BOROUGH AFFAIRS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 March 1922, Page 5

BOROUGH AFFAIRS.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL. A NEW DOMAIN. The New Plymouth Borough CounciT| met last night. Present: Th? Mayor (Mr. F. E. Wilson), Crs. J. Kibby, Griffiths, W. Rumball, T. Blackhall, Dingle, R. L. Parkin, J. Brown, and R. ’ A. Large. The Government having created a domain consisting of eleven acres situated on and bounded by the Doralto Road, Mr G. Lawrence, secretary to the domain board, wrote asking the council to make provision in the estimates for a small subsidy towards the upkeep of the property. He pointed out that the domain was within five minutes of th© ’bus service on the Vogeltown o'* Frankleigh Park side, within the borough, and it would become of great value to the residents of the inner area as a place of resort for picnics and sports. Consideration ©f the request was referred to the estimates committee. METEOROLOGICAL STATION. With reference- to the selection of a site for a meteorological station, the Dominion meteorologist wrote regretting that the council could not grant a; position which, in his opinion, would be suitable for the observatory, and that the council was unable in any way to assist in taking observations. He intimated that if at any future time the council were interested in the matter,, and would like to establish an observatory, the department might be prepared to meet them by making a loan of instruments, but in. the meantime he would have to make other arrangement? or drop the observations at New Plymouth altogether, which would be ■ rather unfortunate for such an important place. —Received.

THE LIBRARY. «• A report from the Carnegie Institute Committee dealing with the adminiatration of the library was adopted. It embodied the following statement from the librarian (Mr. J. H. Beattie): > Since -'the last meeting of the com- ; mittee 20 new members have joined the library and 15 subscriptions have lapsed, leaving a net increase of 5 subscribers. During the same period 30 new books were placed on the shelves, 27 of these accessions being novels, the remainder being works on economics. While new subscriptions are not rolling in with the rapidity they did a year ago, and generally speaking money is tight, it is pleasing to record that the cassh receipts to daAe are £9l more than were those for the corresponding period of last year. Work has been steadily progressing in the museum. Many new' exhibit* are on view and quite a large number of tickets have been written and placed in position. On the occasion of the school picnic from Eltham, a very wet cay, the museum was open all day and a large number of excursionists availed themselves of the opportunity of inspecting it. There has been a miticeable increase in the number of visitom recently. The attendance in the public reading rooms continues uniformly good. MISCELLANEOUS. The matter of increasing the sinking fund in connection with the electric department, which had. been defer rad at a meeting of the council eome months ago, again came up for consideration. .On the motion of the Mayor it was decided! that the fund be not increased at present. In reply to a letter from the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts, itj was decided to again nominate Cr. Dingle as representative on the Egmont National Park Board. Letters were received from the New Plymouth Steam Laundry and Mr. J. Kurta protesting against the council’s rule that they should be required to inhtal meters for the recording of water supplied to their premises. The council decided to adhere to its previous i esolution. A request was received from the Fitxroy Ratepayers’ Association that the shelter shed at Strandon should be finished by having the floor flagged and a light installed.—Referred to the CH'* gineer. Mr. E. Milne, Devon Street West, made a request for the construction of an approach to his section, No. 83, Lynmouth. The engineer recommended the work being done, the cost being probably £ls.—lt was decided to inspect the property. Mr. R. A. Large wrote offering to con- , tribute one-third towards the cost of drainage in Gaine Street, the estimated cost being £47 16s 6d.—Received. A complaint was received from Mrs. Anne M. Thompson as to neglect ehowu ' towards Belt Road south. Reporting on this the engineer said the road was an old county route. UWing to it* length, it was practically unformed, and the fact that no houses had been erected fronting it accounted for little or no work having been done. The road needed properly forming and grading for drainage purposes, but hitherto no funds had been available. — The council decided to inspect the locality. As executor in the estate of J. B. Connett, Mr. John Connett wrote r pointing out that the East End Reserve joined Mrs. Connett’s property at Baring Terrace, and the dividing fence wm in a worn-out condition. He estimated that the work of repairing the fence could be carried out for £lO, of which the council’s share would be half. Mr. Connett also pointed out that the drainnge of both this reserve and the adjoining portion of the estate's property was unsatisfactory, and the only method of improvement, in his opinion, was an epen drain through both properties from west to east. This would fall into the Henui river close to the sandbag dam. A further request was made by Mr. Connett for a street light to be installed on Baring Terrace.—The application will be entered on the waiting list, and the other matters were referred to a subcommittee to confer with Mr. Connett. Assistant Inspector King was given leave from March 21 tv 24 to enable him to attend before the Pensions Board at Wellington. The agenda paper before the meeting was rather a lengthy one and the council adjourned shortly before 11.30 p.m., the remianing business be’ ’••Id over till next Mon<*ky.