Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, MARCH, 25. 1926. THE NEW TOWN HALL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3015, 25 March 1926, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, MARCH, 25. 1926. THE NEW TOWN HALL.

THERE is much to be said in support of the stand taken by Crs McMurray, Cowley and Winstanlev in an endeavour to include a public* reading-room and library in the new Town Hall, but it is questionable whether such alternate proposal?, if submitted to the ratepayers contemporaneously with a straightout proposal for the re-erection of the Town Hall, would in the circumstances, meet with success. Public opinion appears to centre on the immediate construction of the Town Hall. The Council, in adopting the plans of the new building, expressed the opinion that a separate proposal at a later date should be submitted to the ratepayers. In respect to the application from the Plunket Society for special accommodation, the Council cannot pledge loan money for exclusive rights to any institution over which it has no direct control, but it can rent any part of the building to tenants at such rentals as will not impose a burden on the ratepayers. It must not be forgotten that Councillors are the trustees of the public funds and however sympathetic they may be personally to any deserving institution, as trustees they must walk warily in the matter of concessions. The Council as a whole —not forgetting the Town Clerk—has acted with commendable promptitude in having the new hall erected and their elforts should be consummated within the next six months, when a building worthy of the town will rise from the ashes of the former structure.