OHINEMURI. (FROM OUR OWM CORRESPONDUNT.) OHINEMURI COUNTY PROPOSAL TO BORROW £7000

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 216, 20 August 1887, Page 2

OHINEMURI. (FROM OUR OWM CORRESPONDUNT.) OHINEMURI COUNTY PROPOSAL TO BORROW £7000

Paekoa, Friday, i A Murcnxa of persons interested Xv the 01 lintMnuriCountyCou noil's horrowing Nproposals took place in the Public Hill,Paeiot, on Saturday evening last. There w:s a \ cry f.iii attendance, and amongbtthos^ prosent were quite a number of settlers froth Waitoa, Killing who, as large land owneis, are deeply inteicsted in iho borrowing scheme. The chair was occupied by Mr A. J. Thorp, who in opening the meeting said : 110 was opposed to the County Council, a 1 } at present constituted, boi rowing monpy ; and under existing eireumUnces cotild not soo lik way clear to vote for the loan. Tho ratepayers should bear in mind that in adopting the loan proposals they-weio rendering them-u'lvea liable to be rated for! a peiiod of 26 yeais to mee*t interest on tlic £7000, in addition to which tl.iey, wou|d have to be further rateel in order to- meet miscellaneous expenditure, which, wou d be goinijf on all the while.- £- \. Mr iStiunge .said : Although he -\jjkis a member of the County Council,* ho was oppobed to tho borrowing proposals which "woro adopted at^tho last .meeting <?f the Council, and therefore he"be*g,ged to "hio^e the following resolution: — M That in the opinion of' this' .meeting, '.thja ratepayers pf the Ohinemuri County are not in a polisition to bear any t'uither taxation at puesont." Tho ratepayers might rest assured that ho was not taking this step without giVjng the vlriiolo maftei clue cohsider1 ation.^ tlaa this proposal been tfiade three years ago he would have been one of the first to give it his support .but at present he could not conscientiously do so. Three years ago the settlers cou'd «cc their way clear to meet tho liabilities which, it j wuB proposed to thrust npon them. Now they could not reasonably undertake any such responsibility. The fact \vas,thp price obtuiiiuble for farmer's produce "generally wtid Jwb ! very low indeed.! th&fe it \vus almost impossible for them to meet current' 1 rates, ; much losr lend j^themselvea \o the cany ing out of , a scheme which would fuither increase their liabilities. They might borrow this I money this year, and then find next year another £7000 woild be requhed to carry out necessary road work*, und so on.

The Council had about 40 bilks of main roads to iii'ik^ndjniiintuiD^n'jheJp Governmcjflt'shpu'ldibi? bought to entity &nt the woik, which was entirely tbeyonSlhe means at tile disposal of ;tho Oouncy.--} Iv his opinion it tyrfs. very hard lines. to expect, the settlers at Uliiiicimiri] County to ,beur the* great burijen in connection' with maintenance of- u\t\in 'ro ids. . AlonT* this -fine, and MVu- .some considerable distance back from the whole' of the roads there was but a very small proportion of the land occupied, and for th.it reason alone their construction sh mid become a first charge on the general Government levi'iiue. The persent Council was near to the end of its term of office, and life borrowing, as well as the nftbeution snoulii be left to the incoming Council. As to the goldlields being saddled with a proport'on of the responsibility in connection with the loan he did not think that proposal would work, and besides he recognised the policy of expending levenue in the place from where such revenue was derived. , Littlejohn : What do the Council [intend to pledge as a guarantee for the payment of interest on-the loan ?• • Mr Strange: The interest would be about L 350 per an mini, and it is proposed that the ratepayers provide payment of one holf that amount, the other half to be charged against the goldfields revenue. Mi Goonan : Do you consider tli.tt the roads in their present btate are equal to the requirements of the place, and th it no fuilher improvements sire 1 necessary ? Mi Stiangc : No, but I do not consider it advisable to bonow money for their inipiovcMiient Mr Allen Bowler sccndcil the resolution, and in doing so sud th.it he en doited the lomarks that were in ide by Mi Strange. Mr'Thos. Shaw : I beg to move as an amendment on Mr Strange's resolution, " That in the opinion of this meeting it is absolutely necessary tlmt the loan be obtained loi the conduction of roads and bridges, where necessary." Mr. ' Shaw said: Up to the present a lot of money had boon spent in "patchwork," and now it was expedient that these patches bo connected by macadamising all the intervening miles of road throughout the county, because the money could be obtained at ihe very low rate of 5 per cent. lie could not understand why lar»e landed proprietor^ such as Mr Strange should be opposed to the boi rowing proposals. Evuiy penny spent on the improvement of 10. ids enhanced the value of the property opened up by such roads. How was it that not one of the large land owners had uiiM-d the.r voices against the expenditure of L30,')00 on the first section of the rinunes-Te Aroha railway. They did not do so simply because they knew the line would pass thiougli, oi near to their respective propel tvs, and thereby increase their values, livery shovel full of mullock placed on that line was adding to the wealth of tho landed proprietors, and therefoie he was at a lo^b to understand why theie was so much opposition to borrowing money for m iking roads which would so tend to enhance the value of all lands through which they pi»sed Of late, howevei, things hid chinked, Imd would not now f'^toh the fabulous prices that could have been realised upon it a Lew consequently the owueis wanted to avoid taxitiou, and tint might account for their antipithy to t 1 i i borrowing schein ;. One of the objeitionss raised a^ain.st the loan wai that the numbers oi the present Cmnoil were not competent to expend it judiciously ;biu wuat gu ir.mtiio com d the objuutoio give tint the next Council would be composed of b'-ttor men. (A voice, the noxt will bj duff-rs). If the m mey was borrowed n ny it could be spent dm ing the summer instead of iv winter as had been the case in this dit>tiictfor many years pa->t, and although tlie gold revenue could not bo legally hypothecated to meet the iateiest, the miners were prepared to bear their share of the requisite taxation for such purpose. Mv J. Kitchio briefly seconded tho amend men t Mr Strange replied at some length to Mr Shaw's statements re tho unearned increment, contending that tho foimation of railways had not benefitted large landed propiictors so extensively as some people imagined. Most of the men who held largo areas of land a few years ago, and who weie then supposed to be wealthy were now in reality very hard up, and the men who worked on'the different rail way "Jines for daily wages were in n much better position, Mr Shaw . In the old country 100,000 persons own tho whole of the land, and things are tending in the same direction here. If the land hero was of no value at present, there was no deter mining what it would be five or oven two years hence, when the ratepayers would have no difficulty in meeting their engagements. ■ , > Mr C. F. Mitchell said he had no intention when he came thore of taking an active part in the debate, but since he has heard Mr Shaw, who evidently was a disciple of Mr Henry George, he must raise his voico against the borrowing proposals. The winter was ne.uly (over, and in the" course of a week or two they could look forward to' lwiving passable roads for the ensuing six months. The expenditure of the money would no dqubt afford employment to a good few mou, • but ho thought) they should all regret having had any thing to do with it in the end. What they really wanted was to have their waste lands settled, (cries of "Katikati" and " more poverty," from all parta of the Hall) they might jeer at? Katikati, but he knew 'that tliere are men in tint neighbonrhood who were getting a good living and but for them the miners at \Vaihi would have to starve, owing to the abominable, rpads.iu the^County. Mr Mitchell then quoted frOm'the'sche'duV'of works, which were to bo carried out if the proposed loan was negotiated successfully, criticising the different items one by one, ;md contending that amounts allocated for expenditure "oh main rodds were excessive-. Mr B>nvler ( : In, opposing the borrowing proposals' Mr 'Strange only- carried out the views of his fellow ratepayers in the Waitoa riding where the County had not expended a fair proportion of the revenue. Mr Edwards : I think that it is not only desirable to borrow the monej' but that it ib possible to do so at a much cheaper rate then 5 per cent, per annum. The Onohungn Borough douncil was^about to float a loan on the London market for the sum of £89,000 and if that, body could offer rateable property as an equivalent he I was certain that tho Councy would have no difficulty in negotiating a 1,10,0001

oan under Rimilar cirrtimstan"o<. At present the jounty was in such a very 'depressed itate that money iniift be obtained from Home soitice to keep llu population intlie phiue. This loan would help to tide the pieneul.<liili -iiltv, and then the mnnin»- would It • ti!< n up by the developonn-nt of their miiiord resources, which would in the n,;,ir future, umko Ohiheinmi OM o of the richest counties in the colony. Mr Logan deprecated any further borrowing. Mr liubson said that there was no doubt the money was required for improving the roads throughout the County, and he would "favour the .borrowing proposals if the Council would appoint MiKenny to supervise the different woiks, and see that they were carri ;d out in ac coid.mce with the specifictitionH. The amendment »nd resolution were put to the meetiu^ in .the iwul nianner, when the ameniinnnt w.is declared to bo cafried by a l.irge majority, and a vote of th.inks to thechiir, biought the proceedings to a close.