COUNTY AFFAIRS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 December 1938, Page 9

COUNTY AFFAIRS

MEETING OF MASTERTON COUNCIL. BUSINESS BEFORE FINANCE , COMMITTEE. A meeting of the finance committee of the Masterton County Council was held this morning. Mr R. E. Gordon Lee presided in the absence of Councillor H. H. Mawley, chairman of the finance committee. The treasurer reported bank accounts at November 30 as follow: —County Fund account, debit, £5379 10s lid; Masterton County Workers’ Dwelling loan, credit, £173 Is 3d;. Bridge Fund account, credit, £ll7 Is 9d; Imprest Account, credit, £5OO. Receipts since last meeting totalled £428 3s Id. Subsidies outstanding and due by the Government for works on main highways and for public works subsidised contracts amounted to £2710 12s 2d. Accounts totalling £5235 15s 9d were passed, this amount including a sum of £1273 12s 6d, being the council’s quarterly levy due to the Wairarapa Hospital Board. The District Engineer, Public Works Department, ’advised that the flood damage on the Weraiti-Lee’s Road section of the Masterton-Stronvar main highway in September might be regarded as extra to the schedule of costs already approved for this work and estimated at £3OO.

The action of the county Clerk (Mr J. C. D. Mackley) in making application to the Main Highways Board for a daily hire rate of £2 7s 6d for the tar-spraying unit which was recently mounted on a truck chassis was endorsed.

The Comptroller and Auditor-Gen-eral wrote advising that the Audit Office was of the opinion that expenses of providing electricity for the council’s roadmen’s cottages should be met out of the revenue of the year in which the expenses were incurred and that the provisions of the Counties Act did not exclude the operation of section 7 of the Local Bodies’ Finance Act, 1921-22. This confirmed the opinion expressed by the County Clerk (Mr Mackley) at the last meeting of the council when a deputation from the Wairarapa' Electric Power Board waited on the council in regard to the reticulation of roadmen’s cottages.

It was decided that the office staff be granted its annual holidays from Thursday, December 22, to Tuesday, January 10, both days inclusive. The first meeting of the council in the New Year will be held on Tuesday, January 17, in lieu of January 10.