Weirarapa North County Council.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3509, 13 May 1890, Page 2

Weirarapa North County Council.

ENGINEER'S REPORT.

The following report of the Eugineei will be presented at the meeting ol the Council, to be held this afternoon:

I have the honor to submit to you herewith my report for the fast month on the County works as follows: . ..

Masterton Riding Masterton to Waimata Road—(Masterton to Kalianmingi section)— The contract for surface repairs on this section has been completed, and'tlie line throughout is now in fair condition for winter traffic, -

Contract No 89—(River protective works at Te Ore Ore)— This contract was finished in the middle of the month, and has in all respects been efficiently peiformed, Waingawa to Camp Road—With the consent of the private owners, obtained through the Works .Committee of the Borough Counoil, the permanent man has recently been employed in blasting and. removing obstructions in the bed of the Waipoua Biver to the west of the County bridge. The shags which had become imbedded in the shingle were forming shoals, and materially contracting the water-way, so as to threaten the banks during floods. Their removal now. provide free and uninterrupted passage for the water beneath both spans of the bridge, Castlepoint Riding- -Eketahunall) Tinui road— (Tinui to Tiraumea section)—An examination has been made of the length of this line complained of in Mr Burling's latter to the Council. Between the points mentioned therein, a very short length only is located on the County road, and on this all that is amiss consists of a 25ft-span platform bridge partially wrecked, i sum of £5 judiciously expended would repair it, and in other ways place the Counoil's section iu serviceable condition for ordinary .bridle traffic. I might mention, however, that these repairs will be of no material value' until the remainder ot the lino, situated within private property, has had a considerable sum of money expended on it in restoring bridges and ro-oonslruot; ing the formation,

Alfredton Biding.—Eketahuna to Tinui road. (Eketahnno, to Tiraumea section). Contract No. 22 (bridge building),—The completion of this was reported on the Gth ult, and the work was examined on the 7th. With the exception of minor defeots (notice to rectify whioh has been given the-contractor) the bridge is well and substantially constructed, Contract No. 23.—(Road forma, tion). The rough work on this contract has now been finished, and when last inspected on the 7th ult,, it was estimated that a week would suffice to trim up and finish it off according to therequirements of the specifications) Contract No. 24. (road formation—Operations have commenced on this contract, a small amount of work having been performed near its starting point.

'ihe metalling repairs contract on tho Eketahuna to Alfredton section lias been finished, together with the repairs to the line in the vicinity of the Alftedton district road junction. Opalti to Manawatu fioad, Contract No 27. --(Street formation, Eketahuna.) A small amount of work, principally stone breaking, still remains to be performed on this contract. During the term of maintenance, which will commence when this is finished, any depressions or other defeots which may devolopo by settlement of the earthwork, &0., will be remedied by the contractor beforo finally handing over the work to the Council.

Contract No. 28.—(footpath kirbing), was finished a few days after the'.last Council'meeting. The contractor 13 engaged in rectifying discrepancies in different parts of the work before it is taken off his hands, Statistics completed during the past year show that the Council haß had under its jurisdiction 209£ miles of main roads, including 7(i bridges of different classes, with an aggregate length of 6098 level feet, for the maintenance of : which, during'this term, a sum of £2,77715s Od has been expendedon various descriptions of woiks, and in payment of wages of permanent labor staff, and other contingencies. The appended statements of particulars, schedules Nos 1 and 2, give the details relating to each separate line, of road, both as to costs in this respect, and the nature, and extent of new works completed within the Barne period. The oosts per mile vary considerably according to the requirements impostd iipoii the different roads ; ; those along the,oJi3?r and more settled ■ portions ,9! the country requiring a large; 1 than the partially metalled orally unmetalled lengths serving jthe more sparsely occupied or more i;ec#j tjy settled country districts.' 'Schedule No 1 shows that on. the coast, where .the line of communication is roiighly eeotioriSjis cqmpkatively little-used oxcept for bridle traffio, the oost is very compared with that on the the vioinity, of the town or other populous centres. In the case, however, of . the Waingawa to .Camp ine, the cost per bile is exceptional, ,owpg to estfMtclinary li^illtioMo

the ~Waiugawa and otlier bridges, besides, which, a sum of £44 6s 3d brought forward from previous year's unexpended rate is. also inoluded in last year's returns, The iotal disbursements of, the year's separate rates over the County roads gives an average cost for maintenance per mile of £l7 8s lOd, made up in the following proportions Wages, of.. permanent labor slaff, 46 per cent; I motal ropairs 26 per cent; timber for ; bridges and culverts, repairs to, 11 por oent, and 17 per cent in sundries, under which bead are included,' contracts for re-forming road surface, and bridge painting, extraordinary damage and other, miscellaneous items. The adoption of the principles of letting all works,by contract has been followed out as closely as it has been , found practicable to doso, and., has been attended throughout with satisfactory results in so far as.the Council is concerned. During the yoar twenty-five contraots have been entered into, embracing an expenditure bf £2028 lOs ldi Of these the greater number have been for metal-, ling, "by means of which GSOO cubic yards of fresh material have been distributed- for surface ropairs along the main lines of road. Tlio average oost to the Counoil of this work has been 2s 2Jd per yard including charges for stone breaking and purchase of materials aiid\ a reserve. By including these latter extrenuous charges however,- which are limited to a" comparatively Bmall proportion of the materials used i.e. to' 1000 c. yards, the remainder' of 6000 o. yards have beeu supplied at the rate of Is 7d per yard, and in. all cases the best quality has been used. ■ For the purposes of culverts and bridge repairs 87,113 sup. feet of timber has been employed, half of which has been used in redecking the surface of bridges in the Master, ton and Wainuioru ridings, the bal. .- ance having gone towards restoring I old works and supplying muoh . required new culverts on the up j country sections of the line, i Small sums available from time to , time have been utilised in levelling and opening the side widths along , the roads in flat country, but as funds . have permitted only of small outlay , up to the present, there is. still conj siderable scope for improvements iu this direction. L , Attention has been given to the bridges and whore money has been 3 available, such as have required it j have been repainted and carefully 0 adjusted. j Several miles of ofay roads havo ■ been remodelled during "the fine j seasons and where serious damages have resulted from floods &c., [ measures in proportion to themeanß , available have been taken to rectify j and repair the injuries. , The year's transactions have [. resulted in an expenditure slightly in y excess of the amounts passed by the \ Council for road purposes in all of the „ ridings excepting A kitio. The over- » drafts ineaolicase are as follows: 0 Masterton Biding, £46 Gs Cd; Castle 1 Point Hiding, ss; Alfredton Biding, j £2019s 8d; in tho Akitio Biding a credit of <£s7 12s Id remains. Unprovided for contingencies amountu ing t0£127 llsGdhavehadtobemet a out of separate accounts which were ut not anticipated when preparing tho estimates for the past year, and but e for these there is little doubt that ~ expenditure would havo closed within I, the margin fixed by the Counoil. I The amount overdrawn, £Bl Gs Id, g in the Masterton and Alfredton ! 0 Ridings, is in part due to the extra g oost attendant upon procuring j materials for bridge decking outg Bide the district, When I had been r lea to suppose that tli6y would be lt locally supplied, and in part to an , g inapt and somewhat .whim6ioal |g generosity, which awarded a sum of n L 72 83 4d out of the funds of these c . Ridings into those of an adjacent [j county. The attached return gives a close approximation to the' amount • of annual expenses in repairs to the 0 roads in Castlepoint. Wainuioru, and Mastorton Ridings necessitated by the through traffic , of Btoci l s Loans to the amount of LIS29 have # been raised for various works with- , in the County, and have been ,j chiefly devoted to the extension of road formation and bridges in the s back district, street formation in the Eketahuna Township, and a small t deviation on the Masterton to Waimata line. In addition to the n Council's operations a considerable 8 quantity oi work lias been performed 0 under its directions and supervision 0 for other local bodies. Tho permanent labor staff have (i done good service during the year, and have at all times displayed an ]j active and intelligent interest in their ;S duties, Attached will be found detailed estimates for the ourrent n year's expenses, wbioli in addition n to tho wages of the labor staff also e provide for the more urgent requireraonts of the different lines of road. I am, (to., C. E. Bresiseb. l ' A Bigamist Captured.

Two mothers-in-law appeared lately in a Paris police oourt, to bear witness on behalf of their daughters against a heartless bigamist, Louis Simon, whose adventures—matrimonial general—were rather remarkable/ Simon came from Toulouse, when ho succeeded in : to him, and ho then hied to where he made the acquaintance of a leading laundress who,had 60519 money, and whose friends were well* off. Tho advonturer married the woman;'annexed her dot; borrowed about three hundred pounds from her ' friends, and then left her with her ohildren. The rascal then proceeded 'A to Monte Carlo, where he soon lost ' > all his funds; but he managed, neyeftheless, to return to Paris dressed asa <opurckie, and, giving himself out as an Italian count—thinking to entrap ;some Transatlantic heiress by his title, fascinating appearance, aw| ■ gorgeous "get-up," Instead, however, of a wealthy, and fair Ammcaine, Simon decoyed a good-looking and comparatively opulent milliner— Mdlle. Eion—into his' net.BSfore marryiug the milliner. the! Bbam " count had managed to squander half her dowry, and after the wedding ho tookher to Brussels. In the mean- 1 time another female clandestinely oonnected with Simon " turned up/ 1 She, finding)hat her "couqt ' r fi> fled to Brussels, wont and tola Mdlle. Rion's mother that her son-in-law was a bigamist. All this ; was duly brought out in Court by the two motheis-in-law, whose daughters'—especially the ' exlaundress—were too much overcome agajipfi' (heir base dekder' imj dpspijjable' "destroyer,: "Simon tho bigamist wfts condemned to im prlsonment" for : the space of years."V: 1,