Shannon News FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1922. AVOID A NEW RATE

Shannon News, 11 August 1922, Page 2

Shannon News FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1922. AVOID A NEW RATE

BY VOTING FOR POWER LOAN ON TUESDAY.

A ‘'NEWS” representative was informed yesterday that a good deal of misunderstanding exists in the country districts in regard to the rating possibilities under the Horowhenua

Electric-power Board’s loan proposals, it being thought that if the loan is sanctioned the rate struck of two-thirds of a penny in the £1 will forthwith be collected. This is, of course, a firstclass fallacy. The rate was made simply because the Board has; to give security under the Act for the payment of interest and sinking fund on the loan it ..is raising. The prospects of the money ever being collected are so remote as to be entirely inconsiderable. The Power Board will be able to provide for its initial expenditure out of the, loan and the work done for it. will be productive of revenue immediately the electric power is available from Mangahao. The loan differs from an ordinary local body’s operations inasmuch as it will be wholly reproductive, and no ratepayer need lear that by voting for the proposal he or she is adding,, to the burden of rates and taxes.

On ihe other hand if the loan is rejected, there is an absolute certainty that every property in the Power Board’s District will have to pay its share of the expense already incurred. The Board, tj> bring matters to their present position hud to incur certain preliminary liabilities and to engage an engineer io advise them as to the amount of money required and on other technical points. That course was necessary under the Statute, and if die ratepayers, through apathy or shortsightedness, now refuse their sanction, additional and absolutely wasteful expenditure ill the way of scrapping the present arrangements and of compensation will be unavoidable, and would fall eventually upon' the properties in the district. We no not think, however, that the latter argument is one that need be used, but it is only fair that the ratepayers should vote on Tuesday with their eyes open to the possibilities in their Yea and Nay. Hitherto no Power District in the Dominion has voted against, the loan. On the contrary, the ratepayers have welcomed the development by overwhelming majorities, and those that have reached the stage where they can enjoy the efficiency, cleanliness and labour-cancelling benefits of the new force have had no reason to regret, their enterprise. Some typical instances of the voting in bther places are given below, in the hope that these records will be equalled or exceeded by the .ratepayers of the Horowhenua on Tuesday next:—

For. Against Te AwaumUi, £120,00 050 0 Cambridge, £60,000 280 3 Thames Valley, £200,000 1503 0. Ashburton, £296,000 1590 . ‘.16