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Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1918, Page 4

THE BOROUGH LOAN. To-day a poll of New Plymouth ratepayers is to be taken on a proposal to borrow £IO,OOO for street improvements. The works proposed to be undertaken have been fully discussed by the council and the ratepayers at the meeting on Friday, when the proposals received practically unanimous endorsement. The Mayor has shown that the streets and footpaths of the town cannot be put in proper order —which means the remaking of many, and the tar-sealing of the surface—out of revenue, unless the rates are considerably increased; the money must be provided by loan. Thus the question for the ratepayers to decide to-day is quite a simple one. If they want permanent and good streets and footpaths they must vote for the loan or be prepared to pay for them by way of increased rates, or go on spending money fruitlessly on patchwork. There can be only one answer. New Plymouth has suffered in the past through failure to work to a settled, considered plan or policy. It has been a case of "sufficient unto the day," with the result that many of the streets and footpaths are in a deplorable condition, whereas if a loan had been raised in the first place, and the work been done properly, rates would have been no heavier, and the streets and fofttpaths a credit—instead of a disgrace—to the capital town of the province. Lately, however, the council has been working on the businesslike policy of making permanent, as far as possible, any works undertaken, conspicuous instances'being the lower Carrington Road, Powderham Street, Avenue Road, etc; and it is for extending this policy that the present loan is needed. The Mayor has made out a strong case for authorising the loan. He is doing excellent work, as is the engineer, and though there are points of detail on which there is room for a difference of opinion—and which we have had occasion to express in the past —there can be no doubt that the present policy is the right one, and deserves the support of ratepayers at the poll to-day.