“RATEPAYERS BEWARE."

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5140, 17 June 1927, Page 2

“RATEPAYERS BEWARE."

£To the EditorJ

Sir,—Coming events cast their shadows before. More loans, which mean more rates, are in the air, and it behoves the ratepayers to beware, it wlil surely be time enough to raise more money when times improve and we can afford it, and when we can depend upon loan moneys being more economically and judiciously expended. It seems incredible that the Borough Council should attempt to increase the rates on already overburdened ratepayers, at a time, too, when economy is the order of the day. The report by the Mayor op borough highways and streets qs published in your last issue is alarming, interesting, and instructive, and calls for some serious thinking. In so far as the report goes, it is quite excellent, and has evidently taken up a considerable portion of the Mayor’s time and attention and he is to be commended in producing it, although some calculations are based upon supposition. But what of the contemplated loan, its expenditure, and the extra burden which it will entail on the ratepayers ? These are considerations which weigh heavily, and are a harder problem to solve than the mere reading of the Mayor’s report, which occasions some anxiety. I would remind ratepayers that a poll was taken and carried on February 11, 1920, to borrow £11,500' for street improvements, etc., at a rate of 5% per cent, per annum, repayment to be spread over a period of 36% years; yet within the short space of seven years all this money has been spent with the exception of a balance of a few hundred pounds which is now in the hands of the executioner. Ip his report the Mayor states that “any loan that might be raised will have to be repaid over some such term of years, and the. work must of necessity last for at least the term of the loan.” If any ratepayer is mad enough to imagine that any road, excepting, perhaps, the best of concrete, will last 36% years (maintenance thrown in), he will be sadly informed, as others have been in the past. Can anyone see distinctly where the 1920 loan of £11,500 has been expended or say that we have had full value for our money ? The expenditure of this large sum has been made in seven years : will the work done last out the balance cf the term for which’ the money was borrowed, namely, another 29 years? If so, why is another £lO,OOO required so soon- Is it to reconstruct and repair roads and footpaths upon which £11,500 has already been spent and on which a rate has to be paid for another 29 years ? Assuming that the £lO,OOO is raised, then what of the expenditure. Will the work accomplished last for “at least the term of the loan ?” I vouch not, and venture to state that yet another £lo,ooo' will be required before the lapse of another 10 years. Therefore this matter needs the careful consideration of the ratepayers, and they will require to see that in the event of more loans being raised they obtain full value for their money. If this is obtained, then objections are not so great and the proposals might carry’. A RATEPAYER.