AN £8000 LOAN OR AN EXTRA ½d RATE?

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 174, 16 May 1916, Page 3

AN £BOOO LOAN OR AN EXTRA ½d RATE?

By Scrutator.)

"I have read the articles appearing m the 'Times' on above question and consider the borough's financial position aod requirements could be put upon a sound, progressive footing without increasing the ratepayers' burden it this loan proposal be adopted. I should certainly vote for same,"—Harrington Avenue resident and ratepayer "Although usually against a borrowing policy I am now convinced that an £BOOO loan expended as laid down in 'Scrutator's' articles would be a distinct advantage to the borough as a whole, because, as shown, it would enable the Council to obliterate several wasteful propositions they are now struggling with, besides freeina them from the overdraft nightmare."—One ot the largest ratepayers in the borough

The above expressions ot opinions spsak for themselves. Will other ratepayers consider aod decide'.'

In the last articla appearing in the "Times" an endeavour was made to ehow that the actual saving, if the Council's new water scheme was brought into being, would be far in excess of £4OO. We will now endeavour to go a step further and deal with street and road improvements. Ot course anyone giving even casual thought to thin question will recognise the many obstacles in the way of its solution. But let us make the endeavour There are many hy-roads in the borough that, tor some time at least, can only receive a moiety of attention, but there are several roads that already carry considerable traffic; consequently the cost of upkeep is an expensive item. Manv thousands of pounds have been spent in the past, and the result of such expenditure ratepayers are cow abb to judge. It has been freely ttated that considerable sum:) ot money have been mjudicuously spent, thereby giving the fireside critics an opportunity to place much blauio upon the shoulders of Town Board and Borough Council members alike ; but if an unbiassed and unprejudiced view be takeu of [past events " Scrutator " feels confident there are not many ratepayers who really blame their earlier representatives or do not realise that the majcrity, at least, honestly tried to conduct the public business to tlio best of their ability and their experience. There is still another phase of this ijiiestion that should not be lost sight of, viz , both Town Board and Council members were elected by a majority of their fellow ratepayers, and therefore must have reilected the opinions, upon municipal matters, of such majority; but moralising will not help the position, so let us now tackle our facts.

Up to the present time the borough roads have beon made on tho bad nld-fashionod plan, viz., built,up with metal, scoria or beach shingle, and each one of those, under varying

a failure. Let us take King street as an illustration. Up to the beginning of the summer of 1914-15 opinion was generally expressed that "it was impossible to make a good road of King street, because the underlying earth strata was praticularly unsound ; consequently it did not matter what quantity of metal was laid on its surface it would assuredly go down and that terrible, unstable, underlying strata would come up." Nevertheless, it was contended, there was virtue even in that "come-up," because be it summer dust or be it winter mud, it acted as a cushion and protected the Surface m6tal. This fallacious reasoning has been the cause of many hundreds of pounds of the ratepayers' money being thrown away, because the initial cause of the trouble was the dumping of metal upon a wet formation and then, lacking the appliances to finish off and seal the surfaco of the metnl, it was left in a rough porous state which acted like a seive every time there was rain allowing the water to get to the underlaying soil with the result that the constant vibration and pressure of heavy traffic on the road's surface caused the metal to sink and the displaced under strata of soil (because it had no other means of escape) took the line of least resistance and wended ou to the surface. Now the membeis of the existing Borough Council have evidently profited by the failures of the past—as is now in evidence in their experimental patches—realising that to keep a road sound its foundation must be kept dry. Therefore every enlightened ratepayer must see a new era dawning for road construction for Pukekohe and consequently must admit it is to their own interest to give the Council the moans to carry to a suocees the methods they are now adopting for sound road construction, and because sound roads bring in their train less expenditure in upkeep it naturally follows there will bo far more money for outer road formation and metalling without extra taxation for such work. Now, if the Council decide to ask the ratepayers for power to raise a small loan for water improvement supply, road construction and lighting, and they can reasonably demonstrate that such loan expenditure, upon lines laid down by them, after careful enquiry and thoughtful study, will place the three essentials mentioned upon a sound footing, then they are certainly not only entitled to be given what they ask but also the ratepayers' thanks and appreciation. Ths next article will deal with tho lighting problem and a final article will follow demonstrating more fully the financial position for tho present and future.