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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1022, 12 January 1882, Page 2

The proposed County loan of £7,000 and the schedule of Public Works upon which it was proposed to expend it, came up for discussion at the meeting of the Council on Friday night last. We do not at present intend t entering into the question as to the ’ modus operandi to be adopted in placing the loan on the market, should ). it receive the ratepayers assent. That ). part of the subject we may deal with on some future occasion. At present S we will point out the works upon » which the exhaustion of the loan is ,f contemplated. It is natural to supj pose that the ratepayers of the County •; should like to possess at least a somet what definite idea of the nature o. the h expenditure as proposed. The Public Works Committee appointed by the Council, brought up at the meeting on ■- Friday night last their report, and t furnished a schedule of the works rer commended. It will be remembered r that there is a stipulation to the effect e that in the event of the loan being ■- raised it will be distributed within a period of three years. In the schedule :1 submitted to the Council theotherevening a sum of £3,000 was recommended J to be spent the first year. The different sums for that year to be disbursed in the following manner :— Patutalii-Wairoa Road £6OO From the Bridge to Makaraka ... 1000 Ormond to Kaiteratafii 400 Pipiwhaka Bush 400 , Makaraka to Waerenga-a-hika ... 600 Making a total of £3OOO • For the second year it is proposed [ to spend £2,000 as follows :—• ,- Patutahi-Wairoa Road £6OO ,- From the Bridge to Makaraka ... 600 Mangatu Road 300 Makaraka to Ormond 500 Total £2OOO For the third year the proposed expenditure is as hereunder: — " For the Patutahi-Waarea Road ...£BOO From Maaaraka to the Town Boundary 600 • Mangatu Road ... 300 1 Makaraka to Ormond 300 r Total £2OOO t A glance at these figures will suffice i to show that the loan, if expended in • accordance with the schedule submitted > to the Council, will be all gone in a very circumscribed area. The sum of s £2OOO alone is to be spent upon the i Patutahi-Wairoa Road. From the : Bridge at Steggall’s Hotel to Makai raka £l6OO are to be expended. There • seems to have been an insufficiency of > time at the disposal of the committee when preparing their estimate. A sum of £6OO is set down to be expended during the first year in the ( Makaraka - Waefenga- a- hika Road. I On the second and third years a stun of • £5OO and £3OO ’ respec-

tively are to be spent upon the j Makaraka-Grmond road. As the I greater always includes the less, if the : estimates’be accepted by the ratepayers as they are now framed, there is nothing to prevent, should the loan be raised, the sum of £1,400 being spent in any one part of the line of road mentioned, say between Makaraka and Waerenga-a-hika. We think it would have been better, as a division has been made in the estimate for Makaraka to I Waerenga-a-hika, that the line of road from the latter place to Ormond, should be kept separate, and the proposed amount to be expended upon that particular portion of the line, more accurately specified. The ratepayers at Ormond would then have a clearer view of what they would be about when called upon to vote upon the question of the loan. Cr. Chambers in speaking against the schedule of works, condemned the restricted view it took of the requirements of the district. He pointed out forcibly that of the five ridings in the County it was actually intended to allocate the whole of the proposed loan to two Ridings. This, on the face of it, appears to be ’ so manifestly unjust that we can scarcely imagine the schedule of works 'in its unamended form being sub- ’. mitted to the ratepayers for their approval. We recognise in the fullest i possible degree how highly important ', it is that the main arterial line of i roads through the County should be i opened up as speedily as possible, i and those already formed maintained. -1 But it is a matter of grave considerai i tion whether it be judicious to raise the sura of £2OOO, at heavy interest, and expend it upon the Patutahi- ■ Wairoa road. For if the whole of the i Patutahi Wairoa road were completed i now to the Wairoa County boundary, the advantages accruing to the ratepayers here would be far from being I, adequate to the outlay, so long as the portion of the main road in the latter ’ County remains in its present stale. > As Cr. Chambers urged, the back i country in the outlying districts must : not be neglected in the matter of the loan. Prudential reasons alone should > be sufficient to guide the ratei payers on this point, because the t enhancement in value of property in ■ outlying districts by the construction ! of roads, and other works of that , character, our County revenue will bei come largely augmented.