COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTIONS

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 278, 5 November 1884, Page 2

COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTIONS

MB. HUBBEY AT MAKABAKA. it Mb. J. B. Hvukby addressed the electors of 10 the Gisborne Biding, at Makaraka last night, n when there were about forty or fifty persons _ present. Captain Tucker was voted to the chair, and ie after a short speech, introduced the speaker. Mr. Hurrey said he found it necessary to cast his memory back during the past three years, in order to understand and be able to explain to the meeting what had been done during that period, and to enable them to form a tolerable opinion of what the representatives in the County Council would do in the next three years. First he would have to indict on them a quotation of a number of figures. The area of Cook County was 1,800,000 acres, containing a population of 6,200. The revenue for the past three years was £14,631, and the grants from the general Government amounted to £9,049, making a total of £23,680 of money received. Then there was the cost of administration by the County Council, £3,570. There was at the present time 17 miles of metaled roads in the County, which had cost £16,040. There were 442 ratepayers, exercising 820 votes and paying annually rates of £3,771 7s 3dT Crown rates, £561 2s 3d ; Native rates, £527 2s 6d; licenses, £497; pounds, £B5; rents accruing to the County, £7O ; raised by dog tax, £305 ; slaughter houses, £6B ; special rates, £4O. Now there were two special grants, one of £10,725, the other of £l,OOO. Of these sums at the present time there remained an unexpended balance of £7,600. That balance was voted for the Patutahi road, and included the road through the Pipiwhaka bush, and from the bridge to the Boyal Oak Hotel, Malawhero. This then bore an annual charge, payable to the General Government in the shape of interest, so long as it remained ure rnded, o and it was now for the ratepayers to say how long they were willing to pay that interest. He considered it necessary from an economi. oal point of view to spend that money at once instead of detaining it. It appeared that out of this £7600 there had been spent £340 on drains and formation on the Patutahi road. There has been paid to the general Governn ment by way of interest on the money , granted under the Boads and Bridges ’ Construction Act, £290 Us., and a n further sum of £2lO is now due. That r was an incurred liability, and the greatest ,{ portion of it had to bo paid by the ratepayers. He would tell them why the Council had incurred this liability: it was because they did “ not know how to spend the £7OOO. They 1 required at present bridges at Te Arai and at Scott’s crossing. The County Council, inkconnection with the Borough Council, had ~ entered into some arrangement for the erection of a bridge over the Turanganui river, and to execute that work it would take a special grant of £7lOO from the Gove., nent, 1 without pressing the revenue of the county. He had yet to learn, with the ratepayers, whether the County Council had hypothecated any portion of the £7,600 for purposes other • than was intended. It had been rumoured such was the case, but ha had not been able to get definite information on that point. The speaker then went on to explain what each riding contributed, and what amount each had expended on them. The Gisborne »- Biding contributed to the revenuej||for [the' past 12 months about £1,125 Bs. lOd. and there had been expended in that riding £2,544 6s 3d. Te Arai Biding contributed £1,263 8s 7d; expended in it, £2,202 8s 6d. Waimata Riding contributed £1,831 7s 9d; expended in it £1,134. Tologa .ay Biding contributed £Bl2 Ils 9d; expended in it £912 18s Od. With regard to the Waiapu Biding there had been considerable complaints from the ratepayers, and those complaints wore justly founded for the riding contributed £B9B 5s Id; and there had only been expended in it £143 10s Od. He wished to touch on another subject. They had no ’ accommodation houses between Opotiki and Gisborne, or between Wairoa and Gisborne. He explained fully the terms by which the Government proposed to help towards getting those accommodation houses but they were ' very unfavorable and impracticable, but it was essential that such places should be at once established. The next subject was the Harbor Bill and the amendment. He did not know, and ho did not think anybody in Gisborne knew what was going to be /one with the £40,000, which has been tacked on tt. I' 6 »,"’ aa an appendage to the arbor Bill. No doubt, he considered the members of the House when agreeing to this, did so, not so much for the harbor, but for the formation and making of the roads to connect Gisborne with Wairoa and Opotiki, and also Waiapu with the town of Gisborne. He did not know whose hands that money would be filtered through. Whether it would be sne nt directly through the Government, or whether through the County Council, but from the past he would say that the Government would spend it themselves with the sanction get their own money and arants not say that they should altoge“‘r’ cease « pending money on the line of the co “ntv but the ratepayers here wanted to use th</* ]>>o n ey, and keep it, and if they could do ho Ono y tiM r„ a „ Then thera the Opotiki road which required making very

badly, and for various reasons an amount of money should he expended in that direction, £6,000 would be required to make a good job of it. Certain other inland roads required making which would certainly be the means of. opening up the country, facilitate the bringing of produce into town, and woulc open agricultural and pastoral lands. Annihm matter was the cost of constructing the roads Their revenue, derived from all sources, foi the past three years was about £5,00( per year, and they had only made sixteen or seventeen miles of road, and were ther seven years over it. Why? Because the cost of administration to the County was twentyfive per cent, upon the revenue, and people were rather afraid to borrow, because they did not know how. When they did they could not make a wise use of it. If that £5,000, instead of being doled out, were spent in. the form of interest, less the cost of administration of about four years, then they could be enabled to borrow enough money to make the whole of their roads, and the cost to the Council would be so reduced 50 per cent. By making the roads at once they could sav< £5OO per annum. If he were returned as a representative to the County Couneilhe woulc certainly try to get the roads made, and woub advocate borrowing. He considered that th< Chairman of the Council should be elected by the ratepayers, and not by the Councillors, and that the Chairman, at the expiration of every year should present a report of th< revenue received, and from what sources it was derived, and the expenditure, and the mode in which it had been expended. A balance-sheet was not definite enough and was difficult for many of them to understand.