MUNICIPAL HALL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 947, 28 January 1911, Page 3

MUNICIPAL HALL.

PROPOSED LOA*., ,£2BOO. At last night’s special meeting of the Borough Council the proposal to erect a municipal hall was further discussed. The Mayor stated that the committee appointed at a previous meeting to go into the matter of a site had visited several localities and had found that the most suitable place was the site on which the old Council Chambers now stand. The frontage of this section, however, was barely enough, and the committee recommended that the adjoining section, with cottage erected thereon, be purchased. This is now under offer to the Council for ,£3OO. The cottage could be shifted to the back of the section and could be given rent free to the caretaker of the Hall in lieu of payment. The interest on ,£3OO at 5 per cent, was ,£ls, and he looked upon the purchase of the section as a good speculation, as to pay a caretaker would take more than ,£ls per year. He favoured making the loan proposal ,£2BOO instead of ,£2500 as previously decided, as he did not think it would be advisable to curtail the cost of the Hall any further. Cr Speirs said that one man with a certain amount of influence was going dead against the proposal on the ground that the amount was too large. Under the circumstances he questioned whether it would not be better to make ,£2500 cover the whole cost.

Crs Rimmer, Coley and Gibbs favoured making the proposal ,£2BOO, contending that it would be inadvisable to curtail the building for the sake of ,£3OO. The Mayor moved, seconded by Cr Rimmer, and carried: “That this Council proposes to borrow the sum of ,£2BOO for the purposes of erecting and furnishing a Town Hall in the Borough of Foxton and for the purpose of paying the interest, sinking fund and other charges (if any), to strike a special rate of three-farthings in the £ on the basis of the unimproved value on all the rateable property in the whole of the Borough of Foxton, such rate to be an annual recurring rate during the currency of such loan, and be payable yearly on the first day of July in each year during the currency of such loan. The cost of raising the loan and the first year’s interest to be paid out of the loan.”

After the motion had been passed, the Mayor said it was the boundeu duty of the Council as a whole to endeavour to have the loan carried. The proposal was a sound one, and the Councillors should do all in their power to put it before the ratepayers in the best light possible.