THE PUTARURU PRESS. ’Phone 28 – – -P-O. Box 44 Office – Oxford Place THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1925. LOAN FINANCE.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 241, 14 June 1928, Page 4

THE PUTARURU PRESS. ’Phone 28 - - -P-O. Box 44 Office - Oxford Place THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1925. LOAN FINANCE.

THE free discussion indulged in at the Town Board meeting' on Monday night, with the engineer, in regard to loan works, should do much to clear the air in regard to many little matters which may not have been quite clear to ratepayers. As was pointed out constructive criticism is always welcomed, and that of the purely destructive kind can be well overlooked even though at the time it may be somewhat annoying', in other words no scheme which has yet been promulgated has pleased everyone, human nature being as it is.

Perhaps the point which is least i understood, and which has naturally been magnified as it touches the pockets of ratepayers, is the fact that 1 the full rate has been struck for the whole loan proposals embracing a total of £10,500 of loan money, irrespective of any subsidies which will be secured, and which of course will not affect the rate. The reason for this is simply that the local loan proposals were one of the first to go before the recently created Local Government Bodies’ Loans’ Board, which board has power to lay down the conditions under which a loan shall

be raised. Two modifications insisted upon by this board were: (1) That | the term of the loan should be confined to 21 years; and (2) that interest and sinking fund for the first year should be paid out of rate and not from loan money. These factors not only increase the rate owing to the necessity of having a sinking fund which will pay oil the loan in 21 years instead of 36 years, but compel ratepayers to put up the cash before the job is done. Previous to the establishment of the Local Government Bodies’ Loans’ Board it was customary, and quite

within the powers of a local body, to spread a loan for loan works over a period of 36 years, and also to pay the .first year’s interest and sinking fund out of loan moneys. This, of course, enabled a much lower rate to be struck, and also enabled the local body concerned to make an excellent showing by completing their works before ratepayers were asked to contribute their first payment. From a purely local policy point of view, this, of course, was excellent business for those “ limpets ” who would cling to office at all costs. It was, however, never the intention of the legislature, for the provision whereby payment for the first year’s interest and sinking fund could be made from loan money was solely intended to apply

to loans for tramways, gasworks and such-like reproductive works, the ccst of which would ultimately be paid out of profits and not from the ratepayers’ pockets. It was thus simply a provision to allow capitalisation of interest during the first year while such works were being established.

In regard to the second factor —- the life of the loan—the intention of the shortened period is, so far as Is possible, to make the period of the loan coincident with the life of the work. Many roads in other parts in the past have been mortgaged with two or three loans, and the endeavour which is now made to ensure that a loan period is somewhat near the life of the work it covers, is one which is not only for the ultimate good of the district concerned, but also for the country as a whole. Briefly, then, the position in regard to local works is that ratepayers are being compulsorily charged with payments for loan moneys which -with subsidies will at least total £12,000. Of this amount the present contract which embraces most of the side streets of the town is estimated to cost something like £2500, leaving a balance of at least £9500 for broadening, improving and bitumenising the miles of main roads in the town, together with concrete kerbing and footpaths for the business area.

As soon as the Main Highways Board allow, this latter money will be spent. At present it is beyond the power of the board to proceed with the work—unless, of course, they are prepared to sacrifice the heavy subsidies payable on such work, which procedure is of course unthinkable. Put another way, the position is that when the whole town is transformed, by being beautified, provided with bitumenised main roads, kerbed and tarred footpaths in the business area, the loan payments will still be the same as are being paid now.

At the last meeting of the Futarifru Town' Board, Messrs. Lindsay, McDermott and Griffiths were appointed to represent the board on the executive of the Beautifying Society.

SCHOOL SCIENCE CLASSES. CONTRARY to the trend of modern opinion, the Minister of Education is reported as having expressed the opinion that the science and domestic classes at primary schools are futile. With this view there will be more disapproval than agreement. Those who have given long thought to our educational system are almost unanimous in their oelief that the training does not square with the requireI nrents of life, and this is particularly so in regard to the girls in the upper standards of primary schools, and of I secondary institutions.

The average girl may get a sufficient smattering of commercial knowledge at school or immediately upon leaving to enable her to earn some sort of a livelihood at office work, but upon entering the field of matrimony

she has generally to impose upon friends and relatives to gain an elementary knowledge of housekeeping, domestic science generally, such as cookery, sewing and dressmaking, and the rudiments of mother-craft. While this imperfect ✓process is going on she, her husband and their i children suffer by her lack of knowledge. To most girls matrimony is an ultimate goal, but although a boy must strenuously strive to equip himself for his life’s work, the girl enters upon her final sphere in almost total ignorance of its requirements. A progressive Minister of Education would be fighting for more advanced tuition of a useful nature rather than be harking back to the crudities.

The Teachers’ Institute has here a golden opportunity of enhancing its status in the minds of thoughtful parents by resisting the retrograde tendency displayed by the Minister, and agitating for a more advanced outlook.