NEWMARKET AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 227, 25 September 1929, Page 6

NEWMARKET AFFAIRS.

The Newmarket Borough Council per, ! advertisement proposes to borrow another 1 £1000 by its powers under the Relief of; Unemployment Act. This Act, while very good in its way, was never intended to give local bodies power to borrow and spend moneys upon works that should in the ordinary course of municipal management first have the con-' sent of the ratepayer. Newmarket has already' raised three loans under this Act, and it very questionable whether any. other than, tho first has been of public benefit. In the present case the council proposes to spend the bulk of tho proposed loan, £750, to cover up its past mismanagement and complete works for which it has already borrowed the sup- [ posed necessary money. First, £250 fbr alterations near tho triangle; £1200 was recently borrowed and spent upon the now famous ,tram stop proposal. When this proposal was before the ratepayers they were told to support this loan and no more difficulties with regard to traffic in Broadway would arise for ten years; the fallacy of this statement was soon apparent. The work was not carried out according to plan and now more money is required to adjust the error with the sacrifice of public ground, for which no monetary allowance appears to have been made; and still the traffic problems of Broadway are matters of grave national concern. Second, £500 for works in Sarawia Street. There has already been spent upon this work over £1000 without tho advisability of the work or the spending of the money receiving the judgment of the ratepayers. Such actions as these on the part of municipal administrators shake the confidence of ratepayers. Newmarket its three thousand population can have no serious unemployment problem and cannot justifiably claim a loau under the Act. There are many matters of greater importance than those proposed to be dealt with by the loa. . The council sits dumb upon the many schemes put forward by outsiders to circumnavigate the borough, all carrying trade away from instead of through the town; dumb upon the fire protection question; upon the conservation of its concrete roads and development of locked-up areas. RATEPAYER.