EGMONT COUNTY COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 May 1917, Page 7

EGMONT COUNTY COUNCIL.

MONTHLY MEETING. The ordinary monthly meeting of the Egmont County Council was held at Opunake on Tuesday, when there were present,: Crs. M. Fleming (chairman), VV. C. Dudley, T. Harvey, J. Young, M. J. Meßevnolds, R. J. W. McNeill, S. Campbell, S. Forsyth.

FOREMEN'S REPORT. The various foremen's lvorts were submitted as follows: Oeo Riding (northern division): —The staff have been employed at general surface work spreading gravel, raking in gravel, cleaning drains, putting in pipes, cleaning ford and water-tables, etc., on the Eltham, Watino, Kiri and Weka roads. D. J. Kehelv has completed his contract for pit metal on the Watino road of 500 yards, which I recommend a final payment. H. Munro has delivered 64 yards pit metal on Weka road at 4s Od per yard. Punehu bridge.—l have put four centre piers under this bridge and a centre cord on the western end as instructed by Councillors E. W. J. McNeill and M. J. Macßeynolds, and will have the work completed as soon as the timber is available. This bridge is strengthened, for light traffic only. Mr. Granger kiniily gave permission to take what timber I required to repair the bridge. I would recommend calling tenders for 1000 .yards of crushed metal on the Eltham road to complete the recoating of the road from the western boundary to the Oeo river as soon as possible to enable the contractor to get all the stone paddocked so that no delay will be caused, when plant is available; also tenders for 900 yards of crushed metal on the Oeo road between the Elthara road and the southern boundary. Rahotu Riding (northern): —The staff have been continually employed on Contract No. 301 north of Stent road on the Main South Road, attending to all necessary work in regard to layiti t and forming road before being rernetalled, and all other work required in finishing off a new road. This contract having been completed we have shifted and set the crushing jlant on Contract No. 300 at the Warea river/but owing to the unsettled weather and being hung up through the forecarriage of the road 1 roller cracking, but have not been able to make very good progress. The pitman seat of the crusher also wore out and let portion of the crusher fall out; this again delayed lis. Every thing again in good working order, and weather permitting, we hope to have all contracts in this riding completed in about three weeks. W. H. Julian has completed Contract 301, delivering 95G yards crushed metal, and 138 yards screenings, for which I recommend final payment. In regard to work required to be carried out by rising watertable in front of Oaonui factory, this will be attended to as soon as I have finished with the crushing plant. Oeo Riding (southern division): —The hands have been employed at general surface work on the several roads. Main South Road—Water channels, outlets and ditches have been cleaned out between stream and Pihama; have also layed a line of three feet pipes oil the Skeet road near Oeo road. Newly laid down metals have been raked in and rounded up. I recommend a progress payment to E. R. Madgwick on Contract. No. 304.

Rahotu (Southern Riding) and Opunake Riding:—The staff have been engaged at water-tabling and patching on Eltham and Main South roads. Pipe making and general maintenance work has been carried out in Opunake Riding. Bridge No 21 has been filled in and approaches have been raiwd by two i'eet Bridge Foreman's Report:—Repairs have been effected to Bridge No. 23. Bridge No. 2l has been completed, this bridge has taken a little more material than estimated owing to the extra depth of foundations. Bridge No. 22 lias been extended 4 feet. The piers are now 23ft Oin each. I found it impossible to build off the old masonary work so nad to construct the extension on the same design as the super structure. As soon as bridge gear and timber is moved to Oeo bridges a start will be made with the construction of same. I suggest ordering the necessary steel bars for Warea bridge ae there may be some difficulty in procuring them. Re Punilio when instructed to report on the condition of it, I suggested spending £SO in repairs. The ' necessary timber and steel plates were proeurred to effect repairs. Being detained at Kapoaiaia and Opua bridges 1 could not effect the repairs until about two months later. When I fo-und this bridge in such a decayed condition that I requested your Council to inspect it and it was decided to close the bridge so only part of the repairs were carried out to keep this bridge existing till it could be dismantled. Most of the timber and plates were kept in reserve to be used in the construction of new bridges. The Oaouui Dairy Co. has a quantity of old piping and angle iron for sale. I would recommend the Council buying this as there would be enough to build four or five small bridges with what we have on hand. Machinery Department —The has been engaged on Contract No. 301 to complete same. We have crushed M vards of crushed metal and *3B yards screenings. We also crushed 104 yards of metal for the Warea factory; also removed plant to the Warea river site where we expect to start within a few days. The roller lias been engaged cm same contract, but owing to a sight breakdown has been idle for a few days. I would recommend getting a set ot new buckets for the elevator, also a new belt as the chain drive is not a success; it has too muoli wear and tear; its life is slioit, also too severe on the buckets; also < new 200-gallon iron tank for the engine. I had to send the forecamagc liead oil the roller into town to get some straps around the front as it was cracked along side of the socket. The reports were adopted. Metal asked for in the Oeo Riding was granted. _ r The chairman, Crs. Mc and McReynolds were appointed a committee to open tenders. ... . ~, Cr. Wright thought that steps should be taken to prevent stone being taken from near bridges, otherwise there would be danger of scour. The clerk pointed out that there was a resolution preventing stone being taken from within two chains of a bridge. Some members considered that this was too close. It was decided to draw the attention of foremen to the resoluIt was resolved to notify the Oeo contractors th&t the crusher would not be in the Oeo district for some time. A NEW CRUSHER. Quotations and specifications of various makes of portable crushers were received from various makers. It was resolved to hold a special meeting to go into the question of procuring a crusher and meanwhile gpuqtUfif# will

inspect several crushers in different parts of Taranaki. HIDING REPRESENTATION. The chairman referred to the necessity for altering the riding representation in the County. At present with the exception of the Opunake Riding each riding hud equal valuation representation per member. Oeo with a valuation of £OOO,887 had three members or a valuation of £220,280 per member. Rahotu with a valuation of £1,107,240 has five members, equal to £221,448 per member. Opunake riding had rather the better of the deal with a valuation of £104,018 and one member. There was a general desire to divide Rahotu Riding into two. At present there were two divisions, Rahotu North and South, but there were not legal divisions and though there were separate accounts kept, these wc-re not recognised by the auditor. The present boundaries, lie suggested, should be retained and ridings formed to be called Opua and Rahotu. It would work out in this way, Rahotu Southern with two members would have :i valuation of £405,850, equal to £202,025 per member. Rahotu Northern with a valuation of £701,301, would have three member--, or '£233,707 per member. This would b. with the Oaonui river as the dividing line. Personally he would have preferred the Kina road to be the dividing line, which would have more equalled' the valuation, but the boundary of a County riding must be coincident with the boundary of a road board or save sub-division of a road hoard. He pointed out that the motor lorry traffic was throwing more and more traffic on to the Rahotu Northern Riding each year. It would, moveover, tend to more even distribution of members. At present it was possible for Rahotu North to elect the whole live members.

To Councillor Dudley: Separate ridings would enable separate accounts to be kept. There would be a good deal of expenditure on bridges to be charged. Each year, too, the upkeep of the roads in the northern end was becoming greater.

Cr. Campbell suggested that the County should be divided into two ridings and that Opunake should be included in Rahotu South.

It was pointed out that there could not be less than three ridings. Opunake riding could not be altered without the consent of the ratepayers of the Town district. There was also a probability that Opunake Town District would at next census contain sufficient population so as automatically to be excluded from the County. The census before last it was within, five of the requisite number. On the motion of the chairman and Cr. Young it was resolved to pass a special order dividing the Rahotu Riding into two ridings as outlined. Cr. Wright suggested that the matter should be deferred for a month, but it wa« pointed out that there was not time if the alteration was to come Into force next elections, otherwise it would have to be deferred till 1919.

GENERAL. A special order was passed authorising the raising of a loan of f £lsoo for forming and metalling the Auroa road, being the boundary road between the Egmont and Eltham Counties. Notification was received from the State Advances Department agreeing to advance the amount. Messrs. G. Vickery (Opunake) and Momona Tarnihana (Rahotu) were granted renewals of their billiard room licenses. The Opunake Harbor Board wrote asking the County Council to protect the Board in the matter of royalty, should contractors obtain shingle off the reserte. It was decided to protect the Harbor Board by inserting a clause re royalty in the contracts. The Commissioner of Taxes asked particulars of persons holding debentures issued by the Council since March 31,1910, —Already furnished. Mr. Jas. K. Law (Wanganui) drew attention to a bad portion of the Wiremu road between the Kina and Ngariki roads. It was, he said, almost impassable to horse traffic, and horses were liable to break their legs thereon.—Referred to Cr. Young, with power to act. The Waipara County Council's resolution urging the need of increased production of food stuffs was endorsed.

The State Advances Department notified remittance to Council's account of £.IOOO on account of the bridge loan, Mr. C. A. Wilkinson, M.P., enclosed reply from the Acting-Prime Minister staling that Cabinet had already considered the question of providing cold storage in the four chief centres, but had decided that no action could be taken. The executive of the Counties' Association notified that it was not proposed to hold a conference this year, but that the meeting of the executive would be held in July.