arnold roads-Some work was done m repairing the damage caused by log carting, but he estimated it would take £ls to put the portion in order. He had accordingly come to an agreement with the sawmiller Mr J Robson to provide half cost of same, and *"• f° bson ha <* handed him a cheque for ±7 10s This the engineer considered a tair and equitable arrangement, seeing that the Council had done nothing on the roads for a year,

U-pper Mangaehu road—Needham's formation contract was well in hand, about 25 chains being nearly completed. KernskV formation contract had been progressing steadily, and a Oft track was now nearly completed along the whole length. As soon as this was done settlers would be able to use it instead of the bad pack track over the hill. McPhee had quarried out over half the metal required for his contract. Brewer road—As instructed, he had applied to the Government, through the Resident Road Engineer, for a subsidy of £1 for £1 on a loan, of £BOO for metalling this road from Strathmore end to tunnel, and from the end of McPhee's contract for a further half-mile. Mr. A. Simmons, of Strathmore, had been appointed surfaceman in the Pohokura riding.

Whangamomona road—ln regard to the two drainage tunnels which were breaking away, Mr. Robinson reported that the upper one was in rather a serious condition, and next summer would need facing up on the river side, and possibly lining. The lower one was not so bad, and, with a little road widening should not give a great deal of troubfe for some time. The drive had a bad slip about four miles down, and would also require attention next summer, but would stand for the present. Kohuratahi road.—Several culverts on this road had broken through, and hadbeen temporarily repaired. Many permanent renewals were, however, wanted on this and many other roads, and as J soon as the weather would (permit a bi<* supply of pipes should be obtained. ° Porangi road—Contract wes getting on well towards completion. ° Makahu road (unformed)— The lengthof unformed road down to Nathan's southern boundary was between 4 and 4y 3 miles-, and to form same would cost on an average about £SOO per mile. It would be advisable from a road point of view to make deviations in places, but this would have the effect of altering the boundary between Nathan and Allen, and necessitate acquiring land from the ■ latter. ' '

General repairs had heen carried out by the foremen during the month, .(but, the extremely broken weather had hampered all outside operations. PIPE MANUFACTURE.

Mr. Robinson further reported that' members of the various'local bodies were, favorably considering the matter, of erecting pipe-manufacturing works,, ferably near the Mt. Egmont cru'shW" site. °

Cr. McCutchan said that undoubtedly a great saving in cost could be effected. He wished to know whether these pipes could be laid so that they would be pro-: tected from heavy traffic. ,- :: ' The engineer replied that in this c'dunv try the pipes could be laid sufficiently' deep to protect them from all but' very heavy traffic on a road badly cut up', and when the railway'was through there would be little of that.—No action takert. MAKAHU AND ARNOLD ROADS.

Eight ratepayers at Pohokura petitioned the Council with reference to the "deplorable and even dangerous condition" of the Makahu and Arnold roads. Just below the sawmill there was a quagmire over two chains long which prohibited ingress or egress to wheeled traffic, arid the blocking of the second culvert caused a permanent stagnant pool, which overflowed across the road every rain, while the disgraceful condition of the watertables was causing damage to the road surface. No money had heen spent on the road for months, although the road accounts were in credit.—To be repaired, Mr. J. Robson contributing to cost, as stated in engineer's report. £SOOO LOAN LIMIT. Mr. J. H. Poynton, superintendent of the State Guaranteed Advances Office, in acknowledging the Council's letter with reference to the £SOOO limit of loans to local bodies, wrote that "such resolution still remains intact for an indefinite period." '

"They've wiped out the loans to local bodies sclieme. That's what it means," remarked Cr. McCutchan.

On the suggestion of the chairman, the clerk will write to ascertain if the £SOOO limit applies only to loans raised under the State Guaranteed Advances Act, or if it applied also to loans raised prior to the inception of the Act.

WEEDS-WHERE?

The Commissioner of Crown Lands, i New Plymouth, wrote in answer to the Council's complaint that part section 1, block 14, Waro. was temporarily leased to Mr. J. O'Donovan, who had undertaken ' -l keep the blackberry cut. He added th;H the present was not the proper season to cut the blackberry, which should be done when the plant was in full bloom. Cr. Bacon said the section meant was section 10, block 2, Pouatu, on the Rerckapa road, and it was decided to inform the Crown Lands Office accordingly. BOUNDARY ALTERATIONS. Eleven settlers in the Whangamomona county adjacent to the Ohura county, and in the Heao survey district, petitioned to have their sections added to the

Ohura county, as the only access to that part of the district was entirely through the Ohura county, and their interests were therefore more in common with Ohura than Whangamomona. The chairman of the Ohura Council, in forwarding the petition, wrote suggesting that the new boundary should take the whole of blocks 8, 5, 6 and 7, Heao, as this would make a permanent division between the two counties. Cr. Robertson moved that the Ohura County Council be informed that soma of the sections mentioned are not in the Whangamomona county, and that with regard to the others 'this Council is prepared to cede that area mentioned in the petition which is bounded on the west by the Ohura river.—Or. Cleland seconded.

Cr. •McCutchan pointed out that surceyors were now at work, and there was the possibility that in the near futun, these people would find better access through this county. He questioned th» advisability of altering county boundaries at present, in view of the recommendations of the Counties Conference regarding larger counties. The chairman said the natural outlet was up the Ohura river towards Mangaroa. and there was no likelihood of the traffic coming this way.—The motion wa» carried.

BREWER ROAD. Cr. Diggins moved that a special application be made for the second £7OO of' the £3BOO subsidy for the metalling contract on the Brewer road, and that the work be put in hand as soon as the money is forthcoming.—Cr. Coyne seconded. Both councillors pointed out the urgency of the work in the interests of farmers supplying milk to the factory Carried., " THE RATE. The chairman gave notice to move at next .meeting that rates be levied as follows •—Strathmore riding, 2d in the £; Pohokura, l%d; Central, 2d, and separate rate of %d on the Kohuratahi road; Tahora, iy 2 d. ' GENERAL. Mr. W. D. Anderson, county solicitor, advised that "every person whose name appeared on the valuation roll in respect of. rateable property" was entitled to have his name entered on the electors' roll, subject to the provisions of the Counties' Act. The solicitor had to debate the point with Cr. Bacon, and the argument lasted some time. It was decided, on Mr. McCutchan's motion, to ask Mr. Anderson to prepare < a statement of the case to be submitted to Mr. T. P. Martin, solicitor to the 1 Counties', Association.

A copy of the portion of the engineer's report with reference to the unformed .portion of Makahu road will be forwarded' to Mr. P. Nathan for his consideration.

The Council endorsed the engineer's , arrangement with Mr. Robson re Makahu ,r6ad; and authorised him to put the work in land.

_ : I,t was decided that when the weather improved the surfacemen in the Strathmoro riding put in a couple of days prospecting for supplies of metal.

I'! The Under-Secretary for Public Works wrote: "The Resident Engineer at Stratford has forwarded the protest of the Whangamomona County Council against the Oftura road (from Ngatimaru railway station to Pohokura railway station) ! being handed over to the control of the Council until such time as the slips have beim removed. In reply, I have to • state that the Resident Road Engineer | reports that the slip in question ihas but j recently come down, and that the'surfaceman has been instructed to remove it. immediately."— No action. : Mr. R. McCluggage, Pohokura, drew attention to the state of the approach to his homestead. A flood-opener on one side of his gate, and a culvert on the other side, were both blocked by refuse from the sawmill, and the water -now ran into the gateway and'made it •almost impassable. Permission had been given when the mill opened to lay down -a tfamline, and this necessitated raising the road two or three feet. As this tram°lme was now disused, he asked to have the remains of the tramline removed, and the road put in order.—Left in the hands of the county engineer to attend to. A letter was read from the Stratford County Council inviting this Council to share in providing payment of the expenses of the Stratford county chairman incurred as delegate to the recent local government conference at Wellington.— The Council was prepared to bear its'proportion of the £5, on a valuation basis 'Mr. J. J. H, Woisin asked the Council to give him better access to his section subsection 14. block 12, Ngatimaru, situated on the Mangarewa road. At present, he wrote, he was three miles from any kind of road whatever.—No action taken, no funds being available for the work.

Three settlers wrote complaining of the inconvenience caused by the non-com-pletion of Kcrrisk's upper Mangaalm road contract. The contractor had practically blocked the road for .horses, and made it difficult for the settlers to get their stores in.—The chairman said that he had the contractor's assurance -that the track would be through bv now. Mr. Buchanan will be asked to cut back tuVkberry on Matarangi road, opposite his section. Mr. G. T. Murray, Resident Road Engineer, wrote that he had forwarded to the Minister of Public Works the Council's protest against vesting roads in the control of the Council until the summer.—No comment. Mr Murray further wrote that the Council's application for a grant of £3O for the purpose of repairing part of tho Kohuratahi road recently handed over would receive consideration.—Cr. Bacon urged the necessity for opening a track round tihe toe of the slip, and this was authorised.