ELTHAM COUNTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1922, Page 8

ELTHAM COUNTY.

MONTHLY MEETING OF COUNCIL. The monthly meeting of the Eltham County Council was held on Saturday. Present: Councillors C. J. Belcher (chairman), E. J. Gifford, A. Massana, R. J. Knuckey, A. McWilliam, A. Campbell, W. E. Carter, and C. E. McGuiness. Leave of absence was granted to Councillor M. W. Barker. The engineer (Mr. M. E. Fitz Gerald) reported for the month as follows: Arrangements are being made to spray demonstration lengths of bitumen next week, on Mountain Road East and at the junction of Hunter and Eltham Roads. Adjoining lengths will be treated with restar. A special machine for spraying bitumen is being lent by the maker for the work. The shortage of stone in the Waingongoro River is again becoming serious, and will lead to difficulties in the near future -unless floods come to move things. South Riding.—Further metalling was done on Mountain Road, but this work is now held up by the muddy condition of the unmetalled length over which the lorries have to pass to the work. The metalling of Neill Road is well .in hand. General maintenance work was done in Dalziel, Campbell, Boylan, Rogers and Rotokare Roads. Mangatoki Riding.—Culverts and watertables have received attention throughout this riding, and side-tracking was done in Hastings, Hunter and Eltham RuaOa. A large number of private drains wfiidi water from road culverts require clearing. Omona Riding.—During the past month some general maintenance work was done on Rawhitiroa Road, and flood damage work was done on Rawhitiroa, Mataiwhetu and Karewa Roads. Councillor McWilliam and I interviewed the district engin ® P.W.D., on. May 24, and discussed the*Omona position. The Department has agreed to treating the last grant as “free” and contracts are already being let by the Department for the re-opening of the Mataiwhetu and Whenuakura Valley Roads. Kaponga Ridiag.-—The metalling of Upper Auroa Road was completed, but owing to the swampy nature of the subsoil a good surface could not be obtained. It may be possible to improve the surface during the next dry season. Soane firewood traffic has been over the new work, and every effort should be made, not only by the council but by those living on this road, to keep all heavy traffic away during the winter. The top length of Mangawhero Road has been re-surfaced and the bad length immediately abcve Eltham Road will be patched until such time as the council can undertake re-surfacing. Here again no heavy traffic should be permitted during the winter. A small amount of work was done on pop Eltham Riding.—Furfh*- fir '.age repairs were dose at the, .. Rawhitiroa Road. General maintenance work was done on Rawhitroa, Hu, Rotokare and Manga where Roads. The report was adopted. ELECTRIC POWER BOARD. The secretary of the. Taranaki Electric Power Board District CcrnmiM®® wrote asking the council to contribute its proporti (£7O) towards the constitution of the power committee. The total cost was set down as £2lO, and the other local bodies in the district were being asked to contribute. The chairman said this was the final washing-up of what would next month be the Taranaki Elngtric Power Board. The concern had been run vvy economically, as it cost ordy £250 fer four or five years’ negotiations. It was decided to pay the contribution conditionally upon the other local bodies concerned doing the same.

GENERAL. The Bank of New Zealand advised as follows regarding the antecedent liability: Our latest advices from Australia lead us to believe that we can place loans there of £lO,OOO or more at 6 per cent., and perhaps in some cases, where the borrowing local body is in a very strong position, at 5| per cent. On such loans the borrowers would have to pay exchange on the transmission of funds from Australia to New Zealand, at present i per cent. These charges would be in addition to commission of 1 per cent. —Held over till next meeting, pending the conference of local bodies regarding matters of interest to counties. The Taranaki Local Bodies’ Association asked for a return in view of the proposed Main Roads Bill, showing the amount of loans raised by the council for constructing tar-sealed roads, and the amount of expenditure out of revenue for the same purpose.—Received. The Hawera County Council submitted a statement of accounts, amounting to £696 10s, due by the Eltham Council for a halfshare of the cost of repairs and maintenance to boundary roads from May, 1919, up to March 31.—The chairman said this was a “nasty knock,” and the statement should have been put in before March 31. —Referred to Finance Committee. The engineer submitted proposals for experimenting with the laying down lengths of road with bitumen. He said supplies would be arriving at New Plymouth every four months at a cost of 1/per gallon. The opinion was expressed that the life of bitumen roads was prac- : tically three times that of the ordinary tar- '■ sealed roads. The chairman said that if ! the coming experiments were as successi ful as they were expected to be, they would j need no more ordinary tar. The Waimea County Council sought support to a resolution that the tyre tax should be equitably allocated between ail counties and road boards (where the Counties Act is not in force) and made available during the current year for maintenance, repair and control of all the main roads used for motor traffic.—Referred to the Counties’ Conference.

The New Zealand Counties’ Association asked for suggestions as ot the Local Bodies Finance Bill.—The chairman, Councillors McGuinness, Campbell and Messana were appointed a committee to go into the matter and report to next meeting.

The Timaru Borough Council asked support to a resolution asking the Government to abolish the undemocratic system of constituting electric power boards on the petition of one-fourth of the ratepayers, and that the formation of electric power boards shall be decided by a poll of the ratepayers in each proposed constituent district.—Received.

The State Forest Service asked for statistics concerning the building trade, to aid investigations now being made by Government departments.—Received. A grant of £3O was made to the Mataimaraki Road to repair damage, the work to be done to the satisfaction of the engineer.