Page 2 Advertisements Column 4

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8060, 14 March 1906, Page 2

TO CORRESPONDENTS. A SviisrmuHH."—Would lie glad if you looked us up.

BOROUGH AFFAIRS. Tim recent criticisms of Borough affairs by tin's paper have liad the effect of arousing, not only the Council, but the ratepayers, to a more live and intelligent interest in municipal politics. At the meeting on Monday night, over twenty ratepayers attended throughout the sitting, and :1 considerable interest in the I proceedings, which, ou the whole, were of a Mayor, prompted apparently by the criticism of " a certain newspaper," gave a somewhat lengthy dissertation on the state of the'linances, which, boiled down, represents so much . gratuitous advice to his successor. Notwithstanding that the statement was intended to discount the truth of our allegations concerning the state of the finances, the fact, as stated by us, that the Council was _ over .£4OOO to the bad on the loan ' works, had eventually to be admitted. The public now know, on the authority of the Mayor himself, that the position is exactly as we stated. That is precisely what we wanted to establish, in order that, plenty of time might be given the Council and the ratepayers to think over the position, so that the best possible provision might l )e made for the future. We d M not lumostl)- believethat the position is, or has' been, in any way serious, but if matters had been allowed to drift along in the reckless, unbusinesslike manner that has been characteristic of the loan uxpemliUjrc, the town would assuredly have had to face a bad reckoning day. The Mayor has thrown the whole blame of tliu loan mismanagement on the consulting engineer. YVe are ijuile prepared to admit that the Council's' advisors have been lamentably uslr.ty in. their estimate:-, but in this very connection the Council must accept a lar"e proportion of the responsibility, as they a«urodly should have taken the bull by the horns when they first be came aware that the position was uuatisfactory. lletrenuhi M ent must now be practiced, and it is satisfactory to note that the Council is almost unanimous in afiirming thy principle, but in what direction the retrenchniont is to be ell'ucte I is still sh> ow h c| ia mystery. V\ „ hope to refer to the Mayor's figures later, If the ouncil icide on a comprehensive scheme of amalgamation of borough oflices on Friday night, there seems no reason why an annua] saving of Ifi'Q or £7<JQ miy nut lu n i s to I