INGLEWOOD COUNTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 June 1922, Page 7

INGLEWOOD COUNTY.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL PAST MONTH’S WORK. The Inglewood County Council met at Inglewood yesterday. Present: Crs. A. Corkill (chairman), A. E. Cowling, H. Jones, A. E. Laurence, J. Grieve, , G. Capper, J. Hunter, and R. Stewart. The statement of expenditure showed that £l2BB 18s Id had been expended on the main road, leaving £l7ll Is lid available. In the North riding £1207 Fob had been expended, leaving £505 14s 5d available; South riding, £l5l 13s 3d expended, and £777 Ils Gd available; East riding, £37 8s 5d expended, and £213 18s available; West riding, £371 Ils 8d expended, and £706 10s 7d available. The consulting engineer’s report on various matters was adopted. It was decided to call tenders for Mana Road metalling, Kohete Road earthwork, and Makara Road bridge. The chairman (Mr. A. Corkill) reported on the general maintenance work of the county:— Ea&| 7 Riding.,—'Water-tabling and maintenance work has been attended to. The two' small slips on the Purangi Saddle have been attended- to, and the zig-zag is ; row. in fair repair. There is ' very little metal for repair work, tjnd I cannot recommend, the council to get out any metal until the weather takes up. . North Riding.—Water-tabling and patching, etc., has been done on the Lincoln,. Wortly, York, Rimutaka, Mangaone and Bristol East and West. Mr. Kirk is making satisfactory progress with his boulder contract, and about 300 cubic yards have been hauled to date. South Riding.—General maintenance work has been attended to, and good work has been done, both by the surfacemen and Mr. Grigg, and all the roads are in fair repair, particularly the Ngaru Road. Kaimata South metalnfrig' has been approved by the district engineer. The total length done is 41 chains at a cost of £611,. oi* £lll over the estimate. i West Riding.—The surfacemen have ; been most of the- time with the plant I and repairing on the Hursthouse Road, j On the Durham. Road 392 cubic yards : have been crushed, and 130 chains reI coated, scarified and rolled; 50 cubic I. yards of this was given free by Mr. J. ■ Dombroski. This completes J. Dorn- ; broski’s contract; total 342 cubic yards. On the Dudley Road. Hall and Perrot i have delivered 322 cubic yards of b.ouli ders. This has been crushed and placj ed on the road, and completes their i contract. As the above amount was ! riot sufficient to put the top end of this .road in repair, I have arranged with i Mr. R. Zimmermann to get out 100 ; cubic yards of boulders at the same I price, viz., 2s 1 Id per yard. The top ■ end of this road is in a very bad state, ! being cut up by the lorries carting , firewood. On the Hursthouse Road, Mr. Bishell has napped 130 cubic yards in ; the Lepper Road pit. This metal has ; been used for patching the Hursthouse ; Road, and at least another 100 yards will be required to put this road in : order, as it was allowed to get into a ; very bad state of disrepair. Main Roads and General.—The con- ■ tinned wet weather has again retarded j the progress of the various works in ■the county. Fifty-one chains of the Junction Road has received one coat ! c.f -bitumen, and 64 chains of the Mountain Road South is now ready. The bitumen and tank are ’at Maketawa, and this length will be dressed as soon ;as the weather is favorable. Mr. New- ! ton, Government inspector of quarries, i visited this district and put in a day ! inspecting our quarries. He has coni demned the Lepper Road one as unsafe | under the present method of working, i and quarrying must not be carried on I In this pit until it is made safe to work in. The district engineer also in- ; spected the various works in hand which are carrying a Government grant. After the plant finished on Durham Roaxl there was not sufficient boulders ready on the Dudley Road to make a start, so the plant crushed 165 cubic yards of boulders for Mr. Thomason and then went to Dudley Road. Mr. Thomason'has promised to give 30 yards ; of boulders free, to be placed on the road between the Maketawa and the Norfolk Road stations. As soon as the Dudley Road crushing is finished a start will be made with the grader. The roller will complete the Mountain Road work in a few days if the weather keeps fine. The plant will then go to the Junction Road East to scarify and i strengthen the worst places. Unless the council is prepared to dress with bitumen it will be a waste of money to do permanent wtfrk. In any case we cannot afford to do very much, out of out: ordinary revenue, and immediate steps, should be taken to raise a Joan to enable us to hold any portions of road which we may be able to do permanent. Heavy loads of firewood are being carted, and..as the side roads are not built to carry this class of traffic they are doing considerable damage, and must be stopped. During the month 17 12-inch, 18 18inch, 4 24-inch, 2 30-inch. and 3 36-inch pipes had been manufactured, and 26 9-inch, 8 12-inch. 60 18-inch, and 5 30inch pipes had been sent to various jobs. ANTECEDENT LIABILITY. Mr. A. T. Kenrick, manager of the Inglewood branch of the Bank of New Zealand, advised that the head office approved of an overdraft limit up to £lO,OOO, such limit to include the antecedent liability. He pointed out that the recent legislation was passed to assist local, bodies by. giving them the right to borrow from outside sources, and borrow less freely from their banks. If the council raised a loan to clear its antecedent liability, it could include the sum of £2500 in connection with the Clifton and Taranaki County Councils’ adjustment, and then, arrange with the bank for a reasonable overdraft on the general account. The bank might bo able to assist with the loan, and suggested two schemes: (a) Debentures carrying 7 per cent. and maturing one seventh each year from, March 23, so as. to clear the liability' of! in seven years; (b) debentures with a currency of 10 years at 6i per cent., or if preferred a longer term could be arranged. The clerk stated that the antecedent liability was £5702, to which had to be added special rates due to Taranaki and Stratford Counties totalling £lBOO. Against this must be placed the rates due, which would reduce the antecedent liability to about £4OOO. He considered that the best course would be. for the council to raise thel antecedent liability loan on the seven Years’ basis, paying one seventh o’ff each year, and take the £2500 on the 10 year basis. The chairman considered that, thf position would be all right if the banli would 1b- matter as a loan outside rir r limit. On his mo jtion. Or. Cowley, it rjasaivad to arrange the matter witfe

the bank on the seven years’ basis, provided it was not considered against their overdraft limit. The Minister of Internal Affairs notified that the question of Government assistance to local authorities to enable them to pay off their antecedent liability had received very careful consideration. As far as the recent loan was concerned, the money had been raised for specific purposes, and could not, therefore, be used for assisting local bodies, nor was it considered possible to carry out the suggestion that the indebtedness of local bodies should ba covered by a State-raised loan. He pointed out that it was not essential that a local body should borrow money to pay off its antecedent liability. It could be discharged direct from general revenue or by means of a special (separate) rate. GENERAL. The Commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr. H. J. Lowe) notified that the council’s proposals for expenditure of thirds -were approved by the Land Board, subject to confirmation of the Crown lands ranger. F v J. Butler, P. J. Ryan, E. Gibbs and J. W. Harding forwarded a petition asking the council to take steps to raise a loan to form and metal about 80 chains of the Norfolk Road West, the council to apply for £ for £ subsidy.—Steps will be taken to raise a loan of £250, which, with tile £ tor £ subsidy, it was estimated will cover the cost of the work. The consulting engineer forwarded estimates for work on the Kaipi, Hursthouse, and Norfolk Roads. Mr. J. Goller submitted estimates of cost of storage shed.—Tenders are to be called for the work. C. Coldwell wrote objecting to his property being placed in the King Road loan, as he never used that road, and his rates were now £l6 more per annum than under the Taranaki County Council. • The State Advances Department forwarded £5OO, being amount of Nga-toro-iti bridge loan, and the Public Works Department remitted £2OO on account of Kaimata South ( £ for £) and £276’ 7s Gd Toi Toi Road ( £ for £). The improvement of a bad corner at Mackie’s hill, Puniho, was left in the hands 6f Cr. "Grieve, with power to act.