BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1916, Page 6

BOROUGH COUNCIL.

. MONTHLY REPORTS. The following reports will be presented at to-night's meeting of the New Plymouth Borough Council:— That Mr. A. C. Wheatley be granted two weeks' leave of absence. That the Borough Engineer be authorised to form and metal Belt road between Tukapa road and Wallace Place, tenders to be invited for the formation work, the balance of the work to be carried out by day labor. That Gill street from Gover street to Hobson street be metalled 20 feet wide and that the Borough Engineer submit on Monday an estimate of the cost of metalling as above, together with alternate estimate for metalling and soltarring. That similar estimates for Courtenay street from Cover to Watson street be obtained. That Mr. Newton King be informed that the Council regrets that it is unable at present to accede to his request re asphalting footpaths at the intersection of Gill and Currie streets. That upon Mr. T. Avery signing an undertaking to pay for a period of not less than five years an annual charge of £2 10s for such light, a street light be erected on the Hojdsworthy road ami a Is® a further light at the junction of Avenue road and Holdsworthy road. That the plan of the street widening of'Mangorei road submitted by the High School Board of Governors be approved, and that His Worship the Mayor be authorised to affiii the seal of the Borough thereto. That His Worship the Mayor, Crs. Collis, Hill, Johnstone, and Mannix be a sub-eommittee to confer with the High School Board with reference to the Avenue road stormwater drainage. The Borough Engineer was instructed to sjibmit to the committee on Monday an estimate of the cost of widening the Old Hospital road and forming a footpath as" set out in the letter from the High School Board, together with an extension of such footpath to Waiw&ka Terrace.

That the Electrical Engineer be asked to report upon the substitution of an alarm for the telephone now in use at the Reservoir, the alarm to be operated from the present wire. That in view of the fact that the Council purposes later to effect certain work in Carrington j-oad, consideration of the application of' Mr. A. T. Mason for an entrance to his property be deferred until the work proposed has been carried out. That upon payment of the prescribed fees licenses bo granted for the hoardings owned by the Taranaki Amusements, Ltd., as set out in Messrs. Roy and Nicholson's letter of the 7th. inst. That a sub-committee, consisting of Hi? Worship the Mayor, Crs. Short, Monteat.li and Smith be appointed to confer with the A.M.P. Society with reference to the strengthening of the concrete wall along the Devon street frontage of their building, and also to report to the Council with reference to the footpath along the Devon street frontage of the Theatre Royal. That the recommendation of the Town Clerk with reference to fire insurances be given effect to. That the company to take over the council's fire insurances be balloted for; only companies having representatives in Xew Plymouth to be included in the ballot. That all companies having representatives in New Plymouth be given an equal share of the reinsurances. That the Electrical Engineer be instructed to submit estimates of cost of installing the following street lights:— (a) Two street lights Devon street extension oil town side of Veale's estate; (b) Norman street; (c) corner of Weymouth street and Aubrey street;- (e) corner Mahoe street and Ngaio street; (f) Chilman street.

ELECTRIC LIGHTING REPORT. Mr. H. Black (electrical engineer) reports:— The traction battery was put into service on May 9; and besides enabling one motor generator set to carry the tramway load, it has taken so much of [.!■? irregularities of the tramway demand that wo are now able to parallel the lines at the powerhouse and run the generators to much better advantage. The voltage of the transmission linen was raised on May 13 from 2000 to ('0(0 volts, and this has so reduced our line losses that now the battery is in service one 200 and the SO k.w. sets will carry the day load, two 20ft k.w. sets the evening demand, and the oft k.w. or two J5. k.w. sets from midnight until the tramways start running in the morning. Ibis saving is quite up to my original estimates, and practically leaves the AO k.w. and two* 45 k.w. machines as reserves. Under normal conditions, I would advise putting in another 200 n.w. set as early as possible, but at the present time with manufacturing so disorganised, the Cdnncil would, I consider, .lv justified in delaying any extension for the present. The traction load should not increase very much until extensions are made to the tramways, vhile the normal increase for lighting should be from 30 to 50 kilowatts per annum. From the time tenders are.called until the machine is put in and running, it is advisable to allow about eighteen months, so the matter should not be deferred more than twelve months. In case of either of the 200 k.w. sets being temporarily disabled, we should be just about able .to carr^y.the load, provided always that the battery is doing its work, hut failure of the battery at the same time as one of the 200 k.w. generators would mean a partial interruption of the supply. On May 23 one coil of the newest 200 k.w. alternator burned out. Fortunately we have some spares for these machines and were able to get repairs effected and the machine running in time for the evening loa& Poles have been erected on Smart rond and lilies erected as far as authorised, but. no connections have yet been put on. Insulated wires have been run along Mangorei and Avenue roads to replace the original bare copper wires as required by the Public Works Department. During the past month eighteen new connections have been put on, making a total of 1724 to date. We are still waiting for some wire to carry out street lighting work authorised last year. The wire has been on order for over twelve months now. Private lighting and street lighting,in Hobson street lias been carried out as authorise! ABATTOIR REPORI. Slaughtered for local consumptions Cows i 63, bullocks 18, calves 21, sheep 599, lambs 02, pigs 153 and three suck, ers, tripes cleaned 172. . Compared with the corresponding month of last year they show an increase of 13 cattle, six calves, two sheep, 38 lambs, 20 pigs and four tripes. Condemned, five cows, one sheep and four pigs. for export, ten cows, one

bullock and three bulls. One cow was condemned. Fees due for the month amount to £125 14s, rents £3 5s Gd, extraordinary traffic fees £2 10s, a total of £l3l 0s 6d, a decrease of £9 18s over the same month of last year. SANITARY INSPECTOR'S REPORT. The sanitary inspector (Mr. R. Day) reports:— The usual amount of inspection work lias been done. Twelve plumbing and drainage certificates have been granted. The outstanding feature of this work has been the completion of the overhaul of the drainage of the Criterion Hotel. I found that a good deal of the sewage was directed into the Huatoki River. This has now been stopped. The investigation and supervision of this work took a good deal of time. The service for the removal of refuse has now been in operation for a month, and has fully justified the expenditure Twenty-two loads of rubbish are being removed weekly. Some of it required moving two or three years ago. The sanitary conditions of the town must eventually be benefited by this service. The man at first chosen for this work proved most unsuitable, but my second choice promises to be a success.' The several contractors for the plant required in the night-soil service arc making good headway, aiul everything is well in hand for the commencement of the work by July 1. The usual building inspection has been attended to, including the inspection of two buildings recently damaged by fire. The following permits have been issued:—Buildings, 5; total cost, £176.5; fees £lO ss; drainage eight, fees £2.

BOROUGH ENGINEER'S REPORT. Mr. E. H. Clayton reports:— Baths—The attendance and recepits for the baths for May, 1910, were as follows: Men 42, hot baths 51. Receipts £3 8s 3d. Last year the receipts were £1 18s. x'lie custodian has been engaged in carrying out a number of small jobs and repairs at the baths as authorised to be done. Cutfield road—The contractor for this filling lias completed same and the obtaining of the material has opened the road through the cutting on the hill. Spillway at intake.—This work is in progress. I visited same last Friday. I recommend that the wire rope be dismantled and stored, as it is not advisable to leave it exposed to the weather. Tram route.—The work of excavating and re-forming the tram route from Hobson street to near the Henui bridge, a distance of about J mile, is almost finished, and tarring and sanding thereof is in progress. Chilman street.—The work of lorming and metalling this street is in progress, and the laying of the water mains in the street will be commenced as soon as the excavation is a little more advanced. Metalling of streets.—This work has been commenced and will be continued as authorised. Street receptacles.—The woven wire baskets ordered to be produced have come to hand and will be distributed where most required. The boxes for holding the street sweepings ai* completed anil will also be placed in various convenient places, which should result in a considerable saving and greater efficiency in the work of keeping the tarred street clean. General.—The new P.P. notices are being erected on all the outlaying mains. The footpaths are receiving attention where most urgently required and the general maintenance is being attended to.