THREE POLLS TO-MORROW.

Taihape Daily Times, 25 March 1919, Page 4

THREE POLLS TO-MORROW.

Ratepayers are advised that three polls are to be taken in the Borough to-morrow (Wednesday): (1) The proposal to borrow £17,000 for street improvement and foV'a new generator that will remove tho danger of eleceric power and water shortage. (2) The proposal to rate on unifuproved value f fT * instead of on capital values, anti The referendum as to whether streerimprovement is to include grass-plots (down the centre of Main Street, or not. Here are three important issues which should, combined, prove a magnet sufficiently powerful to draw every ratepayer to the poll that is physically capable of getting there. Borough Councillors are .of opinion that the purposes of the loan arc essential; a

new electric generator is considered a sine qua non, something that cannot be done without, and that the streets are in urgent need of being put into satisfactory sanitary condition, the footpaths and roads improved. B*ad roads are detrimental tc the prosperity and progress of a community, they afford easy and quick to < -market centres, railways, etc., thus enabling the speedy and cheap delivery of goods and merchandise for transit not only to the consumer near at hand but for railage to distant, markets. Good roads invariably mark tho prosperity of a town or district and :t is good policy for municipalities ana districts to prepare for the “after tee war” prospects of prosperity, which must como to a country such as Nevrl Zealand. Good foods are also cheap roads in the long run as the cost of maintenance and cleaning a bad or indifferent road is infinitely greater than a good i road and cases are positively known where a good town road has saved Sir per annum in the cost of maintenance, where tho same has been reconstructed i on modern lines, and the cost of haulage has been reduced to over one third the former cost. Modern traffic requires good roacs. that the farmer and merchant is recognising this is evidenced by the j uses that the motor car is new put to. br.t ho requires a speedy method of eoveying his produce to the town, railway or wharf, and where districts are served by | bad .roads there is not the j inducement to take up land so servecr, and values are depreciated. I Motor traction has come to stay and jis in many cases,' where roads ar.e good, successfully competing wioT transit of goods by rail, but whether tho mode of traction be by motor or by horses good roads arc indispensi'able. | In towns, good roads, are kept clean much easier and at less cost and there is a freedom from tho dust nuisance which is injurious to’ human beings and mefchanisc, values arc enhanced because a town so served is a more j desirable place to reside in, visitors I are attracted to such towns, often ! simply because they possess go.o<S j reads, and more particularly so if they are served by good main roads. . In England this has been recognised { by the fact that sixty millions arc to be spent in the reconstruction of their roads to accommodate the present day and future motor traffic. Everybody should assist in getting good roads.