BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 April 1916, Page 6

BOROUGH COUNCIL.

PROGRESS OF WORKS. In the course of his report to be presented to the Borough Council on Monday night the engineer (Mr. E. 0. Clayton) states:— Barrett St. Drainage Extension.—This work lias been completed in a thoroughly satisfactory manner by the contractor and the various residences are being connected thereto by the respective owners. McLean Street.—The work of formation and metalling in this street is on the point of completion. Rank at Moturoa.—The work of trimming back the weak spot in this bank has zeen done and the fascining of the slope to lessen the sand drift wil'. be completed in a few davs. . Stone for Metal.-.The river having been very low for some time past, advantage has been taken to get out a quantity of boulders under most favorable conditions and a large quantity has been stacked adjacent to the crusher. I liave to recommend that this work of obtaining stone be done ;n summer only, in future.

Hosing of Footpaths.—The practice of hosing down footpaths by business firms with' a hose fitted with a nozzle is the cause of most of the small holes in the footpaths in Devon street. Hie use of a nozzle should not he permitted for this purpose with the high pressure we have. Even where concrete slabs are laid it will do damage i.y scouring out the joints. It will be evident to councillors' that tarred streets nerd constant attention, and I have to recommend that suitable receptacles be obMincd for depositing the material in. This will effect a considerable saving !n cost of collection. The receptacles won.'d be placed at intersecting streets ju«r. off the main street,, say from the Post Of; flee to Gover street. General.—The large ISin culvert atross Avenue road and the pipe drain adinecnt to John street are being attended to. They were found to be practically choked with silt, showing they .have been neglected for years and ihis filling up. no doubt greatly contributed t;> the flooding by .storm water in this locality. Plans and specifications for atditiora! spill way at the Mangamahoe dam have been prepared and the other smaM jobs authorised will receive early attent'on. THE ELECTRIC (PLANT. Mr. H. Black (the electrical engineer) reports:— Powerhouse.—The new intake has been in regular use for the whole of the past month, and the Mangamahoe dam has been kept full, giving an extra head of approximately ten feet. Since the commencement of running of the tramways it has been necessary to run a separate generating set specially for this work, and although this machine Ims only carried a small load the consumption of water has been vcrV materially increased, which increase would hot have been available without the extra head provided by the new work. As we have at times to run six generating =ets the work at the powerhouse has been materially increased .and it is necessary to have two men on duty part of the time.

Transmission Line.—The new trans-1 mission line is now being regularly used for the tramway supply. The voltage has not yet been raised, as there is still work required to comply with , Ihe Public Works regulations before this can be done. The difficulty in being able to find sufficient suitable men prevents this and other work being carried out as quickly as we would like. Substation. —All supply mains have now been transferred to the new substation, and the switchboard has been moved andjs now being erected in the | machine-room. "" Since starting the supply to the tramways it has been necessary to have two pien on duty, one for each shift, to attend' to the running of the tramway generators. As we took men from our own staff and have not found other's to fill their positions, this bns left ns short-handed. We are nowoccupying the now offices and find them much more convenient, and trust that this will facilitate work. We have just lost another member of our office staff, D. Sutherland having left to take up another position.

Connections.—During the past quarter 4:! new connections were put in, making a total of 100-2 consumers now connected to the lines.