“Taranaki Central Press” TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1937. AGAIN THE TOWN HALL QUESTION.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 361, 16 February 1937, Page 4

“Taranaki Central Press” TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1937. AGAIN THE TOWN HALL QUESTION.

In kindly, generous and quizzical mood, at last night s meeting of the Stratford Borough Council, his Worship the Mayor twitted the “Central Press” about its anxiety concerning the local Town Hall. It was not a subject on the agenda, but was obviously one in which both the Mayor and Councillors show consider-, able interest and certainly indicafed that a reasonably cordial reception awaits any definite proposals which will not involve the Borough in financial costs which it is not prepared to meet.

The erection of a New Town Hall would, said the Mayor, cost the ratepayers an additional £lOOO a year ,or, as Cr. A. H. Trotter pointed out, an extra one penny in the £l. Let us confess that such a huge annual charge frightens us at the outset. Thousands do not roll from the pen of a journalist as readily as from the lips of borough councillors. We find cause for amazement in the ready manner in which Cr. Trotter calculated the rating charge from the bald £lOOO mentioned by the Mayor. For one fleeting moment at last night’s meeting, we thought Cr. Gordon had solved the problem—but alas, his Worship dashed our hopes to the ground. The funds Cr. Gordon had in mind had already been spent.

This, however, is not our swan-song about the Town Hall. Actually we have never directly spoken of the erection of a new building. Our first complaint, and our most immediate one, is the dilapidated state of the existing hall. Could some of our mathematically inclined councillors let us know the approximate cost of renovating the present building—the cost of painting the interior, the cost of shutting off the cold mountain winds, the cost of providing seating accommodation of rather less Spartan simplicity than at present, the cost of providing stage appertenances which will not cause visiting companies to pour out their wrath upon the town and its citizens? Would such renovations, designed to remove »the miserable coldness of the hall, cost anything in the neighbour-; hood of £lOOO a year? If they would, then we will “for ever hold our peace.” But, poor mat hematicians that we are, we suggest that simple and needy work of that nature could be done for a lesser amount without any huge annual recurring charges.

But, like Galileo, we qualify our acceptance of the principle of the cost of a new civic centre. We think it could be done, after all, and believe that we can stimulate sufficient interest in the town to warrant a full-dress Council meeting on the subject.