CITY’S £200,000 LOAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 536, 13 December 1928, Page 12

CITY’S £200,000 LOAN

COMPLETING WATERWORKS OBJECTION ENTERED At a special meeting of the City Council to-morrow a proposal will be discussed to raise the balance of the £400,000 waterworks extension loan, the amount involved being £kOO.OUO. Mn objection has been lodged. The objector is Mr. H. I Taylor, who, in a letter to the council, points out that the further £200,000 is the balance of the 1924 loan, cliictiy raised for the i Lula Valley works. Mr. Taylor states that the engineer’s estimate for completing the Huia dam and pipe line, excluding the filtration plant, was £489,000, and at May 31 last the amount spent was £414,000. According to his information about a third of the dam was then completed, and many thousands of pounds more were required. Mr. Taylor goes on to state that 111 e first sum raised for the work was £ 300,000, and he asserts; it is fair to assume that, of - the £200,000 so far raised on the £400,000 loan, an additional £150,000 has been spent on Huia dam. “I am informed that a considerable portion of the £200,000 for which sanction is now being sought has already been spent out of general fund, and that the present loan is for the purpose of repaying into this account,” he contines. Mr. Taylor considers it fair to assume that another £150,000 has been spent in this way, so that altogether the dam, so far , has cost £600,000. In view of lack of information he suggests that it is fair to assume that the work is going to exceed the estimate by £150,000 to £200,000. “I am Informed that it is the intention to spend a portion of the new loan on the Mangatawhiri and Mangatangi schemes without the sanction of the ratepayers,” remarks Mr. Taylor. He then points out that the Nihotupu dam cost £194,000 against an estimate of £97,000, though increased costs sand speeding up, together with the necessity of taking out 36,000 cubic yards of spoil in place of the 5,000 estimated, would have caused £72,500 of this. The objector realises that the work must be completed, but asserts that full information is essential, as well as an investigation showing whether the works are being done in the most economical fashion. Concluding, he points out the lack of confidence implied in the turning down by the ratepayers of several recent loan proposals, and remarks that former administrations gave full information to ratepayers, a procedure which the present administration appeared to think unnecessary and unjustifiable.