ELTHAM COUNTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 April 1922, Page 8

ELTHAM COUNTY.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL. THE MONTH’S WORK. -a The monthly meeting of the Eltham County Council was held on Saturday. Present: Crs. C. J. Belcher (chairman), R. J. Knuckey, A. McWilliam, A. Messana, M. W. Barker, W. E. Carter, C. E. McGuinness and E. J. Gifford. The engineer, Mr. M. E. Fitzgerald, reported for the month as follows: South Riding.—Good progress has been made with the work on Fraser Road and the new metalling is now linked up with the old metal. Work has been commenced on the Mountain Road loan work with a view of pushing on this work during the fine spells, so that other work which can be done during wet weather will help to keep the men employed throughout the winter. Work of a general nature has been attended to on Stuart, Mountain, Campbell and Rotokare roads.

Mangatoki Riding. —A short length of Stuart Road has been resurfaced and tarred. The tarring of Duthie Road, which was held up by the weather, has not yet been completed, but I hope to get this done within a week’s time. Palmer Road has been repaired and blinded. The old Mangatoki bridge was removed during the night of March 14, and the new bridge was opened at 7 a.m. the next morning. The night was fine until 4 a.m., when heavy rain set in, otherwise the work would would have been completed about an hour earlier. I would like to express the sincere thanks of myself and the men to the local residents, who cheered on the work with generous supplies of refreshments.

Omoana Riding.—The month’s work has been entirely devoted to repairing flood damage. Much has been done, but it is still all too little. The main road is approaching a state of completion and a horse track has been opened along the Mataiwhetu and part of the Whenuakura valley. Crossings at the washouts are, however, very bad. Members of the works committee visited Omoana this week.

Kaponga Riding.—The tarring and metalling of Auroa Road were completed, but owing to the roller being urgently required elsewhere the repairs to Mangawhero Road have had to be temporarily delayed. Palmer Road has been patched and blinded. The work on Awatuna bridge at Makaka has been finished. Watertabling “has been done on Manaia Road.

Eltham Riding,—Anderson Road has been blinded and repaired. Further shell rock was quarried for Rawhitiroa Road, but the work has now been stopped. Some six chains of the road on the ridge were refaced. The washouts at Mangamingi have been remetalled. Slips were attended to on Mangawhero, Tirimoana and Wingrove roads. An exceptionally heavy fall of rain fell at Mangamingi on March 25 and brought down several slips on the ridge, completely blocking the road for two days. The report was adopted.

PUBLIC WORKS SUBSIDIES. The Public Works Department, Stratford. advised that authority had been issued for £l5O ( £1 for £1) for the Whenuakura bridge. Referring to work on the Mataiwhetu, Rawhitiroa (Omoana hill) and Rawhitiroa Roads the letter stated that these works were already in hand. This procedure, the letter stated, was irregular and liable to lead to trouble and delay in obtaining payment of subsidies. The proper course was to submit proposals to the Public Works office for approval and to await the monetary authority before commencing any work. This ’ was more than ever necessary at the present time, as the Minister of Public Works was unable to authorise the whole of the items in the estimates and therefore required to be satisfied of the urgency of any particular work before authorising it.

The matter of submitting proposals was left in the hands of the chairman.

HOSPITAL LEVIES. The Hawera Hospital Board notified that the different districts’ contributions to the finance of the board for the year ending March 31, 1923, had been set down by resolutions as follows: County of Hawera £2317 7s lOd, borough of Hawera £473 17s. borough of Eltham £229 3< 7d. countv of Eltham £1617 15s 7d. Waimate West County £1135 4s 7d. Manaia Town Board £54 17s lid: total £5828 ss. GENERAL. A petition was received from Mata, signed by eleven settlers, asking that Ihe road from the factory to Mr. McQueen’s property be put in good repair. It was decided" that the matter would be dealt with when the estimates were brought down next month. The chairman pointed out that much thought must be given to expenditure in the coming year, in view of the financial position.* It would be necessary either to cut down expenditure or strike a higher rate. The chairman reported having met members of the Borough Council with regard to the heavy traffic by-laws. Ho said it would probably be necessary for the county to pay licences for their motor lorries to the borough. The matter of enforcing Ihe heavy traffic bylaws during the coming winter was left ,to the works committee. The engineer was complimented on th? despatch with which the Mangatoki bridsre had ben re-erected under adverse conditions.