HASTINGS WATER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 1 December 1927, Page 4

HASTINGS WATER

INCREASED SUPPLY FAVOURED LITTLE INTEREST IN POLL, LARGE MAJORITY CARRIES LOAN. The polling on tho queitlon or raising a loan of £I»,IN for ths purpose of extending tho Hastings borough water system was taken yesterday, the loan being declared carried by 3M votes against 34, with one informal vote. Following are the figures recorded at the polling stations:—

These returns show that very little interest was taken in a matter vitally affecting the progress of Hastings, and it points to the fact that, if there was any strongly organised opposition to the proposal, a concerted vote of the ratepayers could defeat the loan. During the past few years the voting on the loan polls averaged somewhere about 950 and the next lowest record to yesterday's figures was in 1920, when on a vote of the ratepayers to raise a loan of £5BOO for the purchase of Nelson Park, only 449 votes were cast. Yesterday only 343 ratepayers and . their wives took sufficient interest in ” the discharge of their duty to ths town to register their views, out of a. total of 4196 names on the roll, although the Mayor (Mr. G. A. Maddison) made a strong appeal to the voters in favour of the loan, pointing out the absolute necessity existing for the extension of the water system and instancing the fact that, in a serious crisis, the supply would be totally inadequate to meet the demands made upon it. In the meantime the position is no worse in Hastings than elsewhere, but it presents a problem that challenges a solution.

Protestant Hall 140 13 1 St. Matthew's Hall 77 7 o Manson’s Shop 91 14 0 —— Totals 308 34 1