PUKEKOHE'S LOAN SCHEME.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 200, 15 August 1916, Page 2

PUKEKOHE'S LOAN SCHEME.

The loan poll in connection with the fukekohe Borough Council's proposal to borrow the sum of £12,000 for water, light and reading purposes takes place on Wednesday of next week. The allocations fur the loan, it will he remembered, are £SOOO for electric light, £4OOO for water, £2500 tor roada, and £SOO tor cr-tingenck-s and first year's interest and sinking fund. Thus tie scheme is combined, or in other words th; latepayers have to approve of all or nothing. This arrangement i , we think, unfortunate as there is practically a unanimous opinion in the town in favour of the installation of elec-

tric light, and if such had be"en put to tli: ratepayers as a separate issue there ib very little doubt 1 but that authority for the raising of the money woulJ have been cheerfully accorded. As it is, there is a possibility of this modern facility of illumination being for the present denied to the people by reason of one ur both of the other two scheme? included in • the loan failing to meet with favour. SnoulJ, however, it tall through now it is only fair to say that there is no reason why steps should not follow lor a poll to be submitted for an electric light loan

only. To the item of £2500 scheduled tor roads objection can hardly be taken as the highways of the borough are still capable of immensa improvement although they are gradually becoming better aod better year by year. It is therefore apparent thpt it is in regard to the water problem that the loan will stand to fall. Whilst "the man in the «treet" may entertain doubts whether the present supply is in various ways aa defective as it is claimed to be, the fact that successive Councils have recognise! the advisability and necessity

of some re-arrangement being made should carry weight, and the question therefure practically resolves itself into whether the time is opportune for a change, and in what form should the change come about. Ice former point, to our mind, needs little argument Money is now availltd; at five-and-a-quarter per cent and the aftermath of the war is haroly likely to render money any cheaper for many years to come. Any objections put forward owing to war conditions should therefore not affect the real point at question.

Our observations will accordingly be solely directed to the scheme as designed by Mr Wyatt, the Waterworks Engineer, and adopted by the Council. We previously stated in these c lunula that Mr Wyatt's scheme

had much to commend it, and we repeat th;it statement. Uriefly, Mr Wyalt proposes to only use the existing reservoir on Pukekobe Hill for a small section of consumers and a3 a stand-by for fire purposes or in case of necessity for recourse ti meet a general emergency, thus limiting th*2 expensive running of th2 pumping machinery at the power-house to only a few hours

| each week. In place of securing ! a supply of water from the powerhouse his itlea is that a spring situated at Mickey's Dam should be utilis:d as the source of c ur>ply, and tie water therefrom raised by a hvdrani (or ram), power for which will b! derived by the .-urplus water in tic Oar.,, to a new rrturwrir on a site on Koose's l!ii h mi lii.' f.-istfrii Rid" 1 of the luvvii at aii altitude of l-'"> feet i iih'iv. in' rani I licse (noposaU

form attractive reading, but having been siddled with one easily white elephint, in the form ct the present power-station aid its plant, it is only reasonabla that ratepayers should ask for every possible assurance to be given them that the proj ct sa drafted by Mr Wvatt will ni;e the results he aims at. Iu tt 13 way we conn ler the Council would do well lo accede to the sugiresthn ttnbodi d in a resolution ai passed bv a meeting of the Katepayeis' Association last Thursday, that ii the event of sanction being eiven foe tha loan the water scheme will net be carried i 'to execution u. less it is "hall-marked" with corroboration by sum- engineetiik expert, wbi h publicly retoaniacd as an authority in his prof s-ior. We know that it has been ontenoed ii the Council and with a good of truth, that a certain seciion ct rstepayeis will consistently opcose any loan, whatever its merit?, and will accordingly not be i lluenccd by auy expression of opinion from an expert, tut in this instates the ciicumatancs are different for the Council are only asked to ncur the extra expellee ii the event of a favourable vote b.ing recorded. It is certain that a good many vutes will be influenced by the action that will be taken by the Council in the matter, indeed more than sufficient to turn the teals either way. We do not forget that Mr D. W. McArthur, r/etained tjy the Council to alvise on tins scheme, has already verified it and endorsed it, but even the Council, when it transpired that Mr McArthur without visiting Pukekohe had expressed his approval, oid not "adopt" his report, but eimply ordered the same to b» attached to Mr Wyatt'a report. That fact in its-It will naturally tend to make many ratepayers scepticil. In any aaac, however, it is no slight on Mr McArthur to say that as an expert he ia not so widely known a-< dome other members of the engineering . profession, and for that reason bis endorsement cannot carry as much weight as that of one or two Auckland engineers who cm be easily named. It is not our intention to mention various details of the scheme, upon which ratepayers may have doubts. We Inva every confidence that the Council, all of whom are ratepayer?, many of them of a very large amount, are as anxious as their critics to get the best possible return for any money expanded, acd we believe thai they are sincere in their belief that Mr Wyatt's scheme is workable. The poiat, however, is w.Il the majority of the ratepayers without further expert advice being guaranteed, be of the same opinion? We doubt it. If, however, the Council is prepared to, in effect, silence reasonable doubts and opposition by seeking verification of the scheme in all its details from come authoritative scource such as we have indicated we are of opinion that the ratepayers should not hesitate to give the loan their support.