COUNTY BOUNDARIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1922, Page 7

COUNTY BOUNDARIES.

REPORT OF COMMISSION. UNFAVORABLE TO MERGER. A copy of the report of the commission which sat recently to consider the petition that a portion of the northern end of the Egmont County should be merged into the Taranaki County has been forwarded to the Taranaki County Council. In view of the report, the Minister has decided not to make any alteration in the existing boundaries. The commission comprised Messrs. H. L. Lowe (Crown Lands Commissioner for Taranaki), T. Sheehy, and R. H. Pigott, and the following are excerpts from their report:— "Your commissioners have viewed the whole of the existing boundary between the Egmont and Taranaki countiesand also the roadways intersecting the area which the petitioners have prayed to be merged into the Taranaki County. Your commissioners are asked to direct attention to the statement made by counsel for the Taranaki County, that as the law now stands (referring to the loans under the Local Bodies Act, 1913), there is no power to create a special rating area to form and metal (a) the Punlho Road between the Main South Road and the sea, and (b) the Punlho Road between Carrington Road and the radius line, owing, he stated, to the fact that at neither end are there two ratepayers in each' county willing to raise such special THE BOUNDARY ROAD. Continuing, the report stated that the commissioners found that for its whole length from the Egmont National Park radius line to the sea the Punlho Road formed the present boundary line between the two counties. The Taranaki County for some 15 years or more has had control over the whole of this road, and it has received from the Egmont County the revenue collected from these sections on the Egmont County side of the road (less 10 per cent, for cost of collection) and spent the same upon the maintenance of the road. No evidence was put before the commission to indicate that there had been any previous disagreement between the two counties over the existing arrangements for control and maintenance of the road, which arrangement had existed from the time this road was first unade the county boundary. It was further stated that while the evidence showed that most of the produce from the area concerned in the merger proposal passed over the Main South Road through the Taranaki County and toll-gate, on the way to New Plymouth town and port, and that most of the stores required came back In a similar manner, the same conditions wouold apply to a very large area of the Egmont County between the Waiweranui stream (the southern boundary of the proposed merger area) and the town of Opunake, and that should the area be merged these ratepayers south of the Waiweranui stream could then plead with equal reason that tney were at the extreme northern end of the Egmont County (the centre of the area prayed to be merged being some 20 miles from New Plymouth and 19 aniles from Opunake). The Punlho Road, from the Main Road to the sea (excepting, perhaps, the first 40 chains), and from the Carrington Road to the radius line, was practically unformed, and these portions could not well be formed and metalled without raising a special loan; but this was not, in the opinion of the commissioners, sufficient in itself to justify any alteration in the present, boundary. It was also found that while the Main South Road for a considerable distance northwards of Puniho Road is tar-sealed, and that the same road southward of Puniho Road in the Egmont County is only macadamised, it appeared to be equally competent for the Egmont County to raise by special loan the necessary money to tar-seal this road as it would be for the Taranaki County to do go, should they obtain the area prayed for, and as for obtaining the money from a toll-gate, th© report stated:— "It Is apparently not the policy of your advisers to allow any more toll-gates, and the abolition of those toll-gates now in use seems likely to eventuate in the near future." The report further stated that from an inspection of the roads within the area, the commissioners were of opinion that they compared favorably with similar roads within the Taranaki County, and there seemed every indication that the Egmont County Council was now pursuing a more progressive policy than In the past. THE RATE QUESTION. The rateable area proposed to be merged formed about 18 per cent, qf the whole area of the Egmont County, and it would be a serious blow to the finances of the county If this valuable portion were taken away; and it seemed that the arguments in favour of severance wouold equally apply to the whole of Rahotu riding of the Egmont County, without which riding the Egmont County could hardly exist as a county at all. It was pointed out that while three-fourths of the ratepayers in the area had signed the petition, nine of the largest land-owners had not done so. Reference was also made to the fact that there had been some trouble lately amorig the Egmont councillors, and riding members had resigned; this was entirely due to personal reasons, and had nothing to do with the official management of the county affairs. THE FINDING. The commissioners expressed an opinion that although a more suitable boundary between two counties than a road line might as a general rule be found, there was no evidence whatever to warrant the commissioners in recommending that the boundary between the two counties should be the Stony river, nor sufficient evidence to warrant recommending the boundary being shifted to the Waiweranui stream. The commissioners therefore recommended that the existing boundary be maintained. In the opinion of the commissioners the oost of the commission should be borne by the Taranaki County, but each side should pay its own legal expenses. At the sitting of the commission, which took place at Warea on August 29, Mr. D. Hutchen appeared for the Taranaki County and Mr. J. C. Nicholson for the Egmont County.