MT. ROSKILL’S DILEMMA

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 439, 22 August 1928, Page 6

MT. ROSKILL’S DILEMMA

PAYING FOR BOUNDARY ROADS LEGISLATION REFUSED The Minister of Internal Affairs will not permit a clause to be inserted in the Local Legislation Bill to authorise a loan of £3,000 for the reconstruction of boundary roads between Mount Roskill and the city. The Auckland City Council and the Mount Roskill Road Board recently came to an agreement under which the city was to have reconstructed The Drive, Selwyn, St. Andrew’s and Landscape Roads, which separate the two districts. Mount Roskill to pay half the cost, spread over five years. A hitch occurred, however, over the correct procedure of financing the work, the Auditor-General classing the proposed transaction as “unlawAil borrowing.” The Minister of Internal Affairs in a letter said that the effect of the board’s proposal is to introduce a new principle into the system of financing road construction- He considered that the financing of the propoi. I work should be effected out of one year’s revenue, or by means of a loan with the consent of ratepayers. RATEPAYERS PROTEST Another phase of the problem was introduced by the secretary of the Local Government Loans Board, who forwarded a copy of a letter received by him from Mr. J. R. Robertson objecting to the board raising the loan for these road works without the consent of the Mr. Robertson’s letter says: As the system of rating on unimproved values is making it desperately hard for a large number of the ratepayers in the southern portion of the district to retain their holdings we earnestly ask your protection. The board decided to confer with the City Council with the object of securing its co-operation in inducing the Minister to reconsider his decision.