The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1892. Borough Affairs

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 72, 6 December 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1892. Borough Affairs

In a letter published to-day in our correspondence column " Colonist " again refers to the important subject of the drainage of the town of Feilding. While he admits the necessity for expenditure in this direction he makes no suggestion as to where tbe money, necessary for the performance of this work, is to come from, and opposes the opinion expressed by ourselves to the effect that a loan would be compulsory before this or any other public work could be undertaken. He, and all other ratepayers in the Borough, must know perfectly well that tbe present revenue is only sufficient to pay Current expenses, therefore no belp can be expected from that source. It is not too much to expect that the valuations for next year will show a considerable increase over those on wbich rates are now being paid, owing to the number of new buildings which have been erected in the interval, but there are old roads to be repaired and new ones made, besides the contribution towards the interest on the loan for the erection of the bridge over the Oroua river at Aorangi, which will more than absorb this increment. It has been objected that a new loan would necessarily increase the rates payable by the many for the sole benefit of the few, as represented by the business people established in the more central part of the town. This would be a sound reason — if it were based on a sound foundation— but it is not. In proportion to the value of his business premises and the land on which they are situated, a commercial or professional man pays ten or twenty times more than a resident in tbe suburbs, while the latter reaps a positive as well as an indirect benefit from the presence of the trading and commercial men in their midst. The advantages derivable from all necessary public works are spread over the I whole surface, and not confined, as has been contended, to one portion of the town. We believe it is possible to formulate a scheme whereby the present loan can be obliterated by a | new one which would be large enough to allow of the public works previously indicated to be undertaken and completed in five years, without the burdens of the ratepayers being increased to any v«ry appreciable extent. '