THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 1908. THE ISSUES FOR TO-DAY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9168, 17 August 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 1908. THE ISSUES FOR TO-DAY.

Ratepayers are being treated to the usual burlesque warnings in connection with the poll of to-day. On the one hand the bogey is raised of our awful "total indebtedness" of so many hundreds of thousands of pounds, as if.the present poll itself swung round on the 'total indebtedness pivot, while on the other hand the ineradicable anonymous "pro bono publico" tills the ratepayers with an awful solemnity that the "annual charge on the Showgrounds will be £450, in addition to the caretaker's salary." Such tactics will naturally tend to have the opposite effect to that desired by those win adopt them, especially when, as in the latter case, not a tittle of reliable information—nor, for that matter, any information whatever - is forth coming in support of the statements made. The opponents to the two loaris have studiously avoided any reference to the individual liability of each ratepayer, a point which should, if their cause was as just as

they would have the ratepayers believe, be the primest argument against the loans. It rounds much t.etter for the opposition cause to say, for example, "the Borough loans vvil! total £130,000!" It would never lo tQ say "the drainage rate will oe somewhere about eight shillings •n a capital value of £500." Likewise to tell ratepayers that at the •utside their indebtedness on a property of similar size in connection with the Showgrounds proposals would be the nominal sum of less than one Shilling per year would also spell ruin for the "opposition" cause, otherwise? wo should hear quite a lot made of the martyr-like sacrifice expected of th; 1 Borough in this connection also. The effect of the opposition so far has only been to show how really good the case for the loans is, and the weakness of the opposing arguments has in no way been better exposed than by the persistent attempts to draw a herring across the scent. Residents outride the drainage

area will certainly vote solidly for cleanliness, oou.fort, and decency, and high-minded, unselfish ratepayers •vho now enjoy the manifold blessings of sweet home surroundings will :iot oegrudgc a like bounty to ratepayers who will gladly acquiesce in the reciprocal loan which means an all-drained borough As the present special-rating drainage area must in any event face a big expenditure, running well into five figures, for septic tank improvements, the rotepayers in that area will see that after all they will !e verv wise to embrace the opportunity of levying the cost over the whole Borough. Ir is this absolute certainty that makes the present loan arrangement so fair and just to all concerned, and the only other question is whether the whole BoroUgh can stand the strain oi' the new taxation. We should not esteem Masterton to be the buoyant, progressive and prosperous town it has shown itself of late if it could not shoulder a paltry drainage rate of about eight shillings on a capital value of £soo—or less than a penny in the £ on the rateable value basis. Masterton Borough with all its much decried "total indebtedness" is one of the lightest rated towns in New Zealand when the many u[;-to-date conveniences it enjoys are considered, andjjwhen it is recollected that a large proportion of the money never leaves the town at all it becomes a pertinent question whether the Borough is not doing very well indeed out of a proposition which gives it a complete and relicble drainage system at much less actual disbursement than the amount of thj loan represents. The carrying of the poll means a vote of confidence in the Borough Council in whom the ratepayers reposed sufficient confidence to entrust them with the management of municipal affairs., Councillors have spared manv valuable hours over both subjects upon which the ratepayers are asked to adjudicate to-day, and they have recommended the loans to the ratepayers with confidence in their necessity. :