Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, MAY 16, 1809. Borrowing.

Manawatu Herald, 16 May 1899, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, MAY 16, 1809. Borrowing.

During the good old-fashioned days, when the oldest of our readers were young, borrowing was not considered either a wise or safe thing for either private individuals or public bodies to 1 undertake lightly. All that is changed, and in a colony borrowing is the very breath of life in its developement. We are urged to draw attention to this view of the act of borrowing as we are promised a proposal by the Borough Council for borrowing fo r road-making. We have for long been guided in our public affairs by men who happily possessing much of this world's goods, feared that by calling in outside aid in the develop? ment ot our property, an increase in the rates might be made, and which seems to be very much against the wish of some. We cannot, however, help noticing that those who are lukewarm in the proposal to raise a loan for road formation are mostly those who have secured a metalled road to their land. Those who have had to pay for this luxury for others without having reaped any corresponding advantage for themselves, think the time has arrived when they should have roads as well as other ratepayers, and the only way in which that can be gained within the lifetime of these ratepayers is to raise a loan, which those coming after us will be well able to pay. And will they not be ? The total value of property in the Counties is valued at £83,156,776, and in the Boroughs at £40,085,565, or a joint total of £123,242,441 ! and what is the actual amount that has been borrowed ? only a paltry sum of £2,835,532 on which as much as £291,072 has been paid. As yet this Borough has no loan, and the consequence has been that the ratepayers of the Borough have jointly and severally paid for all the roads that are metalled whether they are of any use

to them or uot. but about which none complain admitting the fact that all must contribute to the public welfare. As it has been made pretty plain lately that all our roads will never be metalled within ;i reasonable period, it becomes a necessity to take different steps to secure their formation, and every ratepayer is in honour bound to assist — to do to others as they have been done by. As to whether it is wise to borrow or not we have very strong opinions, and that is borrowing must be resorted to as the only means to redress the otherwise unequal distribution of the rates. We notice that speaking in Auckland last Saturday Lord Ranfurly said "it was all right enough to speak of adopting a borrowing policy, but while he in a sense approved of that idea, in so far as it related to the borrowing of money for the construction of railways, the making of roads, and the opening up of the unsettled portions of the colony, a borrowing policy could not, for many reasons, be adopted for the purpose of opening up the goldfields of New Zealand." In the colony there are 97 Boroughs, and only 39 have no separate rate to pay. There are also Si Counties and only 16 are without some extra rates. These figures show that the members of most local bodies have found that the only way to fairly develope the country is by borrowing, and thus the action of the proposer for a loan for this Borough receives ample confirmation of the grasp he has got of the only way out of our difficulty. We trust the ratepayers will talk over the proposal with each other, and we believe if this is done, the necessary majority will be obtained to carry the poll.