RATEPAYERS OBJECT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 410, 19 July 1928, Page 9

RATEPAYERS OBJECT

BIRKENHEAD TOWN HALL COUNCIL’S ACT CRITICISED SUGGESTION OF SPECULATION An objection to the Birkenhead Borough Council's decision to purchase for £2,000 a site for a I future town hall was ruled out cf order at last evening’s meeting of the borough council. The site to be purchased, subject to the approval of the Minister of Internal Affairs, is at Highbury corner, portion of the property owned by the late Mr. IT. M. Shepherd. Mr. P. C. Furley gave notice to move that there was no necessity to provide for a town hall site at Birkenhead, owing to amalgamation with other North Shore boroughs being inevitable. The Mayor, Mr. K. G. Skeates, in ruling the motion out of order, said tho council had by resolution given an undertaking to the Bank of Xew Zealand to purchase the property on the terms specified, subject to the approval of the Minister of Internal Affairs. Any objection to the purchase would have ] to go through the Minister. Mr. A. Had field said there should be ino suggestion to withdraw from the ' offer. It would rather be a question : of selling the option if the council did j not desire to complete the purchase. RATEPAYERS OBJECT ! Strong opposition to the purchase j proposed is being shown in the borougf l |by the Ratepayers’ Association. Pet)j lions to the Minister have been canvassed through the district, and already 350 signatures have been obtained. MR. FURLEY’S ARGUMENTS Mr. Furley, who was not allowed tG detail his arguments against the proposal at the coLincil meeting, summarised them to-day for The Sun. He said that there never will be necessity for a town hall at Birken- | head. Amalgamation with Xortlicote was bound to take place within a few years, and later on the whole of the Xorth Shore boroughs would probably amalgamate to form one large borough. } When that time came, the town hall ; would certainly not be erected in the • Birkenhead district. The site was too : valuable to be used for a library, and ! new municipal offices were not rej quired, for there was ample room on : the present site for them, i Air. Furley went on to say that town | halls throughout Xew Zealand were j generally white elephants as a paying j proposition. He felt that the council i had placed the cost before the utility I to be derived, merely because the pro- | position was cheap. The question of | whatever its use was to be was the ■ secondary consideration, and that was j where the big mistake was being mad?. I In taking the land under the Public j Works Act, it had to be taken for a i specific purpose, but if the council was j just going in for land speculation, it | was overstepping its duties as a coun- : cil. both legally and morally. | If the purchase were completed, the j annual charges against the property would be roughly £2lO, and the rent ; receipts would not be more than £76 i leaving an annual debit of £134.