THE BOROUGH LOAN PROPOSALS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9153, 28 July 1908, Page 4

THE BOROUGH LOAN PROPOSALS.

The courage of the Mayor in bringing down the drainage loan proposal, and also the scheme for the purchase of the Showgrounds, was fitly rewarded last evening by a- meeting of ratepayers sympathetically disposed to both proposals. Mir Boilings, modestly explained that so;far as the drainage scheme was cuncernedi he. did not pretend to be advocating an idea of his own originating,, but it did not on that account diminish his earnestness to see that the-prooosal of the Council was put before the;ratepayers; in the clearest light, which meant that a favourable though perfectly fair idea of the whole subject was given to those ratepayers-who attended the meeting. In a conviraeirog speech Mr Boilings showed that what at first sight might appear an almost unsupportable extra burden of municipal taxation, was after ail only a ' matter of eight shillings and fourpence per yar for the propertyowner whose unimproved valuation is £IOO, which means a total improved valuation: of approximately £SOO. It would be elaborating the obvious to tell the common-sense ratepayer that he has a cheap thing on when he gets a good drainage system at such a price, and it goes almost without sajying that the ratepayers in the un • drained area can hardly do otherwise tlaaii vote solid for the loan, while those in the present drainage area will appreciate the business-like i method of the Mayor in equitably distributing the incidence of taxation under the consolidation scheme. The Showgrounds purchase is a proposition which the Mayor also showed in alight which must appeal to the ratepayers' sense of their re sponsibilities in the providing of adequate reserves for recreative and kindred purposes. Briefly illustrated the position is that the ratepayer who pays 8s 4d in drainage rates under the new drainage scheme, might be called upon to pay Is lOd per year as his quota towards the Showgrounds purchase. Should some of the land be re-sold, and a good revenue be derived from the balance no rate at all might be levied, but at the worst 13 lOd v per year is surely a very small rate to quibble over. Both proposals stand an excellent chance of being favourably treated at the poll, which, the Mayor states, will be taken at as early a date as is statutorily permissible.