COUNTY FINANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 298, 11 December 1908, Page 4

COUNTY FINANCE.

To Hie Editor. Sir,—Many ratepayers of lite county iiru becoming alarmed at the condition of the finances of the Tarauaki County, ami blame Iho bridge reconstruction i policy of this Council for the position. | With your permission 1 would remind ratepayers that the bridge loan was raiseil for tlie distinct purpose of reconstructing bridges only, ami for no other purpose. 'Die engineer was instructed to report on all tlie bridges of the county; this be did, and i. have the report before, me. lie reported that in

the Waitara Riding all the. bridges wore sound excepting the Waiongoua bridge at Sentry Hill and Waiwakaiho bridge. The latter was reported as being in need of repair only, hi the Omata Hiding he reported ' the Onkura and oilier bridges as sound, and the. Tnpuiic and Wciakino as requiring to be rebuilt at once. In the Moa Hiding the report

I was that fully fourteen bridges were '.u a bad way and for the most part required renewing at once. On this report the Council went to the ratepayers and were authorised to raise a loan of .1:12.000 for necessary work for the following live years. It will Uc seen from this that the loan was for the special purpose of renewing the bridges in the

county as a whole. This was realised by the Omata Hiding members of the Council, and a resolution was carried limiting the expenditure in each ruling to the proportion of their ratable values, thus vetoing the object of the loan and initiating :l l" llk '. v of "fe"' ill) -" J " ll "' Otuata Killing the Werakitio bridge was rebuilt in concrete, and instructions I'iveu to report on Tapuac with the object of cutting down tilie grides. Several trial surveys were made, and the Council decided to have a tunnel instead of a bridge and regrade the hills. Against (his work the Council could only draw £121)0 front the bridge loan, ami this only »u the direct instructions to

the Treasury from the I'remicr, Mr. { ,Scddon. The engineer's estimate was | about £'201)0 and the contracts were I , under his estimate. The Oakura was in nil entirely different position, as the bridge did not want reconstructing. The object of tiie expenditure was to cut down the excessive grades of the .hill*, which was totally outside the sphere of a bridge loan. There is also this to be said, that a concrete bridge was not contemplated, the intention being to transfer a span of the old bridge on to the new abutments, so that the loan applied for was to cover cost of abutments only, in the Moa Hiding eight bridges only have been built, and all of these were on. the list of the condemned at the time of granting the loan: and there are a number - of which tile llenui bridge is one—(if the condemned still to be rebuilt. The Waitnra Hiding has had two bridges re- [ built by loan money. The Waiwakaiho had oiily .CJIKM) .apportioned to it, though the estimate was much beyond that,"and the balance had to be amide up from revenue. The Mangaoraka \vn<i built entirely from ordinary revenue. If the/present position of county was charged to a want of trust by one ridiii" of the other it would be near the mark. There had been a feeling all through that the Moa Hiding wanted more than its' share, and that as soon as all its bridges were built at the cost of the whole comity then it would secede and form a new county. This feeling lias been encouraged by efforts of a few interested persons at Inglewood in that direction; hut it is very doubtful if the Moa ratepayers would be so foolish. Jn any case' it is clear that Moa has not had anything it is not entitled to, but that Omata has, and that the works as laid out have been constructed well within the estimates of the engineer. TV charge the cost of the extras at Tapuae and Oakura against the estimates is unfair, as they were all ordered by the Omata Hiding : members, and in most cases against the . lirotest of the engineer—l am, etc., MOA RIDING.