Patea Loan Meeting.

Patea Mail, 14 August 1882, Page 3

Patea Loan Meeting.

£IO,OOO or NOTHING. Ratepayers are to meet to-morrow evening, to hear explanations of the proposed improvement works, and to consider the policy of borrowing £IO,OOO, repayable in fifteen years, secured on the revenues of the borough, and on a special rate of 6d in the pound, if needed. Ratepayers have to to face a serious problem. Business is dull, and they can make it duller by letting things drift from bad to worse. Money is hard to get—debts are difficult to collect—business languishes for want of a stimulant; and because these things are beyond dispute, some persons are saying the town is too large for the requirements of the district. This district is new and thinly settled. The colony we inhabit is also new and thinly settled. Yet. this district, like the colony, is improving from year to year by influx of new-comers, by increased cultivation, by enhanced value of properties, and by development of local industries. These growths are not noticed from week to week : it is by comparing one year with another that the changes strike you. Patea depends on its harbor trade ; and we can state definitely that this trade has increased in the last year, and is larger now than at the corresponding period of any previous year. Not only is this so, but a short experience of railway competition from Waitara has dispelled some delusions, and proved by the logic of facts that Patea is the cheapest and most convenient watergate for Hawera and the new district on the Plains. It has become clear, even to those who have been jealous of the growth of Patea, that the completion of the railway will give an overwhelming advantage to Patea as the inlet and outlet for a much larger district than is at present dependent on this harbor. That larger district will soon include Waverley on one side and Manaia on the other. It is useless and foolish to pretend that cheapness and quickness will not command the trade of these places. Yon might as well try to resist the ocean tide. The amount of goods coming into Patea harbor will probably be doubled within eighteen months, and will be much increased within a year. The harbor may or may not be further improved in a short time; but supposing no harbor funds be raised, the port is good enough and safe enough to do all the trade of the district for years to come. If the bar could be deepened, larger ships could come in, and freights would thereby be cheapened. Yet it should not be overlooked that the freights are even now cheap enough to compete with success in general merchandise against Waitara or Opnnaki for the bulk of trade up to Manaia, in spite of being handicapped by the railway from the north. When goods can be railed from this port to Hawera and lo Waverley, reducing the cost overland to one-third what it is now, there will bo no disputing the cheapness of Patea as the port for a district stretching along forty miles of coast. The starting of local industries, such as the oil and fibre mill, probably brick and tile works, the freezing of meat and preserving of dairy produce for export, should soon follow on efforts now being made. The effect will be to bring money into the district in exchange for local products, instead of the present system of interchange within the district. The opening of some land near Patea, and considerable areas of new country inland of Waverley, Hawera, and Normanby, will help to increase the volume of trade passing through this port town. The new policy of leasing proposed by Mr Rolieston is likely to develop land in this district which would otherwise remain unoccupied. It is for ratepayers to consider whether the prospects of this port-town are such as to warrant an expenditure on town improvements to the extent of £IO,OOO. Suppose they take a timid view of the future, and refuse to borrow, what will be the consequence ? It is

certain that in such case the next twelve months will be worse than the last. It is certain that many who have something to lose will realise what they can and go elsewhere. The employment of say 25 extra men on street works would circulate nearly £6O a week, equal to about £3,000 in the first year. This amount in Wages would be spent in the place on the necessaries of life, and the money would reach . the hands of every business man in the place, in some form. Over three thousand pounds will also be spent in drain tiles, and the larger part of this should be spent in the first year, of necessity. Nearly the whole of that sum would also go in wages, if the tiles were made.in the locality. Wo may take it that a total of nearly five thousand pounds would be spent by the Council during the first year in wages, reckoning drain pipe-making to be the same as wages.

There is still the other alternative : suppose the money is not borrowed, and is not spent, where will the advantage come in ? It is not easy to suggest a single benefit to anybody in the place by standing still. The Council are proposing to do what is done by traders every day : they propose to give security for a loan to extend their business, and doable their income.