TARANAKI COUNTY COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 May 1921, Page 2

TARANAKI COUNTY COUNCIL.

MONTHLY MEETING.

TL’e Taranaki County Council met yesterday. Present: Crs. J. Connett (chairman), A. Morton, J. Andrews, O. Penwarden, J. Wooldridge, and S. Vickers. OVERSEER'S REPORT. The ovdrseer (Mr. G. Meredith) reported as follows on the work during April:— Plant and General.—During the month 332 yards of metal have been crushed at ti e Surrey HUI and Kirlhau Roads, and distributed as follows:—Surrey Hill Road, re-coating, 80 yards; Wairau Road, re-coating, 96 yards, dumped on the junction of Wairau and Main Roads for maintenance, 100 yards; Kirlhau Road, 52 yards. Ninety-six yards of broken metal have been carted out from the Sentry Hill pit In the Waitara Riding, the Devon Road receiving 4S yards at the foot of Big Jim's? Hill; Manutal - > Road 16 yards; Richmond Road 20 yards; and 12 yards have been dumped on the road leading to the Lepperton factory off the Manutahi Road. Three hundred yards have been carted from the Prisons Department and distributed as follows:—Omata Riding: Sealey Road 96 yards (84 of which jvas used to re-coat the hill recently cut down) ; Barrett Road, 112 yards, which tave been spread over about 15 chains on the lower end of this road; Ngamotu Road, 40 yards on the weak portion; Pheany Road, 28 yards; and Devon Road; Waitara Riding, 16 yards. On the Lower Pitone Road, in the Okato Riding, 150 yards of crushed metal broken last season have ben picked up and laid on the road from the end of the present metal seawards, covering ten chains. The large roller has been engaged in the Okato and Omata Ridings scarifying and rolling on the Main Road, Surrey Hill, Wairau, Barrett and Ngamotu Roads. The small roller has ben engaged in the Waitara Riding, scarifying -and rolling the Devon Road in Foreman Mallon’s length. Foreman Jury has been engaged hauling boulders and carting metal from the crusher on the Kirlhau Road. The wet weather this month has made it almost impossible to go on witt l this work. If there is no immediate Improvement I propose taking the rotary crusher to Stony River to carry out work there and leave the Hope crusher on the Kirihau, Road in readiness for next season. Mangorei Riding.—General maintenance work has been carried out in this Riding. Foremen Dryden, Moyles and Jordan are at present engaged building the crushing site &t ? the Mangorei depot on the Junction Road. Mr. Swan has completed the formation and culver’, work on the top end of the Korlto Road. A very satisfactory job has been done for the money granted. I have Instructed Foreman Dryden to do two or thre days' work on the Alfred Road between the Lepper - Carrington Road and Mr. Ashman’s property. Waitara Riding.—The foremen in this riding have been engaged with the usual miscellaneous repairs. Foreman Mallon’s time has been taken up practically the whole of the month scarifying and rolling the Devon Road. Mr. Hill, contractor, has made a start with the formation and grading on the Te Arei Road. The pipes to renew the culvert on the Henwocd Road, near Mr. Rogers’ residence, have been taken out, and will be put in as soon as possible.

Omata Riding.—Foreman Seamark has been, engaged metalling the Sealy Road Hill, scarifying and reinstating with metal where required, and rolling on the Ngamotu and Barrett and Main Roads. About 230 yards of boulders have been hauled from the Tapuae River on to the Hurford Road. Foreman Eva has been “laid up most of the month, having met with an accident.

Okato Riding.—Foremen Sefton and Rusling have been engaged with the crushing at Surrey Hili' and Kirihau Roads, and the usual maintenance work. Foreman Hayes has been engaged with the bitumen work on the Main Road, carting out shingle for this work, metalling 10 chains on the Lower Piione Road, and general repairs. A total of 2% miles has been treated to one coat of bitumen in this Riding between the Okato township and the toll gate. Mr. Henricksen ’is making good progress with this work. The contractors have made a start with the grading and formation work. I have arranged with Mr. Humphrey to clean 80 chains of drain on the Puniho Road, 40 chains at 5s per chain, 40 chains at 2s 6d per chain, and 17 chains on the Carrington Road at 5s per .chain.

The chainman intimated that they were faced with a hold-up of the work on the Te Arei and Kirihau roads, as the Public Works Departipent had advised that the grants promised would not be available at the present time. In the case of the Te Arei Road the contractors were proceeding with the earth work, but probably they would not be able to go on with the metalling. The Department hud been written to.asking that the position be reconsidered. *

CUTTING DOWN EXPENDITURE.

A supplementary report presented by the overseer stated: “As you are aware, the financial position of your Council to date is far from satisfactory. Heavy expenditure has been incurred during the latter part of the year, such as overhaul of lorries and crushers, and the whole of the plant at present shbuld be in very fair order, and should not indur any great expenditure for some- time to come. Labor during the year has been one of the greatest drawbacks; to carry out the work it has been necessary to pay extraordinary wages for very poor results. This has caused the expenditure on most works to far exceed previous estimates. . “To Improve the position and enable you to keep the permanent staff employed during the next eight montfca makes It necessary for me to dispose of all casual labor possible, close down one roller and one crusher, and concentrate all the permanent staff possible on to tlie one crushing plant. The teams will also have to close down during the winter, as it is a. very expensive proposition hauling boulders in winter, all the depots where stone could be hauled In the winter._jnonths being blocked up with stone before I took office.” The chairman said te was in favor of a partial reduction as mentioned, but would not close down dn all works, as the Council would find that next season they would be met with a big rush of requests for various jobs. In reply to a councillor, the chaiwnan said he would prefer to postpone discussion of the financial position till the next meeting, which would be held on the 25th Inst.

POWER BOARD SCHEME.

A letter was received from the Taranaki Progress League inviting the council to send a delegate to join the deputation which is to wait on the Eltham Hydro-Electric Committee to-unerrow in connection with the proposal to form one power board for the whole of Taranaki.

It was decided to invite a representative of the New Plymouth Borough Council to wait on the meeting and outline the borough’s viewpoint; and the Mayor (Mr. F. ,E. Wilson) later gave. members some information on the New Plymouth standpoint. He said that in the Government schemp Taranaki was cut up into four power districts. The chief engineer (Mr. L. Birks) in response to an invitation, paid a visit to the province, and while in South Taranaki he found' a movement in favor of one power board, which he supported. There was an organisation in Elthain set up with the Idea of forming a power board for the Eltham and Stratford Counties, and this was a better plan than the one board proposal. The board was too big, and it would be far better to reticulate thp smaller districts, as Eltham proposed to do. It would be twenty years before the Government power became available ih . Taranaki, as an expenditure of 22 millions was involved. Last year they spent £450,000, and ; this year the vote was about a million, so at that rate of expenditure it would be a long time before the Government assistance came to hand. The New Plymouth Council had made a contract to supply power to Inglewood, and had tiiso made representations tp Eltham, where the Idea of buying power frOun. New Plymouth was favored, and the. movement on foot was to set up a power board for Eltham and Stratford districts to buy the New Plymouth power. He pointed out that if one power board was formed they could not operate in districts where there were already licenses, and this- would exclude New Plymouth and the area as far down as Inglewood. I No action was taken by the council? .

GENERAL.

Advice was received from the State Advances Office, notifying that the following road lOatts had been approved:—Ahu Ahu £lOOO3 Saunders £5OO, Hempton £l5O, i’lymouthKoru £soo', Tate £4OO, Cross £5OO. J. J. Bates, Bell Block, wrote, calling attention to the state of the Lower King Road, which, he stated, was badb r cut up as the result of the carting of firewood. The overseer was authorised to Inspect the road and do any necessary repairs. Application was made by C. Mumby, Inglewood, asking for assistance in making a better entrance to his farm off the Maud Road. This was referred t< the chairman and Cr. Morton.'' >1 Application Is to be made to the Minister of Finance for permission to transfer money outstanding at credit on loan accounts to the general account.