Is a Loan Wanted?

Patea Mail, 2 June 1882, Page 2

Is a Loan Wanted?

If a loan for the borough is required, the reasons for it should be shown. The question has been discussed hitherto as if £5,000 had to be spent, and the only difference was as to the mode of spending it. But the question to settle before that is: Will a loan be a beneficial expedient in present circumstances ? The town is in this that having made rapid growth lately,; its trade is suffering a relapse, and there are too many trades for the amount of business doing. The expectation of continued increase is not realised, and cannot be until more land near Patea gets opened for settlement, and until this port is put on equal terms with others by having railway connection with the Plains and with Waverley. When these expectations are realised—some land being opened within a year, some railway extension made within a year, and*a completion of the line northward within two years—then Patea will more than double its trade, and the population will

largely increase.It appears then that the stagnation in business will give place to renewed briskness within twelve months, and that a rapid growth may then follow upon the opening of more land in the district within reach of this port as a trading centre. What is needed, therefore, is some temporary addition to the ordinary trade of the place; some stimulus to relieve the stagnation, and -promote the circulation of money. This can be done by a loan, to be spent in wages on public works in the town. The most beneficial form of circulating money so as to reach all ’classes is to spend the bulk of it in wages; The bulk of £5,000 spent in this way during two years will have a marked effect on the trade of the place. Jt will help, the resident population over a dull period, and it will keep laborers in the place instead of starving them out. The main value of the loan is to promote a steady prosperity by relieving the present depression. Of course a town cannot be improved without increasing its desirableness for building. Population will increase; new buildipgs will be added ; and the value of. property will improve. When the loan has served its purpose in helping, these things, other aids to prosperity will come in the shape of railway extension and the settlement of more land near Patea. Unless these were in prospect, the temporary stimulus of a loan would be unhealthy because it would be a short-lived prosperity, leading to greater depression. As it is, the prospect is one that requires a loan; as a temporary expedient,- with every indication that the operation will be healthy and remunerative. Ratepayers will have to choose therefore .between securing this loan expenditure mthout further loss of time, or defeating the scheme at the ballot-box, and so throwing the town into a worse depression.