WHANGAMOMONA.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 October 1921, Page 7

WHANGAMOMONA.

WANTS OF THE DISTRICT.DEPUTATION TO MINISTERS. Mr. Cleland, chairman, and Mr. Stockwell, a member of the Whangamomona County Council, with Mr. Masters, M.P., interviewed the Minister of Public Works regarding county requirements. The deputation asked for a, pound for pound subsidy for metalling a portion of the Kohuratahi Jioad, jjp to £6OO, on a loan to be raised by the settlers. The Minister promised to obtain a report. The deputation states that it had been informed unofficially that it was intended to charge £l4OO as the council’s proportion for concreting the Brewer Road tunnel, and asked that this should be reduced to £lOOO, to which the Minister agreed. The deputation asked that a grant should be made for reinstating in its former condition the road damaged by the carriage of metal. The Minister said he would obtain a report from the district engineer. Another matter was the bridges over the Whangamomona Road. The deputation said they were made ten or twelve years ago from soft timber which chanced to be handy, and consequently the bridges had now decayed, and tne council felt it should not be . called upon to bear tho capital expendi- ; ture since inferior material had been I put in by the department in the first 1 instance. - The Minister said the application for ; the astfvrance that the council would j not be asked to bear the whole of the ■ cost of reinstatement reasonable. I Had the department yr r permanent material it would hav - the duty of the council to maint#.'.? and replace Gi.e bridges, but, in view of tne special circumstances, and as immediate expenditure was not asked for, he intimated that lie considered it the duty of the !Government to undertake such work.

The deputation also a--.-'<l for the expediting of the opening . the stone deposit at Te Wera, as tie district was held up for want of metal.

The Minister said it was the intention of the department to open this deposit as it was essential to have large amounts of metal for railway ballast. He appreciated the urgent need for metal by the Whangamomona County, and hoped the local bodies of Taranaki would take metal from the deposit, as the greater the quantity produced, the ■ lower would be the cost. The Minister said he would obtain reports from other smaller works, including the Tutikituro Road.

The deputation also placed before Mr. Coates, as Postmaster-General, a request for 30 new telephones for Kohuratahi, and for a telephone in the station. The settlers were willing to find the material. Mr. Coates was sympathetic, but said that if earlier applications were in they would have to take precedence. He would have the application put in at once.