Patea Loan and Improvements.

Patea Mail, 3 April 1882, Page 3

Patea Loan and Improvements.

The Borough Council will meet this evening, and it is to be hoped the Engineer will have his work sufficiently advanced to lay before the Council his report and estimate of cost of the proposed scheme for street improvements &c., in connection with a loan of £5,000. Time flies rapidly. Pour months have elapsed since the town became a borough; and though the Council seem to have lost no time in preliminaries, it is a fact all the same that the real work for which they were elected—that of raising a loan and improving the town by way of giving it a push ahead—is hardly yet begun. The Council have resolved on a scheme of local works ; the Engineer has been instructed to prepare an estimate of cost; and a public meeting has now to be held for discussing the scheme by the Ught of this estimate, after which the final test of a vote by ballot will he taken. Before the Council can move another step towards a loan, the Engineer’s estimate of cost must be given in, and must be submitted to' a meeting of ratepayers for discussion, after which a ballot can be taken—not at the meeting, but at a polling booth in the usual manner.

1 In the discussion at a public meeting, it will not be competent to amend or vary the scheme. The Council is the only body that could draw up and resolve on a scheme. Having done so, the Council will liaveij.6 refer the matter as

a whole to public discussion, together with the Engineer’s estimate of cost. Discussion is intended to lead to a clear understanding of the scheme,-but not to its alteration. The voting by ballot will therefore be for the scheme or against the scheme. No other- issue in the shape of amendment is admissible. That will be the choice before the ratepayers ; and it is to be hoped they will decide carefully, and with a clear understanding of the advantages to be gained and the liabilities to be incurred.

The scheme as adopted by the Council proposes to borrow £5,000 on the security of rents from endowments (also on rates as a collateral security if necessary); and the works to be executed, placed in the order of importance, are: Information of Bedford-street; 2, drainage ; 3, securing a water supply ; 4, continuing formation of Egmont-street southward ; 5, widening Egmont-street to the northern boundary ; 6, planting Bedfordstreet. It will be observed that there is latitude on each item for a larger or smaller expenditure, , as the scheme stands at present; hut it is expected that when the Council have the Engineer’s detailed report of each work and its cost, they will define the extent of each work, to bring it within the amount of loan. The Council have resolved to widen Bedford-street, for instance, but they have not fixed the grade, nor whether footpaths shall be added to the whole length of street. These details will depend on the estimate of cost. The Council may accept one or other estimate, supposing the Engineer reports on alternative plans of formation, of grade, and of width. When the Council have resolved which estimate to accept, and have thus defined each of the works, a public vote can be then taken on the whole scheme as defined in the estimates adopted by the Council.