Patea Borough Council. £lO,OOO LOAN.

Patea Mail, 24 July 1882, Page 3

Patea Borough Council. £IO,OOO LOAN.

A special meeting was held on Friday evening, to further consider the loan scheme. The Council sat as a committee, there being present the Mayor (in the chair), Councillors Milroy, Aitchison, Howilt, Black, Dixon, Mahony, Adams, and Gibson. The amount of work to be included in the loan had been reduced on the previous evening from an estimate of over £20,000 to a probable cost of £12,236. Councillor Aitchison : I don’t understand the Engineer’s report. He evidently means to say this will cost a great deal more money than the first scheme, and will noi be an improvement on it. Could the Engineer suggest to us any way of cheapening it ? Engineer: As to the drainage of Bedford street and to the Heads, the report does say that this proposal is not an improvement ; but that is not said of the general scheme. Councillor Aitchison : If the old drainage scheme as far as it went will be equally effective and cheaper, why should we not adopt it ? Councillor Milroy : This system of drainage must be far more effective because the old scheme did not provide for more than the main road. The drain behind the town, along the low ground from M’Carty’s southward to the.Lake, will be a great advantage. Councillor Gibson : The last scheme simply drained Egmont street. It is evident that the town should be opened up and made available for settlement by drainage. This scheme will drain from the extreme northern boundary, and all the swampy ground behind Mc’Garty’s. Councillor Aitchison : I think we are spending too much on the drainage of Egmont street. Councillor Gibson ; There is not much necessity for drainage on the top of Egmont street, but there is great necessity for drainage along the low ground between Egmont street and Rhodes’s estate. Engineer: The advantage of this scheme is that it increases the size of pipes. The other scheme was not intended for house service, but only as temporary relief. The amount proposed was too small. As to the deviation, if the outlet • is to be by the Lake, the present is best; but if brought down Oxford street or Victoria street, I think the outlet would would be better carried to the Heads, as proposed before. Councillor Aitchison ; It would require about three years to spend the loan now proposed, and that would leave three years’ salary to be provided for the Engineer. Councillor Milroy : I hope we shall not be without drainage three years. Mayor: All the working sections for contracts are prepared now, are they not? Engineer : The estimates are all prepared, There might have to be tracings made in preparing for contracts. Drain Pipes. Councillor Milroy ; The cost of drain pipes alone will be between three and four thousand pounds, and a large portion of the work is fit for drain pipes to be put in now. The whole of Egmont street is fit to receive pipes at once. Mayor: Definite arrangements have now been entered into for making drain pipes in this place. Within three months from the present they will be in process of manufacture. The clay has been tested. If pipes can be made here equal to other places, and sold at a price equal to other places, I should think the local factory would have the privilege of supplying them.

Mayor : As to the Engineer's salary, the cost of the official staff should he cliarged to ordinary revenue, because ordinary work will be going on. Drain to the Cliff. Engineer : I have to-day inspected the outlet between the Lake and Victoria street, and have came to the conclusion that it would be better to take a pipe along Middlesex street to the Lake, and from the Lake to the sea, and do away with the outlet from Victoria street. There will be only one open ditch instead of two. During the discussion, the Engineer said the outlet could probably be best taken from Oxford street (Institute) accross Rhodes’s swamp to the cliff. This outlet would drain the Lake, and all the low ground from behind M’Carty’s to the Lake. Mayor : More reduction is wanted. Devon streeet is a heavy item, and I think it could be reduced by making only a temporary level, except at the intersecting end in Bedford street. A gullet could be run through the other portion. Council ChambersCouncillor Milroy : As to Council buildings, we should be satisfied with offices for £BOO. We can add to them. Councillor Adams : Those offices should be a separate affair. We could build and take a mortgage. Councillor Milroy : You can’t get - a mortgage when there is no title to offer. Yhu would have no power to sell. Councillor Adams : Then borrow the money ? Councillor Milroy ; Who would lend it ? Councillor Adams : I shouldn’t mind lending the Council £BOO to build new offices. Mayor : Better go a step further and say you will lend the money. (Laughter.) Councillor Adams : I don’t say I will do it now, but 1 should not be afraid to do it. Councillor Gibson : A good public building, with shops on the ground floor, might be made to pay its own interest. Councillor Dixon : If these offices are not built out of this loan, wo shall never get them. Councillor Aitchison : Another thing is that this public building would be something to show for our money. A portion of this loan will be spent on underground work that does not show. Mayor : We should either have a plain room for meeting in at a cost of £SOO, or a good large building at £IOOO. Councillor Adams : If wo put up public offices, they should be good ones.’ Mayor : A hall might be included in the plan, and it could be utilised for public purposes. A side room for the Council to meet in would be sufficient. Councillor Aitchison : They have got a suitable building in Wanganui for £760, without furniture. Councillor Gibson : We ought to allow £IOOO, to include furnishing and a strong room for documents. Reducing the Estimates. Mayor : Can the Engineer lower the estimate throughout for’drainage ? Engineer: I cannot recommend any reduction. You might take off £SOO from the earthwork estimates as a whole. Councillor Milroy : If the local manufacture of pipes would reduce the estimate of cost, that would make a difference on the whole scheme. Councillor Gibson proposed that £IOOO be allowed for Council Chambers. Councillor Milroy thought the upper part of Egmont street need not be disturbed, being newly gravelled. Agreed to. reduce the cost of Egmont street north by nearly £IOOO. The formation to be done only as far as Gloucester street, and footpaths gravelled but not kerbed. Engineer’s supervision was put down at £3OO, to be charged against loan. Total estimates now stood at £10,791. Mayor : Now we have £BOO still to reduce. £II,OOO Loan Proposed. Councillor Gibson : Why reduce the scheme any more. We have gone carefully through it. Why not go for £11,000? Mayor: I am ready to support it in that form. Councillor Aitchison ; I should stick to £IO,OOO on the chance of getting the work done for that amount. Councillor Gibson : A matter of another £SO a year should not induce us to spoil a scheme that would be a credit to the town. Councillor Dixon : As all this work would be let by contract, there is a fair margin for us to work on. We should stand a better chance of getting £IO,OOO

than £II,OOO, and might save the other thousand on contracts. Mayor : I think so, bnt we have to put before the public an estimate, and if we show that wo are going to borrow only £IO,OOO to do work estimated to cost £10,790, it would be illegal. It would be as well to raise the extra money, and if it is not required, it can be spent on other works. Councillor Milroy : I would like to see it reduced to the £IO,OOO. The other seems an odd number. Mayor : There is luck in odd numbers. Councillor Milroy ; It would be a reduction of only 8 per cent all through. Councillor Adams : Take off the new offices, 1 don’t think many ratepayers care whether we have new offices. Mayor ; I don’t care about a building, but we all said we would endeavor to be unanimous, and I know there is one Councillor unable to be present to-night who would, not agree to the scheme if those offices were left out. This proposed reduction by so much per cent, seems a way of getting over the difficulty. I believe the Engineer’s estimates would bear a reduction of 10 per cent, all round, and if he would agree to prepare them at that, let us take it so. Councillor Aitchison : If the money were found not sufficient, we could arrange to cheapen the work as it went on. Council lor Milroy : Most of the reduced estimates are only approximations, and the Engineer would not stand by them as correct. lam told there is likelihood of good gravel being found on Whenuakura block, along the railway cutting, and that, would cheapen the work immensely. Councillor Gibson : All the current expenses will remain the same for £II,OOO as for £IOOOO. We have passed nothing that is not urgent. Councillor Aitchison : I fancy many ratepayers consider £IO,OOO too much, and we may lose many votes on the additional thousand. Councillor Dixon : We shall have to propose another loan for water supply at no distant date, and we should keep this as low as possible. Mayor : £II,OOO is an awkward sum, and I think £IO,OOO would work out very well.

£IO,OOO Loan Carried. Councillor Gibson ; Then I will alter my motion to £IO,OOO, on the understanding that the work is to be reduced about 10 per cent, all round to bring the total within that sum. Councillor Mahony : I second that. Councillor Aitchison ; Nothing has been said about sinking fund, or the length of time which this money shall be borrowed. Councillor Adams : And the time during which it shall be spent. Councillor Aitchison : I don’t think the ratepayers need hesitate to borrow, although the sum is very much larger than I should like to see borrowed. The difficulty in paying interest on it will be felt only in the first year or two, because about four years hence, a great many reserves will come into the market—those that were let for ten years; and with these street improvements, many of those reserves will bring in a large revenue. These works should bring some prosperity to the place, and bring in more ratepayers. The £6OO or £7OO required for interest is not a great sum, though it we provide a sinking fund, that will alter the question. Motion pul, and carried unanimously'. Mayor: I beg to congratulate the Council on having arrived unanimously at a scheme for borrowing £IO,OOO for improvements ; and I hope we shall get to work as speedily as possible, and that there may be no more delays than those imposed by the routine laid down in the Act. Mayor : I move that a special meeting of the Council be held next Monday (tonight), to receive report of committee. That will be the proper time to consider the points raised as to sinking fund &c Motion carried, and the Council adjourned.