MAKERUA SUBDIVISION.

Shannon News, 23 November 1928, Page 4

MAKERUA SUBDIVISION.

SANCTION FOB METALLING LOAN OF £B2OO TO BE SOUGHT.

RELATIONS OF COUNCIL TO PRI VATE UNDERTAKINGS.

A motion was tabled in the County Council on Saturday by the, Chairman, seconded by Or. Whyte, that application be made to the Local Government Loans Board for sanction for a loa.n of £B2OO for metalling the Makerua-Ran gitane, Seifert and Campbell Roads. Cr. Jensen objected to the application, on the grounds that the undertaking was primarily for subdivisional purposes, and, such being the case, the full cost should be borne by the landowners interested, instead of a public debt being created for the purpose. The Chairman stated that Cr. Jensen was quite within his rights in making the objection. The matter had been discussed between the County Engineer and the surveyor, Mr Farquhar. The Council was asking the propertyowners interested to give a personal guarantee that, should the loan falx short of the requirements, they would make it up. They were prepared to do that. Copies of agreements between the various parties had been obtained. There were agreements among themselves, principally for the latest date on which the roads should be finished and as to how the expense should be proportionately borne. The cost would be spread over a special rating area, of which the Council had a plan; and the Council was not interested as to how the parties allocated the expenses as fair as this concerned themselves individually. Cr. Gimblett: Has the question been referred to all the ratepayers within that area.

The Chairman: Yes. The County Clerk: They have signed a petition asking that this 'loan be raised, but in accordance with the regulations of the Loans Board they have written to each ratepayer, advising them that this resolution will be tabled, and, if they have any objections, to submit them in writing. I have not received any objections. The communication was sent to them on October 2f7th.

Cr. Ryder: Have we any intimation to show how much money has already been raised on this land? The Chairman: That will be supplied to the Loans Board. Cr. Barber: Is this going to throw any extra work on our staff? The Chairman: Not a great deal. We make provision for that. The Engineer stated that there was the possibility that if the loan was raised it might legally become the Council’s liability. If the work was carried out as he believed it would be, tile only extra work devolving on the staff would be to see that the necessary work was put into the job in the interests of the Council. That would involve an inspection once a month, which would be ordinary routine work. Cr. Catley: Does the Council have to do the work ?

The Chairman: It will be a contract by the Council, supervised by them. Cr. Catley: Can they not raise the loan and do it themselves? The Chairman: They could not get the loan.

Cr. Kilsby: Why not mortgage the land, to do it?’

The Chairman: This is a method which we adopted for the Ashlea-Te-mukanui reading. Cr. Gimblett: It is a precedent that was established a good many years ago. The Chairman: If they raised this money it would be a mortgage on the land. If ‘we raise it, it is a loan. We have been circumventing the Act for some time.

Cr. Gimblett cited a case in which the Palmerston North Borough Council required certain property-owners to complete a road and hand it over as a finished road. “Are they working on more modern lines than we are,’’ he asked, “arid should we see that in future the land-owners must do it?”

That Chairman: That is the correct way. Cr. Gimblett: I should say that if this is carried to-day, the Council should bear in mind that this position will have to be facrid. Cr. Jensen: Tho reason for my objection is that I think it is not a sound policy. I think it is a thing wc ought to put a stop to. It is not fair for these "people to get the benefit of the |oan and perhaps make a burden on the Council in regard to the special rate. I don’t think it is a wise thing for the Couneil to continue to borrow large sums of money arid create this burden for. themselves in the future.

Cr. Kilsby: I think with Cr. Jensen. A time should come when it should stop. The Chairman: The time to stop this particular ease was when it was initiated—not 18 months or two years after we have taken it up.

Cr. Kilsby: It is only right that the Council should adopt the same attitude as the Borough. Cr. Catley: What I object to is that the Engineer has to suporvise it. 1 understand lhat, in the past, if such works were done to the satisfaction of the Engineer we took them over. We have refused his services to the Shannon Borough because he has too much to do.

The Chairman: He thought an inspection once a month would be enough and that would help him when it came to a final inspection. The Engineer: They have their own man as supervisor, but I am going to satisfy myself as the work progresses that the Council is getting what it wants.

In answer to a. question by Cr. Byder, the Chairman* stated ;that this was purely a metalling loan, the roads having been formed and the bridges built.

Replying to another question, the Engineer stated that there would be

ing and was carried, Cis Kilsby and «Tens?n voting against it.