WAIOTAHI HIGHWAY DISTRICT.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2037, 15 July 1875, Page 2

WAIOTAHI HIGHWAY DISTRICT.

"" ANNUAL MEETING OF RATEPAYERS., The annnal meeting of ratepayers of the Waiolahi Highway District was held in the school room, Waiotahi Creek- last night at seven o'clock. There was a good attendance. ' Mr William Logan occupied the chair, and- opened .the business by reading the advertisement convening the meeting. The secretary read the minutes of last annual meeting, which were confirmed. He then read'the following reports :-~ Report of the Watotahi Distbict Board tor thb Yeab ending 30th June, 1875. The members of the Waiotahi District Board, in presenting their first annual report since the district has been separated from that part now forming a portion of the Borough of Thames, congratulate the ratepayers on' the value of the'works successfully carried out in the district. Your Board being convinced that.the., road up the Waiotahi Creek will be one of the main roads on the Thames.; and over which quartz will be brought in very large quantities to the batteries on the flat, have by every means endeavoured to get a good metalled dray road made from the boundary of the Waiotahi District to that part of the Gqldfields about Nolan's Candlelight;' from whence the Board's Engineer has ascertained a fine level road can be made along th« whole length of that golden belt of from Nolan's Candlelight .eastward. Up to the present date, the Board have succeeded in completing this road as far as the Rising Sun claim, and are now forming and continuing it to the New Caledonia mine, the which will complete the road to within a three quarters of a mile of Punga Flat. The value of this road is at present to a very great extent lost to the miner, owing to the Borough Council of Thames not havingformed and metalled that portion of the Waiotahi road within the Borough. The Board have by letter urged upon the Council the necessity of this work, and shown the losb to the Borough as well as to this district the want of this road causes. Your Board has also urged upon the Provincial Government the duty of forming this road within,the Borough, and the further continuation of the road between the New Caledonia mine and Nolan's Candlelight out of Provincial or Goldfields Revenue The Board have also formed a large portion of the Moanatairi Creek road. Until very lately miners and storekeepers on this creek requiring mining requisites or goods had to wait ..until the Moanatairi Ti'amway .lessee, had sufficient traffic down the line to induce him:to-send- good.sj up.-. Sp>?far; as =this Board have had funds available for this purpose, they have,-by naming over the Moanatairi Creek in places and building a retaining .wattagainst the shoot of the Golden Calf mine, been enabled to make a good dray foadvalongside-of the tramway so far as the boundary of the Red White and 1 Blue^mine^' Thisl piece of road has already been of .great advantage to; :the imines!'on;-that! 'creek,'''and;:the Board recommend that this road be continued as far as the Sons of Freedbm tunnel. -. .. ■ Good roads for foot-passengers., hare ; been made" from 'the Eureka across the , Moanatairi and Waiotahi Creeks and^ hills to Irish Towhr arid on toVthe Karaka Creek. These footpaths have been greatly used by miners going to or from work, and by the children attending the various schools. Some of these footroads it will be found advisable to widen

and form for cart traffic as soon as fund 8 are available. The Board received from the Provincial Government a grant of £20 for planting trees within the district; this work is now being carried -out, and some few trees have already been planted. ' Ratepayers in particular districts wishing to have trees planted in their several localities are invited to communicate their wishes to the Beard, and all residents axe asked to aid in preventing their injury by cattle. Your Board, during the past dry ■-«eason,:'^prevaile'd?^p.(m wthe* >vi!Proyineiar'Government to utilise a spring; of water in one!qf the/dfives M;the Oid.Ballymure ground, and to lay pipes down the Waio-tahi-^ro'ad^wittt'^itaM-pipe'S'b'tiboth" sidei of the creek. This supply has been a great boon to the residents, and especially so during the late very dry summer. No doubt, at future times, other supplies of pure witter for domestic purposes that can 'be made made available will be found in other parts of the district; when such are known information should be communicated to the Board. - :v The township supply "waterworks, yielding a gross income of about £1000 a year, has lately been handed-over by the Provincial Government ,to the local authorities on the Thames. The letter' of conditions sent by His Honor the present Superintendent on transferring these waterworks to the custody of" the Borough Council not being very plain, it was at first thought by the Council and the District Engineer that the Waidtahi District was not to participate in any part of the revenue received for water supplied, but only the Council of the Borough and the Boards of Kauaeranga and Parawai. As these water works had been made out of goldfields revenue, and also as the conditions of their transfer agreed to by the late Superintendent gave equal advantage to this Board as to those of Kauaeranga and Parawai, your Board represented the injustice their being so excluded would entail on^a district forming so large and important a part of the Goldfields as the Waiotahi. This matter was also brought before the Council by the Chairman of this Board : in> both cases satisfactory results have been achieved; His Honor the Superintendent by letter stating the Waiotahi Board" were to participate equally with the other local bodies, and the Borough Council also adopting this view. c ' The Board wish to remind ratepayers that now the roads and tracks in the: District, formerly maintained bytEe Provincial Government, are placed under the control of this Board. This is a matter' that involves a very large outlay every year. Towards this expenditure the Provincial Government have voted £200 to. help in the maintenance of these roads and tracks until the end of September next, and doubtless after that date the" Superintendent and Provincial Govern-, -ment will-aid the-Waiotahi Board very in • th> opening new roads, as well as assisting in the maintenance of; those at present formed; for, as ratepayers are well aware, this district is very extensive and full of rich gold, bearing reefs, and, . although these reefs ; ar<p now, from the want of good roads and cheap cartage, unprofitable to the miner to work, yet, at a future date, when that difficulty is re- 1 moved, will yield emp^yment to very many, and return handsome dividends $o the owners of claims. - f The report by the Board's .Engineer on the work .now being done by him is appended.* The accounts of the Board for the past year, certified by the auditors, are laid before the ratepayers. . Alexandeb-Bboldie "V Waiotani Chas. Hill > .District James Coutts. J Board. Waiotahi, July 14th, 1875. Statement of-Accounts'fob the yeab 187475. , .Receipts.—Balance in Bank of New South Wales on the 30th June 1874,' £67 10s 2d; balance in Secretary's hands on 30fch June, 1874, £6 12s 3d; General Government, £611 10s; rates 1873-74, £17 9s 6d; rates 1874-75, £46 5s sd; Provincial? Government, !£l,300; overdraft Bank of New Zealand, £15 lls 6d ; total, £2,064 18s 9d. Expenditure.—Legal expenses, £1 Is; printing and advertising, £15 -19s. 6d ; dog collars, £1 13s 4d ; Engineer, £66 12s; Secretary, £19 10s ; Collector,, £5 Is 6d;, Auditors, £3 2s; valuation and prepara-' tion of assessment roll, £M 5s ; bridges, culverts, and drains, £57 16* 7d;"forming roads £1,531 9s 7d; implements and tools and metalling and channelling, £25 7s 6d; sundries, £44 10s lOd; other works, tracks, footpaths, &c,, £244 5s 7d; planting trees, £16 10s sd; cash in Secretary's hands, £16 13s lid; .t0ta1,,£2,064 18s 9d. • i , Statement of Assets and Liabilities of this board on the 30th june, 1875. Assets,—Due from Provincial Government for maintenance of roads and tracks in goldfield up. to 30th September, 1875, I £200; due from Provincial Government for planting trees in district, £20; from rates (of which over £41 has been received since Ist July, 1875), £70 18s 6d; cash in secretary's hand, £16 13s lid; old rates (being unpaid rates struck durin; the years 1872-73 and 1873-74, amounting to £169 8s), valued at £10; total, £317 12s sd. Liabilities. —To Bank of New Zea--1 land, £15 lls 3d; collector, £8 6s; secretary, £13 ; E. Gallagher, balance of contract for road metal, £27 10s; E. Gallagher, for cartage, £11 14s 7di; Montgomery, for timber, £3 7s 6d ; J. Benshaw, £2 18s 6d; Wilkinson and Horton, £3 2s ; W. Booth, for balance of | contract, -B. McFarland, J. McNaughton, and sundry small accounts, £40: -total, £125 9slOd. . : Balance in favour of Board,, £192 2s 7d, which is anticipated will about maintain / the roadi and tracks in repair until :the I 30th of September, unless any very bad landslips occur. .J. . , .-.^ i Audited and found correct. : ;i.Jiily-4,;1875;.■■•-■.■•;■•.■■'..■;■;;. ::^ fr --:-- i -: :.- ; To THE TbUSIEES, OF THE' WaIOTAHI Highway DisTßicT. ; Gentlelien'j-i-Ihave'tfiehonor to report that I have not yet been: able to -get the I tract from Nolan's. Candlelight- towards Tairua completed to the but I hope next week to have it completed. I have no doubt but that I Trill be able t6 get a suitable!'track; fromi^ kirikiritothe beginning-jpf.the track near I MrKilgour's, at the Kauaeranga, Jaid out j to Tairua by the District Engineer to the Provincial Government. I have already informed you I would not recommend this as a leading road to Tairua, owing to

the ascent to Nolan's, and the descent from thence to the Kauaeranga, but if formed, it will be of great service ,to prospectors. The best road to Tairua, in my opinion," is by Puriri, and I would recommend your Board to unite with the other public bodies of the Thames in urging upon tho Government the necessity of having, a bridge erected over the Kauaeranga below the Baoms, and a good dray road formed from the Bob Boy Hotel to Puriri, which will not only be a portion of the best road to Tairua, but. wjll .we.,,part .o.£ th^, main s .roa^ v from the^ Thames to Ohihemurii Tauranga and.the Upper Waikato. I take this opportunity of again urging upon .-you* the great -importance -to- *thi» district of haying, tracks cut from the Tairua track' in a North-Easterly direction, especially" one 'as a continuation :of the Waiotahi Boad, this road being abojit the centre of the auriferous belt p£country, in which the richest mines ;of the Thames Goldfield are situated, and which, so far as prospected, is second in richness to scarcely: any of its extent in the- world, and there still."remains fifteen miles on the line of tho principal reefs comparatively unprospected, owing to the want of suitable tracks. I consider that, under these circumstances, no work in this district is of equal importance, as the. future prosperity of the Thames District depends almost solely upon the extension and development of - the goldfield.—rl-have the honor to be, gentlemen, your obedient servant ' *- - Bobeet J. MacFabland, C.E. Thames, 14th July, 1875. . The Chairman, in putting to the^ meeting the adoption of the reports, referred to the amount of work which had been accomplished.,., -t-; '•>.}'•■ \ ' The reports and balance sheet were adopted on the motion of Mr C. S. Brownl:.' Begarding the rate for the ensuing, year there were'"two propositions, ohe that it be 2£ per cent, on the annual; value, and the other, that it be 2 per .cent. .__.., - -, r " After^ sbmel discussion the rate ? was 'fixed at 2| per cent/T tKe "amendment being rejected. Messrs A. Brodie, C. Hill, J. Coutts, C. S. Brown, and W,-Logan were unanimously elected Trustees for the ensuing year. .Messrs,l. Hopkins and James Smith were appointed auditors.' "-' A Tote of thanks wa_s_ .accorded. to, the outgoing Board and'to'the" Secretary, and the meeting closed. At a meeting of the newly elected Board held after the annual meeting,;Mr Brodie was.elected Chairman; Messrs Brown and Hill, Works.. Committee ;< and Mr Brodie to be representative of the .district.on the Cemetery Committee. -