INGLEWOOD COUNTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 October 1921, Page 6

INGLEWOOD COUNTY.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL. THE PAST MONTH’S WORK. The Inglewood County Council met yesterday. Present: Crs. A. Corkill (chairman), R. Stuart, J. M. Hair, J. Hunter. A. Cowley, G. Capper, H. Jones, J. B. Simpson, and W. Topping. ENGINEER'S REPORT. The engineer (Mr. G. S. Whiteside), submitted the following report:— Deviation Bedford Road.—The detour of this road through Messrs. R. Stuart’s and the Moa Dairy Company’s land has now been, legalised. The proclamation giving validity to the transaction and unaking it a proper public road is recorded in the Government Gazette cf September 8. The whole of this work tas been put through without legal or other costs to the council. As to the closing of the original small piece of road south of the Ngatqjo River, the authorities raise the objection that the county was gaining Dotting by it being closed, nor was the council under any obligation to stop it. Also that access to the river this way might be useful to obtain stone and shingle for further road purposes. I, therefore, did nothing more in the matter, pending further consideration by the council. Approaches Waiongona Bridge.—The approaches to the new bridge over the middle Waiofigona River, on the Bedford Road, has been metalled with broken stone provided by the land-holders interested. The arrangement was that in return the council would scarify the portion of the road between middle Waiongona and Waiongona-iti rivers, strengthen up with the remainder of the metal, and roll it down. Todd’s Deviation. —Metalling the new formation with river shingle is well in hand, and the work should be finished about the imlddle of the week. The swampy, moist nature of the peaty ground had made it necessary to use considerably more metal than if the earth had been of a dryer nature. The cost of carting the metal is 6s per cubic yard by the contract, dumped on the formation. Dudley Road East.—A large new concrete pipe culvert, 50 feet long, has been put in across the road Htear the saleyards, and the roadway widened out considerably. This improvement was desirable, owing to the narrow road, the increased traffic, and the driving of live stock on market days. Mountain Road.—The approaches to, and the top of the bridge over the middle Ngatoro River, has been tar surfaced, owing to the difficulty in preventing the nasty “pot holes” from wearing in to tte roadway. This pitting of the surface of the road is imore liable over bridge fillings than other parts of the road. I would therefore recommend that other arch bridges on the main road be treated in the same manner. Truck Work. —Three men have been employed at the Manganui pit, Tariki Road, quarrying gravel, and the lorry has been kept at work transporting metal from there to Ratapiko and dumping it alongside the road for maintenance purposes.. Other metal has been obtained from Lincoln Road pit for repairing various roads in the locality. Boulder Contracts. —J. Clement has completed delivering boulders from the Waiwakaiho River, Junction Road, estimated at about 500 cubic yards, and J. Rowan the same quantity at the depot near the Bacon Factory. In beth cases, and particularly the former, the stone at present is much larger than specified. Should the necessary spauiing be not done by the contractors, the council should charge the cost of so doing against any balance of money due on the contracts. Maintenance. —'Slips have been removed on the Toi Toi Road. In the East Riding surfacemen have been employed in general repair work between Purangi Zigzag and the bridge over the Waitara River at Tarata. This work consists in clearin'? watertables, freeing blocked culverts, filling holes, cutting back scrub, etc. The roads throughout the county are now in about as fair order, for the time of the year, as can be expected from the nature of the construction. Plant.—The- two engine-drivers took up duties on the 19th, and have been employed assembling and putting together the new stone crusher. In connection with this, a wooden feeding platform has been made. I am aiso having a new portable metal bin constructed, having a capacity of 4 cubic yards with a box screen attached. This will enable the lorry and teams to be kept more continuously employed. Crushed metal can be accumulated and the teams will not be kept waiting for the stone coining through. The engines of the road roller and tractor are undergoing overhaul, new packing being put in< where necessary, worn parts made good, broken parts replaced, with a general clean up. The Government inspector of machinery has made an inspection and reports everything satisfactory. The plant will be ready for use in about a week, and it is for the council now to instruct where it should start the new season’s operations. Pipe Manufacture.—As the weather was fairly good, the men were out doing mostly surface work on the roads, and but little was done in the concrete pipes works. The following is the tally of what were made: — Nineteen 12in., eighteen 18in., two 24in.,- two 30in., and one 36in. diameter. x THE FINANCES. The statement of expenditure showed that the total spent to October 4 was £4389 16s lid, and the balance available was £ll6O 3s Id. The amount already spent was distributed among the ridings as follows: Main roads, £13482 Ils 9d; North Riding, £320 Is lOd; South Riding, £ll2 l‘7s 9d; East Riding, £49 6s; West Riding, £424 19s 7d. Of the remaining balance the proportion allotted to the respective ridings is: North, £9O 3s Id; .nth, £563 16s 3d; East, £9B J3s 9d; West, £2lO Is 9d; main roads, £697 8s 3d.

The clerk (Air. S. Neilson) reported that he ha<l made up the costs of a number of jobs which had been completed. The Makara bridge and Rimutauteka Road work amounted to £1660, and the Government subsidy and loan totalled £1450, leaving a deficiency of £2lO. The council would ■ probably be able to obtain 10 per cent, additional cn the loan, bnt not till next financial year. The Ngatoro-iti bridge cost £951 15s 6d, of which the Government grant and loan would provide for £9OO. Cement which was used on other bridges had also to be set off against the cost to the extent of £7O, and this would leave the bridge in credit to the extent of £l'B 4s 6d.

The total for the Everett Road bridge (over the Kurapete stream), was £0599. The loan and Government subsidy, plus the 10 per cent, additional which had 1 been raised, provided £3230, leaving a deficiency of about £370. Six settlors had signed a joint and several guaranteeing any deficiency up to £lBO, but even if all this was collected there would still be an amount of £l9O to be made up out of the general fund. The clerk stated that all the guarantors had been written to asking them to pay up to the full extent of their liability, namely £3O each, but only one had so far forwarded his amount. It was decided to again communicate with the remaining guarantors. During discussion at a later stage of the meeting, when the council was considering the question of putting the road plant into operation, the clerk pointed out that already the council had spent £4389, out of the £6050 allocated for roads, and there were still six months of the year to go, so it was evident the council could not continue spending at the same rate. This led the chairman to remark that the council would have to try and get some money by way of loan to tide them over. Advice was received from the State Advances Board to the effect that tne application for a loan of £lOOO for the purpose of forming, re-grading and metalline Mana Road had been apBLoy**.. _■

Subsequently a special oruer wae- ; passed levying a rate of 1 7-10d r in ! connection with the loan. Application was recently made for an increase on the Richmond Road loan from £B2O to £lOOO, to enable metalling to be completed, but the State Advances Office reply informs the council that further applications cannot be .considered. HOUSES.FOR EMPLOYEES. A sub-committee consisting of Crs. Capper. Cowley and Simpson, which had been set up to consider the question of erection of houses, reported that in view of the fact that the housing loan would be current for thirty-six ana a half years they were not in favor of purchasing any ready-built houses or houses in wood, but recommended that all houses be built in concrete. They also recommended that three sites of quarter-acre each be looked for in Inglewood, one for the, clerk, engineer, and a surfaceman’s cottage, and a site, of not less than two acres at Kaimata, and that the clerk apply for the loan and obtain plans.

The chairman said that while he agreed with the principle of the report, ho could not approve of the suggestions made by the committee. He pointed out that 'by the time the council paid for land, interest and rates, the annual cost would be in the vicinity of £lOO. He did not believe they could charge a man more than 14s per week, and therefore the council would be making a present of £1 per week to the employee who rented the house. Cr. Cowley pointed out that in other places the scheme of erecting houses for employees was apparently being carried on successfully. Other councillors endeavored to hold out some hope that the cost of building would be lower within the next twelve months, and one suggested that possibly cement would be cheaper. Subsequently a resolution was carried i ecording the council’s approval of the principle of the report, but expressing the opinion that the time was not opportune to put the suggestions into practice. THE MAIN HIGHWAYS BILL. The Counties’ Association wrote forwarding a copy of the resolution passed by the conference in opposition to the Main Highways Bill.

Cr. Cowley (delegate to -the conference) said the opinion was held that the Government should concentrate on the local main traffic routes rather than aevote attention to constructing a highway which was practically parallel with the railway. Ct. Simpson said he thought the Bill was an honest attempt by the Minister to cope with the difficulty, and he favored the proposals being put before the public so that they would be fully aware of what was intended. He did not think it was a fair proposal that ratepayers should be asked to keep up the through roads. He also referred to a case in his riding in which one road had to bear a good deal of tourist traffic. The settlers paid for the road in the first place in order to give them good access, and now hundreds of outside people used the roads. As a subsidy the Government gave only £lOO. j Referring to the proposal which had 1 been made by the conference that a ' subsidy of 10s in the, ;C should be paid |on ail rates, the cha mfan expressed i doubt as to whether this would ever be ' achieved. The subsidy now was 5s in i the £ona £d rate. While many of the councils did not levy more than i;d. the Inglewood Council’s rate was 2-X-d, So that the proportion of subsidy they received in comparison with the others was small. He had no doubt that the idea of the Hon. Mr. Coates was to relieve local bodies of some of the heavy cost of maintaining main roads, and he favored letting the Minister start; even if the Bill did not exactly conform with their ideas, it could be amended. The counties in Taranaki who would not get any benefit were Egmont and Waimate VV'est, but there was no reason why another road through these counties to New Plymouth could not be included in the scheme later. The council decided to defer consideration until further details of the Bill were available, and affirmed the principle of a tyre tax in place of a vehicle tax. GENERAL. The Taranaki County Council wrote drawing attention to the danger to the Lepper-Carrington Road boundary bridge caused by scour in the river. The Inglewood County’s engineer was invited to confer with the Taranaki County overseer to discuss the matt'er of protective work to be undertaken jointly by the respective counties. —Agreed to. Cr. Cowley, who represented the council at the recent Counties’ Conference, in the absence of the chairman, presented a report on the proceedings, and v. as accorded a vote of thanks.

In reply to a communication from the council, the State Advances Office advised that it was not permissable to use portion of the housing loan for the erection of offices. A claim was made by Mrs. A. Nicholls for royalty at the rate of 6d per yard on all metal delivered to the council from the quarry on her property, and it was reported that jas the contractor’s price included royalty, the demand had been referred to him. The solicitor to the Clifton County Council (Mr. C. R. Stead) wrote forwarding a copy of a proposed resolution to be passed in order to enable certain portions of the Clifton County (in the Purangi district), to be merged into the Inglewood County. A petition had been received from the ratepayers affected requesting that their properties be transferred, and a resolution had been passed by the Clifton Council agreeing to this course. —It was decided to defer decision pending the receipt of a copy of the petition as signed by the ratepayers concerned. Four settlers from Norfolk Road waited on the council seeking payment for certain work done in connection -with a culvert on the road, which they said had been authorised by the engineer. The latter said he understood the work was to be done voluntarily, and also pointed out that a good deal of work which was not Necessary had been carried out. —The council did not admit any liability, .but offered to recompense the applicants to the extent of £lO. The ranger reported that during the month he had taken six heifers, one cow, and one horse off the roads. He had interviewed 'several persons who had left carcases of cattle unburied iu close proxiipity to the roadside, and informed them that if these were not attended to prosecutions would follow. The clerk reported that a complaint had been received about stock wandering in the Tarata district. The following tenders were accepted: Maketawa depot, Junction Road, 1000 jards boulders, W. Thomason, at 3s lid; Bacon Factory depot, Junction Road, 1000 yards boulders, W. Rowan, at 6s 3d. For the supply of 300 yards for ’ Tarata, consideration was deferred, and I it was decided not to accept any tender 1 for 1000 yards on the Mountain Road at ' Maketawa depot.