HAWERA COUNTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 August 1922, Page 7

HAWERA COUNTY.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL. THE MONTH'S WORK. The monthly meeting of the Hawera County Council was held on Saturday. Present: Crs. J. B. Murdoch (chairman), B. C. Lysaght, A. Larcom, R. Douglas. E. A. Washer, C. J. Hawken and J. Dunlop. The foreman reported for the month as folVrlnces Street Extension.—This street has been searifled, refaced with five inches of metal, rolled and blinded, and is now in good condition. The metalling of this rpad Is now finished. Matangara Road.—The worst portion of the hill on tills road which was authorised to be metalled has been done, and about five chains more needs doing, but it was found impossible to get the lorries there on account of the frosts making the roads too slippery. Ohawe Road.—The portion of this road that got so bad in the winter is now metalled. Two hundred and ninety-eight yards of metal was delivered. This will exceed the cost authorised by about £lO, as we had to bring the metal further than anticipated so as to divert the water from running across the road. Good progress is being made with the metalling of the portion authorised on the Paeroa Road, and it should be finished during the coming Hawera Road.—This has now received a cokt of crushed metal over the shingle and has been rolled and blinded. In a short time the lorries will be able to get to the crusher for broken stone for shingle. The road to the rifle butts, about which the deputation interviewed the council, gets bad in the spring when the milk carts start. There are four milk carts come over the road, and if about- ten chains were metalled it would catch pretty well all the traffic. It would take 120 yards of metal to do the job, at a cost of £65. Douglas, Clive Streets, etc. —The distance unmetalled on these streets is 38 chains, and it would take 760 yards of metal to do the work at a cost of £7OO. Authority has been given to carry out the metalling of Dive’s Avenue. Manawapou Road, Whareroa Road, Ararata, a portion of the Ohangai Road, and about 20 chains on the Denbigh Road. Two teams have been delivering metal for Princes Street, Beach and Hawera Roads. One is procuring stone from the Waokeno Beach. The matter of metalling the road to the rie butts was deferred till the next meeting. The report was adopted. OFFER OF RESERVE. Some discussion took place on an offer by Mrs. Pease to give three acres of land on the Waihi beach as a public reserve, providing that a road was constructed and metalled through the land. This road would give access to the beach within walking distance of the town. Mrs. Pease offered to fence the road. The cost to the Hawera Borough and the County Council was estimated at, roughly, £4OO, the Borough Council offering to bear half the cost. Mr. Campbell, one of the tenants of the land, who made the offer on behalf of Mrs. Pease, agreed to supply the necessary metal for the road at 6s per yard. The chairman said that, when a private person made such an offer of a public reserve every effort should be made to meet that offer. A reserve so near the town would be duly appreciated hy the public. The cost of surveying the road would have to be taken into consideration. The offer was a better proposition for securing the land than they had ever had before. The beach largely used by the public. On the motion of Cr. Douglas, it was decided to approach Mrs. Pease for an extension of the offer for one -eek, to enable the council to procure estimates and a plan of the proposed roa. The council will meet on August 12 to discuss the matter. RIDING ADJUSTMENTS. That the system of dividing counties into ridings should be abolished, was the opinion expressed by Crs. Hawken and Dunlop, while discussing the estimates. The chairman and the clerk agreed, it being pointed out that the system did not work out fairly as between the three ridings. The clerk said the keening of riding accounts was a difficult matter. At the same time the Act provided that counties must be divided into ridings. Cr. Hawken contended the -county should be worked ns one riding, the same rates being struck throughout. The keeping of separate ridings was a curse to bookkeeping, and audit fees would be considerably reduced if rlldng accounts were abolished. Cr. Dunlop said the law should make it optional for a touncll to work as one or more ridings. Certain roads which had been removed from one riding to another should be readjusted to equalise the position of the Ararata Riding, which was in a much worse financial position than the other ridings. A policy of readjustment was decided upon. The whole of the Hawera Road was made a charge on the whole county, the Manawahou Road, from the Hawera Road to the Beach Road, was made a three-fourths charge on the county, and the Boylan Road from the Eltham County’ boundary to the Normanby town boundary was made a charge equally on the Hawera and Ararata Ridings. It was decided that all tolls should go into a county fund, expenses connected with the collection of tolls to be a county charge. Hitherto the tolls from gates have accrued to. the riding In which the gate is situated. GENERAL. The Ashburton County Council wrote urging the need for firm and immediate action with regard to the hospital levy and advocating the proposal that one-third of the annual hospital levy should be calculated on the population and two-thirds on the capital value of the contributing districts, the effect being to make the levy more fair as between the rural areas and the more populated districts.—The chairman said the county's approval of this attitude had already been forwarded. The chairman said the Counties Conference . on August 14 would give a suitable opportunity ■ of bringing up the matter of a more suitable method of securing tar and bitumen. Crs. RJ. Linn and the chairman were appointed delegates to attend the conference. The State Advances Office notified that it was nor authoriesd to lend money for the purpose of repaying antecedent liabilities, and consequently an application for such a loan could not be considered. E. Cole and the Rev. Curran asked that two lights be Installed near the corner of Douglas and Campbell Streets. The request was acceded to.