BOROUGH LOAN PROPOSALS

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 511, 5 March 1920, Page 2

BOROUGH LOAN PROPOSALS

INFORMATION WANTED. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. CAUSTIC CRITICISM. The monthly meeting of the above was held in tlie Borough i/Ouncil Chambers on Monday n.ght, the president (Mr. R. F. Webster) in the chair. Mr. Jas. Roulston was elected as a new member on the motion of the secretary (Mr. V. S. Roberts) seconded by Mr. F. Perkins. The Borough Council's loan proposals came under criticism. Mr F. Perkins condemned the proposed expenditure of £6OOO on a town hall. Mr. C. Roadley objected to there being no definite site for the proposed hall, and the sum named was inadequate. No information was given about the quarty. As to the swimming baths, a site could have been secured for £SO. Mr. Perkins had offered a substantial donation. The baths could be erected without one penny of the ratepayers' money. Every householder would subscribe to the baths and take annual tickets . We now wanted £9500 for water, and no details of that were given either. In regard to the electric light, he thought the council should wait until the Government scheme came along, instead of spending £26,000 now. £2900 was to be raised.the first year for sinking fund, etc., &>r which there would be nothing to show. In any case, no council which had reduced the flat rate on electric light we?e fit to hold ot-

fice. Mr. Perkins held that the proposals should be kept in one block. The trouble was that the council had not taken the public into their confidence. The extra rates would cost him £IOO a ye".., and therefore he expected to ha/e full information. He was out for progress, but was not prepared U< vote blindly. The Chamber Qf Commerce ought to be taken into its confidence. He admitted that some of the proposals would be reproductive, but he could not see how the £BOOO a year was going to be raised. A public meeting should be held to discuss the matter. There was no possibility of paying the money back in ten years. It was argued that if the members of the chamber were capable men thev should come out as councillors, lhat was a sound argument, but less it could not be expected that

business people were f<omg to vote for a proposition of which they had been given no details. If the loan were carried another loan would have to be floated to pay it off. Mr R G. Fear submitted tha.. the position of the hall site was one of the most important features. - Mr Perkins said plenty ot people would give a site if it were put on property where they held the adjacent land. . , , Members held that Adams cornei was the right place, and the counci were foolish not to have purchased it long ago. Mr H. Dell remarked tnat an increased valuation was coming in the future, thereby greatly increasing the rates for special loans, he felt that, as a business man, he could not support the loan proposals as chairman said he fully endorsed the proposal for drainage and sewerage, but he had no idea as to what the schemes would actually cost, and could not know while the council was still experimenting with bores for seweiage. Mr. Perkins regretted the idea oi friction between the chamber and the council. Any man who gave his time for public benefit was worthy of credit. , , Mr. Dell said the chamber was against the previous Ipan, but favoured it after the proposals had been properly explained. Mr Webster hoped that the council would put the proposals in such a way that they would be acceptable to the people. Mr Fear submitted that '.he peop" in the outlying areas would vote for the drainage -T the proposal was placed by itself. Parents frcm all parts would be sending" their children to the higl? school, and therefore would "Vote for the drainage in order that their children might have healthy conditions and not lie ex Dosed to contamination. Mr. T. E. McMillan agreed that Mr. Fear's view was the right one to take, but he was convinced that many of the ratepayers weie not sufficiently enlightened and broadminded to look at the question in that light; therefore he strongly opposed any separation of the issues which would lend to hostile voting by different sections and thus defeat the whole of the proposals, except, perhaps, the roading one. Mr. Roadley agreed with the last speaker, and pointed out that the interests of the business, residential, and farming a:eas of the borough were not looked upon by the iespective parties as being identical; an inner and an outer area were required. " The following motion was carried by resolution: "That the members of this chamber are totally opposed to the Borough Council's proposals to raise £84,000 without giving ratepayers full and explicit information in respect to their intentions as to the expenditure of the same. It is also of the opinion that an essential condition is a full statement as to the site for the town hall, public baths, etc. And further, this chamber cannot accept the proposition to repav the loan in ten years, as in theii opinion it is quite outside the ratepayers' power to accomplish the task."

Worst Sanitation. The president said it was the duty of the Health Department to compel the borough to instal a sewerage sys-i tern. Mr. Fear said the Hes.lth olticcr at Auckland condemned Pukekohe as one of tiie wo; - st places, from a sanitary noint of view, in the province.