EGMONT COUNTY COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 212, 15 February 1915, Page 3

EGMONT COUNTY COUNCIL.

MONTHLY .MEETING. The oi'dim* 1 y meeting of the Egmont Council was held at Opunake on Friday, wlicn there were present: Crs. 11. Fleming, H. J. RawclilTe, W. R. Wright, McNeill, S. Campbell, 11. J. Mcßeynolds, .1. Young, T. llarvev, and W. C. Dudley.

THE COUNTY OFFICE. The Public Trust (Mice asked for particulars ill connection with the Council's application for a loan of .1701) lor the erection of a Counts Office.

Councillors di-cus.-.'d the whole question of the County Oliice sclumo. The first point was as to the powers of the Council to borrow the money without consulting the ratepayers by means of a poll. Cr. Wr'glifc considered that a poll was liecesrary, and lie was also of o]iinion that it was useless to take a poll on the pi'opo.-al, which would lie defeated. Cr. Dudley was of opinion that a poll would Tie carried, lie was supported l'y the chairman and Crs. Rawclill'c and Campbell. They felt certain that ratepayers would not ask them to carry on, as the chairman expressed it. "in a sriin 1 !"■■ this." After considerable d! ' •! as . to ways and mians, .ted out that if the oilrce v , ... out of overdraft i!, would only take an extra rate of one-sixteenth of a penny in the £ next year to cover the cost The Council dee::I"<1, mi the motion of Crs. TTarvey and l!a .vcl : (Tc, to adopt this course, and the chairman and Cr. Dudley were appointed to go into the financial position of tlie Council, with a view of pushing on with tlie new oliiee.s if possible.

OEO ROAD. The Wa'mate County Council wrote to tin' cft'rrt that it had passed a resolution that immediaelv a sufficient

guarantee was received from the Egmont Council, (hat LfllflO (or (he Council's full quota i would be available, the Wa'mate Council would proceed with the work. A letter was received from the Advances Board, stating that the rating area in the plan described showed that the Council intended to include within the special rating area sections within tile Waimate West County, over which the Egmont County had no jurisdiction, and therefore had no power to do so. The secretary was instructed to endeavor to hasten things along.

TIIE WIREMU ROAD. Mr. .T. K. LaV asked the Council to issu~ instructions that all gates on the Wiremu road between Arawhata road and Ngariki road should be moved. lie also asked that all rates accruing should be expended in repairs. He stated that the road wis in a worse condition than it was four years ago, owing to damage caused by wandering stock. Mr. G. T. .Murray, district roads engineer, wrote that the Council had jurisdiction over the road. It was decided to give all those having gates across the road three months' notice to remove the same.

ENGINEER'?. REPORT. Mr. C. A'Court Opie (County cngi ncerl reported, as follows:

Oeo Riding (Northern). —Tiie hands in this riding had been engaged practic- j ally thp whole of the month on bridge . work, during the early part in complct- j ir.g the fillings oi briujri's on Auroa.; road, and latterly carting gravel for concrete work' on No. 4 bridge, Strat- j ford road. Slight repairs had also been effected to Auroa and Stratford roads. Oeo Riding (Southern). —The bulk of •tlie work bail consisted of the putting in of two large concrete culverts under tlio bridge loan on the Skeet, road, also I the cleaning out of drains to allow of the work being effective. This work was not yet completed, as the hands were in Opunakc for upwards of a week,: assisting in the tarring of the main street. Munro had commenced his contract for delivery of boul.Vr stone, and to date had made good progress. The breaking had also hecn commenced. . Rahotu Riding (Southern and Opunakc). —Repairs had hecn effected to the main road in several places, and also to several of the smaller bridges. Pipe-making had been kept going at intervals. The soltar was laid in the main street at a cost of 4<Ad. per gallon. or 2per square yard, and when this work was rolled up next week he .was confident that it would satisfy the I most critical, but it would be fully three weeks yet before it would justify an opinion being passed upon it. Owing to an accident to two barrels of soltar while being conveyed from the furnace to the sprayer, lie was unable to finish the work ofi" exactly as he would have liked.

Rahotu Riding (Northern). —The progress of contract work in this riding had kept the hands constantly engaged during the month. Last week saw the. completion of the Pungarehu work, and the contractors were now practically ready to commence the Rahotu section. Owing to the increased price of

the Pungarehu work, the funds available for opniraet work ill this Riding would only permit of (lie completion of the Rahotu section air! the crushing of a few hundred yards of maintenance metal for tiie O'tonui section. Consequently he would recommend that the Oaonui contract, lie cancelled, and this section of roi'.d maintenance held over until next season, as the bulk of Hit' road from Oaonui to Rahotu would then require renewing.

General.—The past month had been far and away the bu-iest he had had. He had been occupied for over a week in the field work for the Wire'mu road. Tiie tarring oT the main : trcet had al-o occupied his time, whilst he had also been compelled to remain at Pungarehu in order to keep the plant going. After consultation with the chairman. he had adverti-ed for an enginedrive.".

GRAZING BULLOCKS. j The question of bullocks grazing on ' the roads was discussed. Cr. RawelilTe considered that it was unfair to block ; contractors' bullocks from grazing on tile roads. I Cr. Dudley said that the Council had passed a resolution, prohibiting the use of bullocks on contracts, and he was against it being rcscindc'l. After ;i do- j sultory the jualt'T was Mt :\s at pn'soiit. '

miTO'LT POI'XD. j Tin* Pnrihaka Knad Hoard asked tho Council I.) !!i the Upkeep nf the W,uvA, v/h'eh the lltKtrd had solely 1-orne in (he pa>t. Cr. VoMiiir, who is chairman of t]u* V>'av.l. slid f hat there v,*ns very little impumidni;: at rres.-nt. and the Hoard The n»;i]v>t pound would then I>c «'-t Opnnuke, caTT-inir inconvenience ; t.» rati'pa VC)V. I Tlie chairman * thought. 111 a 1 a more onen_retie ranker should In* appointed. Xo action was taken. FAKMKRS' CO-OPERATIVE WATER SI'PPEY. "Mr. 'la.-!x.-(in. < 1 ;>\in-' I:Ti';ina.i.n-r ».-f the Farmers' Co-o'.M-r.'Uive ( Society, waited on the Council, and

, asked permission to take a water-pipe ' across the main road in Opunakc. He pointed out that the Society was putting in a water scheme in connect'on with their up-to-date saleyards. The proposal was to have a 2000-galioii tank on a 14ft. stand, to be supplied b., a ram from the iWaiau river. A trough would be placed, available for the pub lie and also for the yard, The. Societ; wished to take the pipe across the roac so as to allow other people to utilis. tli a surplus water. In reply to questions, Mr. Jackson . stated that in the event of ratepayers of Opunake deciding to go in for n per- ' main-lit water scheme, the Society ' would lie prepared to disconnect its scheme ai once. J ft was decided to grant the permis- : sion d uring the pleasure of the Council, ' provided the work is done to the satis- | faction of the Couiie:!, and subject to '.'Tee month*' notice to disconnect. | An amendment by Cr. .McUeynolds, : that the permission he granteit on ti pej tit ion from the ratepayers interested bc--1 presented, was not seconded.

THE BRIDGE LOAN. j The Advances Department notified ' that the iloOOl) bridge loan had been granted, and that .C2OUO would be paid on receipt of debentures. j The chairman was authorised to sign and seal the debentures. ; GENERAL. i

Cr. Young brought up the question of the lamps at the approaches to bridges. The engineer said that some had been attended to, and the others would be seen to at once. Mr. G. W. Rogers, County clerk, was granted further leave of absence to the end of February. It was resolved to allow the Parihaka Road Board the use of the grader, at th ( . rate of .is per day. while absent from tiie County yard. Tlie Parihaka l!-:),i 1 Board wrote, pointing out that the extraordinary damage to the blind road at lYarea caused HV the Council's plant ami contractor had not yet been repaired.—The engineer to attend to the matter,

There were four applications for the position of enginc-'lriu r to the Council, Mill Mr. A. -J. Adams, of Rakaia. was appointed.

It was decided to add a condition to all metal specifications that the stripping should be 'vpi oil. back from the metal being worked.

Cr. McNeill referred to the sfiite of the Patiki road, and asked if the present contract could not be extended. The. engineer stated that- the improvement of this road was provided for in his estimates of new work.—lt was decided that memlu-rs of the Council should make a tour of inspection of the Gountv roads, particularly in the Oeo Riding. NOTICE OF MOTION.

Cr. McNeill gave notice of motion for. discussion at next meeting, that applications he called for the position of County clerk, at a salary of £250 per annum, the clerk to devote the whole of his time to the Council.

TARRING. The cost of tarring the main road through Opunakc, in the Opunakc. Riding, which the engineer stated to be .€227, including soltar, ,tllii2, was queried by the Councillors. The engineer's original estimate was .CD-I, which l.ad been based on soltar at 3d per gallon, whereas he now believed it went up to lOd. Two barrels had also burst, and been lost.

Accounts, amounting to £ll3O 2s 3d were passed for payment.