The Wirral Improvement District

was held in 1905.

Many decisions were made including a levy of 1.5 cents per acre.

Work would begin on two roads and a tender would go out for cutting brush; this was the first of the roadwork undertaken in this district.

The brush-cutting tender was awarded for the sum of $30 for four miles and $20 for the remaining two miles in this township. A committee was elected in 1906.

the first road equipment was purchased.

A local man would be employed as a foreman with a wage of 25 cents per hour. Gophers were a major issue for the early settlers and the municipality would provide 15 pounds of poisoned grain for each quarter of land.

Not many of us have noticed the town of Wirral, Sask. on a road map; it was actually named after Wirral, England. When the Canadian Pacific Railway came through in 1905, a town site about three miles east of Wirral was chosen.

Railway officials officially named this new town site Lashburn; the Wirral post office and store were moved to this site and became part of Lashburn in 1906.

Amongst the early ordinances dating back to 1884 of the Northwest Territories (which would later become Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905) were provisions for the establishment of rural municipalities.

The Statute Labour Ordinance was passed in 1897 and a year later the Local Improvement Ordinance began.

Each local improvement district was initially one township.

In 1903, a new Local Improvement Bill reorganized all the onetownship local improvement districts and abolished the statute labour.

This new bill now provided for local improvement districts for an area of four townships. Each would annually elect a council.

The legislature made provisions in 1904 to financially provide an economical system for its rural municipalities.

Dating back to the early days of the Roman Empire, statute labour is defined as unpaid work for public projects including road maintenance. This labour was reserved for certain classes of society who owed money or services.

The newly-organized Wirral Improvement District’s first meeting

They decided that only those folks who were holders of Dominion lands would be assessed; those who filed before mid-May would not be on the assessment roll.

Ratepayers would be charged eight percent interest on arrears of taxes if not paid before the end of the year.

A discussion about a proposition of building a grist mill at Lashburn was referred to a public meeting. In 1907

A man was employed in each division at $2 per day to poison the gophers. A bounty of half a cent per gopher’s tail would be paid. By the end of 1907, there was an arrear of $4111.79 and only $1718.16 was actually collected.

At the end of 1906, machinery expenses were $748.58. This included four ploughs, 24 scrapers, two scythes, four scrub hooks, one logging chain and one-horse evener.

The Wirral Improvement District was eventually renamed the R.M. of Milton, No. 292 in 1911.