MASTERTON DRAINAGE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2797, 15 June 1916, Page 9

MASTERTON DRAINAGE

BIG LOAN REQUIRED.■. A proposal is afoot to make a drainage system at Masterton, and for this' work .£30,(100 will be required. Yesterday a deputation, consisting of Messrs.- (j. R. SySes (member for the district), J. M. Coradine (Mayor), and Candy, waited on the Hon. 1 G. W. Russell (Minister of Internal Affairs) and Sir Joseph; Ward (Minister of Finance) to see what arrangements could be made in the tfay of raising the necessary money, for the work.' . ' Mr. Coradine explained that it was proposed to take a poll of fte ratepayers, and if he could go back to iSasterton an<j give an assurance tliat satisfactory financil arrangements had been made, the prospects were that the loan might be carried. If.the poll ,was hot carried then the Minister (Hon. G. W. Russell) could exercise his authority under the Act and give .the borough power to raise the money. The amount required would be some ,£30,000, which could be spread over a period of three or four years. Sir Joseph Ward said there was only one way in which to obtain the money. He had no authority to give the borough a direct loan, and the only channel would be through the Public 'Trustee. The Department was not borrowing, large sums of'.money and lending' them to local bodies. The limit, a public lxxly could obtain now was ,£5000.' The Public Trust, however, had a great deal of money, and he had little doubt that if an application wero made in the right quarter, .the necessary amount could be raised - with proper security at 5i per cent.