ELTHAM COUNTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1922, Page 7

ELTHAM COUNTY.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL. THE MONTH’S WORK. The monthly meeting of the Eltham County Council was held on Saturday. Present: Crs. C. J. Belcher (chairman), A. Messena, A. McWilliam, R. J. Knuekey, A. Campbell, M. W. Barker, W. E. Carter, C. E. McGuinness and E. J. Gifford. ENGINEER'S REPORT. The engineer, Mr. M. E. Fitgerald, reported as follows: The crushing plant has been working at high pressure during the month producing metal for Fraser Road and chips and sand for tarring, whilst the tar plant has been very busy. The lorry mileage for the month was a record, being over 3800 miles for the three lorries. A new pinion and shaft was fitted to No. 3 motion of the steam roller and minor repairs were done to other plant. Mr. Young, school-master at Matemateaonga applies for the use of he Matemateaonga Whare as a residence. It has 'been provisionally agreed that he shal] take it at 2/6 per week as it: stands.

South Riding.—Metalling of Fraser Road was continued. Water-tabling was also done on Fraser Road. Metal patching was done on Rotokare, Campbell and Mountain roads. Mangawhero' Road was tar patched. Mr. Corbett has complied with the notice to clean a ditch near the Stuart Road, and the county length has been attended to. Mangatoki Riding.—lt is proposed (weather permitting) to take out the old bridge at Mangatoki during the night of Tuesday, the 4th inst. In this event the bridge will be closed to traffic from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on the 15th. inst. The tarring of lower Duthie Road is practically completed. Tar patching was done on upper Duthie and lower Hastings roads.

Omoana Riding.—The combined expenditure by the P.W.D. and county has absorbed the £1675 of free grant. The present position is that a road suitable for all traffic exists to Omoana, but more work is required through the Mangatoromiro valley to render the new work secure for the winter. The road from Omoana toMoeroa is in good order except for a bad length near the Whenuakura bridge and a few small slips near Moeroa. I propose sending the permanent men to this bad length as soon as they have opened a horse track through the Mataiwhetu, where they are now working. With this exception all roads are open for horse traffic. No heavy traffie should be permitted in the riding during the winter. i Kaponga Riding.' —The tarring of upper Auroa is completed. Metalling of the top end of Auroa is about half done and two small concrete bridges on this length have been repaired. The Awatuna bridge at Maka ka will shortly be finished; the concrete abutments are complete and there only remains the finishing of one approach and the cutting down and refitting of the old decking. The redecking of Mangawhero bridge, Eltham Road, is complete except for refitting the wheel guards and improvement of approaches. Tar patching was done on Eltham Road and blinding on Rowan and Palmer roads. Traffic restrictions should be placed on some of the roads in this riding during the winter. Eltham Riding.—Further work was done on the roads damaged by the floods. Shell rock is being hauled out on to the roads and some 15 chains of road were resurfaced during the month. Rawhitiroa and Mangawhero roads have been tar patched. Anderson Road was water-tahied and blinded. The question of regulating traffic during the winter should be considered, particularly on the roads weakened by the floods ’ The report was adopted. THE FINANCIAL POSITION.

A discussion took place on the Local Bodies’ Finance Act. The chairman said it was a very good thing coming at a bad time. The restriction of bank overdraft was a good thing, but it was going to have a very serious effect on the council for the first year. The clerk reported that the council’s overdra' at March 31 would be £lO,250.

The chairman said would be necessary to restrict expenditure to £lOOO per month. The estimated revenue up to November 30 would be about £7OOO. The limitation of bank overdraft took effect as from April. The payment for the present month was approximately £4OOO, which was particularly large, but this cleaned up all accounts. The financial position would make much work in the country after April impossible until nearly next Christmas He would like to put on as many men as possible to get work done before the winter, but that did not appear to be possible. It would appear, he said, that it would soon be necessary to dismiss a number of hands. Endeavors had been made to collect outstanding rates, but in many cases it meant bankruptcy to push ratepayers. It was decided to leave the financial position to the finance committee to make a thorough investigation, w’ith special reference to the collection of outstanding rates. GENERAL. Several settlers on the Neill Road wrote drawing the council’s attention to the unsafe condition of the road and asking that something be done to improve it. —The matter was referred to the engineer to attend to. The Mangatoki Dairy Company wrote soliciting support to a resolution urging the valuation of land in proportion to the prices being received by farmers for their produce.—The chairman said the increased valuation was a result of land prices 'being forced up to a high figure. Those who had pushed the value, up were now complainingSeveral councillors pointed out that the land had since come down in price but the valuer was justified at the time in raising the values. It was decided to support the resolution and refer it to the Local Bodies’ Association.

The Napier Borough Council’s resolution “that the Government be asked to introduce legislation providing that credit balances .of local authorities on loan accounts shall be set off by the banks against debit balances on other accounts as regards payment of interest on the latter accounts,” was supported. A circular was received from the State Forestry Department pointing out the advantages of planting trees on waste land and oflMring co-operation with the council in any forestry work undertaken. —Councillors pointed out that a lead by the council might be of value to individual settlers. It was decided to go into the matter at a later date. The county ranger reported that a number of settlers had ignored notices to trim hedges, etc. He also asked that anyone owning or harboring unregistered dogs be prosecuted without further notice. The ranger was instucted to prosecute dog tax defaulter? after March 31.