COUNTY COUNCIL.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4270, 7 September 1882, Page 2

COUNTY COUNCIL.

The monthly meeting of the Thames County Council was held at the' Council Chambers yesterday afternoon. Present: Crs Brodie (chairman), Porter, Bull, Thorburn, Deeble, Bagnall, Coutts, and Fraser. "' ■ " ' """"■ '"" Vl ' •'

MISCELLANEOUS COBBESPONDENCE,

Hone Nahe wrote on behalf of the natives at Kopu, asking the Council to remove the wire fence along the Kopu road from its present position to their cultivation, as stipulated in the agreement between the Council and natives. The Council declined either to remove the fence or allow such to be done.-* Wallace and party, working in the Duke of Bedford claim, asked the Council's assistance to make a branch road to their mine, a length of 300 yards, offering to employ two haaen to assist those of the Council. Referred to the Engineer, with instructions to comply with the request.—Mr J. E. Banks drew attention to "the necessity existing for the improvement of the Tairua road on the Tairua side of the ranges, specifying the works" which he considered were most urgently required, deferred to the Engineer to report upon the roads enumerated in the letter. —Mr JJ....Workman requested the Council to repair the road up the Waiomo Creek beyond the third crossing, it being now obstructed on account of a large landslip. The Engineer was instructed to make the road passable.—Mr A. J. Thorp requested the removal of a bridge erected on the old track in the Ohinemuri Hiding, and restoration of the fence. The request was not acceded to-

WAITEKAUBI BOAD.

The petition resolved upon by the miners of Waitekauri in reference to their road communication by way of Waitekauri hill was laid on the table by Cr Porter.

Cr Porter moved, "Tbat, as a preliminary step to making the road, a bonus of £50 be given to any person who could lay off a road six miles long from Paeroa over the hill to Waitekauri, with a grade of not more than 1 in 20; also, that the chairman of the meeting be informed that no £850 or any other sum had been granted by Government towards the road in question,''—Seconded by Cr Bagnall, and carried. ... ?

Cr Porter moved that the Engineer be instructed to prepare plans and specifications for the Waitekauri main road, and call tenders returnable at next meeting of the Council.—rCarriedV , , <

PAEBOA HOSPITAL,

The .Committee appointed to inquire into the necessity fora branch hospital at Paeroa considered it desirable such an institution should be established at or near that township or upon the Council's freehold at Pukeremu, and Government should be solicited to grant a sum sufficient for its erection, and also a yearly subsidy in aid of the salary of a resident medical officer, whose professional services should be extended to the natives of the district.—Carried. .

WATBE KACE,

Mr John Law, the contractor for the maintenance of the race, applied for permission to erect two sluice-gates for the greater safety of the race.—Granted.

THE OTUNUI EOAD.

Reply, to the Petitioners

" The road via the Hape Creek would be 4§ miles from the claims to the batteries: oa the flat, and 3| miles from Mr W. S. Greenville's; but this road has a rise,..of/ 400 feet from the claims to the summit level of the road in a distance of about 1J miles, and a fall from thence to the' batteries of 1,000 feet, the lowest saddle of the intervening range being 1,110 feet above the sea. The rise in the Kauaeranga road is 40 feet, not 75, and if this objection is valid, it more forcibly ■ ap-, plies to the 100 feet rise and the 1,000 feet fall in the Hape Road, of which the peti* tioners say nothing. The fact is there is a road over this 40 feet rise the steepest gradient in which is 1 in 12 J (and that only for a short distance), which is passable in nearly all seasons for heavy traffic. : The measured distance is only 2 miles 52 chains' from Hob Roy Hotel to Ohaene, and the whole of this portion of the, road will carrydray traffic except during the winter months. If the whole of the £850 available were expended upon the Hape Creek route, it would only accomplish a road which would be as impassable as the Kauaeranga during winter, and its maintenance more costly. The length of the Kauaeranga Road as surveyed is—From Eob Eoy to Ohaene Creek, 2 miles 52 chains; from Ohaene Creek to battery sites, 2 miles 20 chains; from battery sites to claims, 69 chains ; total, 5 miles 61 chains. Admitted £850 would make a road via Hape Creek, still it would be impassable during winter, but useful for bringing down trial crushings to batteries on the flat, and for, transporting machinery to the field. It would, however, be useless^ for carting quartz to the sites upon which the local mills will bj erected, and upon the establishment of' which' the ultimate value of the Otunui as a goldfield must depend. These sites can only be selected on the creek below the mines, and. alongside the proposed road via Kauaeranga. As the lower levels of the mines become opened so will they necessarily trend in the direction of this road, and as its roHte is entirely within the goldfields boundary no estates through which it is taken can "be exempt from the operations of the " Goldmiaing Districts Act." When the Board of Works Report was brought forward, Cr Bagnall moved that the report be adopted, with the exception of that portion having reference to tenders re the Otuuui road, which shall be deferred for 14 days pending the receipt of further communications from Government.

The Chairman, in supporting the resolution, took exception to .the action in connection with the matter, which, he considered, was .sapping at the very foundation of the principles of lobal government. .Were it not, indeed, for the dependent position of the Council, he would not be inclined to tolerate it.

Cr Thorburn expressed a somewhat similar opinion. At first he had been inclined to ignore the telegram, but on mature consideration be thought it would be advisable to act as proposed. No doubt great influence had been brought to bear in the direction of altering. the route. Cr Porter said if GoTernment stepped; in in this instance all that any party would hare to do in the future when dia>,

agreeing with any particular road as proposer! would be to get a petition signed and forwarded to Government when the Council's proposals would immediately be put a stop to. In bis opinion the petition ought to have come to the Council and not to Government. He always advocated the Hape Creek road. Several persons whose names were affixed to the petition had admitted to him that the most useful track for machinery was by way of the Kauaeranga Valley ; they would be satisfied with a foot track via Hape Creek. He thought Government was going a great deal out of its way in interfering with the works of the Council at all. If the matter depended on him he would accept tenders at once, but in their position it was as well not to fly in the face of the Government.

Cr_ Deeble thought the miners were working against their own interests,' for/it was possible that between two stools they would hare no..road at all. . He had seconded the motion to call for tenders with the understanding that they were almost compelled to have the dray road made in that direction for a length of three-quarters of a mile. He believed that a gentleman who owned a crushing mill on this side of the range had conceived an idea that if a dray road was made via Hape, he might get quartz carted over the hill from Otunui, and so pressed the matter on. He considered the Council had done its duty in encour-^ aging the mining industry as much as lay "*' in its power, considering the state of the weather and the condition of their finances.

Cr Bagnall's amendment of the report was carried unanimously.- , "...?.' On the motion of Cr .Porter, yit was resolved that in the event of the lowest"' tenderers requiring their deposits returned, the, Secretary be authorised to refund them, and they could be re-deposited on the acceptance of the tenders.

, The Board of Works recommended (1) That copies of the correspondence and of the Surveyor's . report ■be forwarded, through the Warden- to the Hon the Minister of Mines, (2) That the lowest tenders for the Hape Creek bridge and the Kauwaeranga Otunui Road be accep. ted. (3) Tbat the. contractor for the Rotokohu swamp road (Robert Kelly) be instructed to proceed with the road, and when completed, the council should take the circumstances of his case into consideration. (4) That the drains on this contract be enlarged, and the works executed under the provisions of "The Roads Construction Act, 1882." The telegram received from Government, relative to the suspension of .the road via Kauaeranga was as follows:,—"Directed by Minister of Mines to request that you will „ have acceptance of tenders for road' to ' Otunui via Kauaeranga delayed until your Engineer's and Mr McLaren's reports upon this have been|seen,by Minister." Adopted excepting the paragraph relating to the Otunui road.

FINANCE. ' -. The financial statement for the month was laid on the table as follows:—Receipts : Subsidies General Government, Upper Tararu, £133 15s 8d; do., Tapu Eoad, £110; goldfields revenue* £23. 17i 9d; water race, £99 10s. 10d.; County £3110s; contributions to roads, £72 Is 8d ; on account of sales of iron, £435 19s 8d ; miscellaneous receipts/£7'los 4d;. total, £914 5s 1 Id. — Expenditure : July accounts paid in August £86312s 7d. —August accounts: Hastings Biding (wages), £54 7s; Waiotahi Riding (wages), £39105; Kauaeranga Riding (wages), 1 £31 17s; Kauaeranga Riding (timber, &c.,) £3 13s 6d ; Parawai Riding (wages) £41175;, Totara Riding (wages), £46 14s ; Ohine* muri Biding, £4710s 6d; Otunui track, £90; Waitekauri road, £1% 8s; miscellaneous labor, £810s 6d;'water crace (contractor and timber), £87 5s 6d; charitable aid, £4 '12s ; printing and' advertising! £4 15s; • salaries, £67 3s 4d; aid to.drainage, Deep Level Tribate Company, £30; petty cash, £5 ; total, £1443 15s lid., Overdraft on % August Ist, £7039 3s 7d; excess of expend "" iture over receipts in August £529 10s.