WESTPORT PROGRESS COMMITTEE.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 516, 12 June 1869, Page 2

WESTPORT PROGRESS COMMITTEE.

A meeting 0 f this Committee was held on Thursday afternoon. Tho members present mere Messrs Alcorn, Field, Humphrey, Hughes, Miine, and O'Conor. Mr Alcorn was in the chair. From the reading of the minutes it appeared that the Committee had not met since the 13th of March. The Hon. Secretary ( Mr Brills read a letter which had been received from Mr Daniell, Commissioner for

Crown Lands, Nelson, in reply to si communication asking for a return of grants of land applied for in this district. The letter was to this effect: —" It I interpret your request- literally I may say there are not at present in this office any applications for grants of land, but if you mean a statement of tho amount of land sold and granted, the following is a memorandum of the lands sold and granted in the town and district of Westport:— Town of Westport, 58 acres, £5726 ; Suburban, 229 acres, £418; total £GIM."

Mr O'Coxor remarked that tho letters did not convey the information which tho Committee had been desirous of obtaining, and he moved that the Secretary should be requested to correspond again with Mr Daniell, asking information as to the number and extent of the agricultural leases granted in the area between Mokihinui and Pox's river. Their previous resolution did not refer merely to the municipal district of Westport. Mr Httjipiirey seconded the motion, and it was agreed to. The Secretary drew attention to a letter from Dr Giles on the sanitary condition of the town—a letter which was addressed to the Committee some weeks ago, and which was then published.

Mr O'Coxor moved that Messrs Alcorn and Hughes should, with himself, bo appointed as a sub-committeo to consider the subject of Dr Gdes's letter, with a view to the recommendation of measures for the improvement of the sanitary condition of tho town.

The motion was seconded by Mr HtniPiißEY, and was carried. Mr O'Coxoe referred to the condition of the road between Westport and the Orawaiti. It was a piece of road upon which there was already a considerable amount of traffic, and, if the rush to Mokihinui extended, that traffic would be increased. Lately several persons had buiit upon or fenced in their sections, and the road, if road it might be called, now ran through the sand-hills, and was very ill-suited for traffic. By prison or other labor, it might be improved at small expense, and, as the principal or only approach to the town, it was worthy of their consideration whether some steps should not be taken to improve it. Mr Hughes thought that the same labor might be employed on the streets of Westport to very great advantage, and he suggested that a small amount weekly for the purpose of defraying the necessary cost might be contributed by the different house-holders. The Secretary intimated that the Chairman (Mr Tyler) had, some time ago, received a letter on the subject of

the Orawaiti road, from Mr Jones, of the Bridge Hotel. Mr O'Conob gave notice of a motion on the subject, to be proposed at next meeting:—" That the Government be requested to cause the road between Westport and the Orawaiti to be levelled aud rendered passable." Mr O'Conob explained that it was at his instigation that the meeting had been called. He w 7 as desirous that the Committee should more faithfully fulfil their trust by meeting more regularly, and, with that view, he suggested the appointment of a regular day of meeting, and the propriety of members who failed to attend three consecutive meetings being held to have vacated their seats. Mr Humphrey proposed every alternate Thursday, and half-past seven p.m., as the day and hour of meeting. This was agreed to, and the meeting was adjourned.