WAITOA HIGHWAY DLSTllICT.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1258, 22 July 1880, Page 2

WAITOA HIGHWAY DLSTIIICT.

The annual meeting of the ratepayers of the Waitoa Highway District was held on the 17th, as advertised. Mr W. L. C. Williams, on being called to the chair, read the notice in the Waikato Times calling the meeting, after which Mr Chepmeli, Chairman of the outgoing Board, read the annual report, from which it appeared that the receipts for the year ending 31st March last amounted to £3236 3s lid, made tip as follows :— Balance in hand, £1104 15s Id; rates collected, £1026 3s ; subscriptions, £83 Is 3d ; Government subsidy. £516 county subsidy, £469 10s 8d ; sale of timber, £4 ss ; deposits on contracts, £25 ; interests on deposits in bank, £6 19s 4d; overdraft at bank, £88 los 4d ; total, £3324 19s 3d. The expenditure for the same period amounted to £3324 19s 3d, made up as follows : — New roads, survey, and construction, £373 Is lid; repairs and improvements, £1849 9s lid; bridges, £426 Is 8d ; purchase of materials, £265 16s 8d; salaries (including engineer's commission), £203 10s lOd ; travelling expenses, £2 2s ; collection of rates, £45 16s 5d ; sundries (including old survey account), £158 19a lOd ; total, £3324 19s 3d. Between the 31st March and the 30fh June the receipts have been £407 7s lOd, which, after deducting the £88 15s 4d due to the bank, made the total receipts come to £318 4s 6d, while the expenditure for the same period was £347 2s Sd, leaving £28 8s 2d due to bank Out of the £3236 3s lid the receipts up to 31st March, 1880, amounting to £1066 5s 7d was expended by the late Board between the 31st March «,• id the 30tU Jww, 18J9, no that the receipts of.

the 'present outgoing Boaril were £2160 •18 4il, to which must be added £3t7 2s Bil, thiis making the total receipts for the year ending 30th June, 1880, £2517 Is. The Board estimated their liabilities at about £100, and £125 have yet to be expended on the road between Morrins* ville and Richmond. To meet these liabilities the Board expect £250 from Government. The report was adopted, after which The meeting proceeded to the election of Trustees for the ent-uing year. Messrs W. P Ohepmell, T. Turubull, C. Gould, T. Hunt, R. Parr, J. Wood, and J. B. Smith were duly proposed and a ballot taken, when the first five named were declared elected. Messrs A. W. Gubbins and Choi man Alley were eleoted Auditors, and Messrs B. Willis and J. B. Smith— Fence-viewers. A vote of thanks was unanimously passed to the out-goiug Board of Trustees. The mesting then resolved by a good majority that the Dog Tax should not be brought into force in the district. The aext business for consideration was the division of the district into two Highway Districts, a petition to this effect having been sent in by sundry ratepayers to the Colonial Secretary. The late Board wrote to the Colonial Secretary -tating that they did not approve of the proposed boundaries for the new districts, but thought that a division would be advisable with other boundaries, to be defined. A long discussion ensued on the subject, and it Avas finally resolved by a majority of those piesent that it was desirable that the Waitoa Highway District should be divided into two separate Boards, the Waitoa River to a great extent being the boundary between the two. The matter is left to the new Board to take action on. A discussion as to the amount of the rate to be levied then took place, when the show of hands was in favor of one shilling in the pound, though a lower rate was evidently favored by many. In the hands of the new Board the matter, however, rests. At a meeting of the new Board held in the afternoon, W. P. Chepmell, Esq., was re-elected Chairman, and Mr Bremner Secretary.