A BUSY YEAR

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19897, 28 May 1936, Page 14

A BUSY YEAR

COUNTY COUNCIL WORK. CONTROL OF RAGWORT. (Times Representative). NGAHL‘A\\'AHIA. Wednesday. “Durinfi.r the past year. 13 miles oft road were metalled. 6;; miles by the[ Public \\’orks Department, under reliet‘ works, and 71} miles by the coun- I eil from riding: funds and Governmentl zrants,” said Mr K. .\I. \Vrtsht. Raglan 1 County engineer at the annual meet-i ing of the council yesterday, review-! in}; work carried out during the past! year. “The length of metalled roads in] the county now totals 499 miles and unmetztlleri roads 132 miles. Of the inetalled romls 107 miles are declared highways and carry a subsidy of £3 for £1 front the Main Highways Board. 3 towards the cost of maintenance," . eontinued .\lr \\'right. New bridgesf were constructed to a total length of' 110 feet. making the length of bridges t of 25 feet span and over. in the county, i 7083 feet. This comprises 691 feet; of all conerete. 2552 feet of steel.] concrete and timber. 925 feet of! .\tlstralian hardwood and 2015 feet in New Zeal-and timbers." control of Ragwort. “Ragwort control was an important item in the working of the county last, yearn" said Mr Wright. “Four of! the To ‘\kan North Rabbit- Board In-1 spectors, under Mr Souness, were ap—i pointed as noxious weed inspectors.| over the northern part of the eount)‘.| while u full time illSpector. .\lr \\'ebb, was appointed for the southern end. The lmtk ut‘ the mixing of sodium chlorate and lime in proportion of ii: ewt of sodium chlorate to one ton of lime. was carried out at the Ngaruawahia depot and from there was dis—tributed to Various localities through—out the county. The amount distributed either in mixed or raw material was 25; tons of sodium chlorate and‘ 241 tons of lime. Relief labour subsidised to full rate 01' pay was used‘ ‘I wherever possible." i The engineer was ot’ the opinion tthat improvement could be effected on ' the work of the past year. and he was \oonvineed that the spreading of rag—lwort in the ltagzian County could be ‘controlled. Damage by Floods. Progress of all work in the eountv had been greatly hindered by adverse weather. Heavy rains during the year had caused considerable tiood damage and a good deal of any available inouev had to be diverted towards the restor: ation of danmge. \\‘ith the exception of several bridges, most of the dam—age had been restored and the 1-03.],-generaily were in fair «'ondition to withstand the approaching \\'inter.