EGMONT COUNTY COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1918, Page 3

EGMONT COUNTY COUNCIL.

MONTHLY MEETING. The ordinary meeting of tlie Egmont County Council was held at Opunakc 011 Tuesday, when there were present: Crs. \V. K. Wright (chairman), R. W. J. McNeill, a. W. Holder, M. O'Rrien, A. 11. liowe, W, C. Green, T. H. H. Sinclair, T. Harvey and S. M. Cornish. ENGINEER'S REPORT. The engineer (Mr. A. C. Pease) reported as follows: Oen Hiding (Northern). —The men in this riding completed the work of scarifying, reforming and rolling in again the Watlno itoad. In off the sides of this road the grader was damaged, one of the front axles being bent and the wheel spokes nil being brokon. Tills 1 am having repaired locally, with the addition of a special casting from the makers. A length of fifteen chains of the ICirl Road and a length of thirty chains on the Oinm&ko-Stratford ltosid havo been scarllled, reformed, large atones napped and rolled in again. The rest of the month was occupied, in carting out blinding, cleaning water tables, and patching on tho Kiri, Opuiiuko-Stratford, Oeo, Palikl and Elthara Roads. The contractor for contract 31U lias just about completed the dumping of the stone required at tho northern ead of Patiki Road. The unnecessary notices at the Punehu bridge on the Eltham Road have been removed, leaving only those which comply with the council's opinion, and instructions given that no raoro repairs must be done to the bridge by: the council's men. Oeo Riding (Southern).—ln the early part of the month the casual men in this riding were assisting in the northern riding to keep the men together for contract work, afterwards commencing on contract No. 324 on the Watino Road. This contract was extended from 21)0 yards to 2150 yjftds to use up the £290 voted specially by the council in December last. The new stone covered 32 chains after the Toad had been scarified, and about thirty yards of large stone was taken off tho road after scarl- . fying, and before remetalllng, and crushed for maintenance motal. Tho plant is now being moved to the Puketapu ltoad at Pihama to restart work on Messrs. Madgv/k'k and Kehely's original contract, where the machinery broke down some time ago. Opua Hiding.—A further length of about 20 chains of the Main South Road south of Opunakc, and where no new metal is to bs used, lias been scarified, reformed, blinded and rolled in. From 40 to HO chains of the Eltham Road near to Mr. Mcß'eynold's roperty and near the Taungatara bridge, has also been scarified, etc , and reroiled. Several lengths of water-tabling on tho Ma.'n Kouth and Eltham Roads have been cleaned out, and the council's men are now engaged on the work of improving the junction of the Eltham and South Roads by cutting away and lowering the embankments to such new lines an v.lll allow us to rometal the road at the junction with a bigger sweeli and not hug the corner as previously. When this is done, it is pomade that it will not be necessary to take additional land for :iuprn\emcnts thei'e. The portion oi" tho Oaonui reservo in this l'ding has been cleared of blackharry. op»n;ik3 Riding.'—Work was commenced on tho :;1s: or riie month on tho Improvements to the Waiaua hi!!, tho crown of which is oelng lowered about sir. feet, and the line of road taken <;n a gvcaler sweep to further lessen tho i :;r;:do aud Increase tho view. I would suggest! taut this new Una be carried through to the j .council's engine shpd. which will lessen the bend close to the sale yards, and give more rori;n at the sale yards entrance for yarding slocU and the ifreat number of cars and buggies standing there ou sale days. The money is available i'or the work. Water tables h:>ve been cleared south of the Opunakc Town Hoard's length to the IVaiaua hill. Rahotu Riding—Blackberry, etc, ar.s been cut on that part of the Oaonui Reserve which is in tln.j ridmir. the whole of the footpaths, water r:i!;l:-s, ditches, etc., in tho Rahotu township havo been denned up. and the old wooden curbing Anaired with bridge docking from the u!d Toiicaparua bridge. Several «• day.; \vere spent e-icavntlng. blasting and spawllng large rocks (ii the site of the proposed deviation of th» Sou*.h i'.oad Immediately nonh of the Wai-to!aroa-bridge, and some water tabling south of 'his bridge has been cleaned <.ut. Posts and rails have been cut from the best of tho bridge decking fr.mi the old Teikaparua bridge, and u-i!:?e(i.'in repairing fences to lin approaches t<> culverts south of Rahotu faccoty and south oi u;»aiiu nve: ; . Tho fences to t.lie approaches north and south oi the ne.v Teikapiirua bridge b.a.o been completed. Repairs havo been done ii) rhe Oa-j'.ti. Okahu and .Uautinl bridges, using lu-oui t'jet of decking Timber has been carted frxn the Tun&arehu factory to the slid of tiie new Waitotoroa' bridge for concrete work bridges —The work in connection wiUi tlie nev; rsinforced Concrete bridge over the Waitotoroa raver is progressing fa. crably. The abutments ara in up to the springing, and tlie ce:i:r:-liig for the arch vi\v r : is being put into position. I found it ddDcuh to obtain a secondhand whare on wheels large enough for three men, and cs the '/rice of a new one Is prohibitive, r.nd the men themselves prefer to be under canvas In reasonable weather, 1 ordered a 10 x S * and an SxC tent for immediate use, but with care they will last two years, and i later on it w'll be cheaper to buy materials I and build a whare ourselves. About thirty men . replied to an ad/ertlsemeat for work on concrete bridge.-;, one of whtfn I engaged at once, and ain waiting further particulars about other ■ two General.—The n<v.v water cart, vake for present water cart, and email tar boiler have been delivered, and after considerable tests by the makers of different pumps for the ne.v portable pumping plain, and an undertaking by the m:tko:-3 to givo satisfaction, the plimt hns been ordered, mid should arrive within tlie next v.eei: or s:- I have made emutirie.j about a : ivrKTLte miser, and h S3e:ar> almast impossible to purchase a new one, as they are not on tiie market. Kurllier eiuiuiry is being made about! a sccwid-hund one After a cou.Vi'once between j swic of tlie members of the council and mem- : bers of the Parihalta Road JJoard. 't was de- 1 cided to send the Garrett steam roller Into the Pariuaka ltoad Board's district to crush various small amounts of stone for them with their crusher. so that later tlie ■•ouncU can have the use of tlie crusher for some of Us contracts, as it whs found that it wlil be into the winter monuis I'elore our own plant can work its way to tlie Oi:un\il;e Riding. ' Tlie widening of tlie road in Opunake was agreed to. Flans are to be prepared for the bridges mentioned. MOTOR BY-LAWS, The Eltham County Council wrote, suggesting a conference of all Taranaki county councils and road boards, relative to a revision of by-laws. The clerk statpd that lie liad replied the Kgmont County Council's bylaws were very rnugh out of date, and approving of the proposed conference. Cr. Cornish moved to introduce bylaws regulating the speed of motor ears through Opunakc and Rahotu. Hq strongly. favored a conference of local bodies to arrange uniform by-laws, but meanwhile suggested that notices should be put up at Rahotu and Opnnake, limiting the speed of motorists to 20 miles. Cr. Holder favored a lower speed, and Cr. Cornish amended his resolution tc 15 miles per hour. , Cr. Rowe seconded this, and it was carried. RIDING SUB-DIVISIONS. Cr. Holder moved that the sub-divi-sion of the Oeo Riding be done away with, and that the whole riding be worked as one, main roads revenue being equally divided on a mileage basis. lie stated that councillors must realise that the roads in the Oeo North Riding were the worst in the county. The crux of the position Was the shortage of revenue. Oeo North had IS miles of main road to keep up on rates of £560 per annum, whereas Oeo South had 24 miles of main road on £1385 per annum. He thought tlie position was due to the unfair subdivision, all the high valued land being placed in the southern division. The fairer division would have been a line from the mountain to the sea. The northern division had been neglected, as was evident from the fact that a bridge over tlie Punchu River on the Opun?.kc-,Stratiord Road had been ovniUcd from the bridge loan schedule. The council should strongly urge the opening up of this road, because it would isave considerable road maintenance, as might be gathered from the fact that tiie distance from Tc Kiri to Stratford by thai road was e;jual to that from Tc Kiri to Eltham, so that travellers to Stratford would save seven miles when the road was opened. Cr. S. M- Cornish seconded pro forma. Cr. Rowe moved that the division be altered to provide that 'the boundaries be from the Oeo Road along the Skeet