TOWN AFFAIRS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1938, Page 7

TOWN AFFAIRS

SURVEY BY THE MAYOR OF MASTERTON LARGELY ATTENDED MEETING LAST NIGHT FINANCIAL POSITION SOUND The opportunity provided by the Mayor, Mr T. Jordan, for. candidates for the Masterton Borough Council and Mayoralty to address the electors, attracted a large attendance in the Municipal Social Hall last night. Several candidates availed themselves of the opportunity of placing their views before the meeting, while Mr Jordan also crisply reviewed the work of the retiring council. The Deputy-Mayor, Councillor W. White, presided. After Mr Jordan had explained the purpose of the meeting, Mr T. R. Barren, who is seeking re-election on the Wellington Harbour Board, referred to the characteristic courtesy of Mr Jordan, which, he said, was unfortunately too often taken as a matter of course. Mr Barren dealt as some length with the ramifications of the Wellington Harbour Board, and said that no institution today was in a sounder position than the board. Mr Jordan, who was greeted with applause, said it was thirteen years since he had sought election, and since that time he had attended from 550 to 600 council and committee meetings without a break. He was not seeking any attendance prize, but was merely indicating his attention to business. The complexion of local body affairs had changed in the past thirteen years and was likely to become still more complicated. Touching on the financial position of the borough, Mr Jordan said that the indebtedness of the town at March 31,

■ 1937, was less than in 1925. Since the i raising of the Lansdowne Water. and Drainage Loan, the council had not gone to the ratepayers for a loan. Small loans had been raised without the consent of the; ratepayers, but they had not had any material effect on the indebtedness of the borough, which at present stood at £226,000 apart from the sinking fund. Referring to the recent conversion of existing loans, Mr Jordan said the council had left the matter in his hands and all the loans had been converted in the Borough offices without, outside experts or outside fees. The credit of the council stood high and no difficulty was experienced in raising the last loan at 3J per cent. Provision had also been made for wiping out the debt of the borough in 20 years’ time. When he took office, Mr Jordan continued, it had been said that there would be plenty of work for thesoli- . citqr?.- .In answer tq that he would say that during his term, of office the council had not been concerned in one single case of litigation, except for the collection'of rates,, and there were not many cases of that kind, as the people of Masterton were the best payers in New' Zealand. After touching on the question of unemployment relief during the depression, when, for eight years he had acted as a committee of one, Mr Jordan passed on to deal with salary cuts and said that no man on the outside per- . manent staff had been reduced below £4 a week. Labour union secretaries were taking the council’s existing agreement with its employees as a model. Discussing transport matters, Mr Jordan said he still believed that the boroughs were not getting the proportion of motor taxation .they, should receive. The reading bill of the country was eight millions for a population of 1J millions. He considered that the council’s share of taxation should have some relationship to expenditure on roads and if the towns’ share of expenditure was 23 per cent, he felt that the boroughs should receive more than 5 per cent of the revenue. The council had spent between £9OOO and £lO,OOO on roads, and had received some £2OOO in.petrol tax. After adding heavy traffic fees on to the receipts from petrol taxation, the borough’s share was about 9 per cent. Mr Jordan said the Municipal Abattoirs had been running very satisfactorily, but at the same time they had to be vigilant. An attempt, which so far had been resisted successfully, had been made to increase the running costs , at the abattoirs. Dealing with the borough mily supply, Mr Jordan said that the milk sold for consumption was under inspection from the time the cows entered the cow bail. Thanks to the splendid work of the Borough Inspector, Mr T. A. Russell, all the cows were voluntarily tested for T.B. Responsible persons had raised the question of a municipal milk supply for Masterton on similar lines to the one in operation in Wellington. His reply was: “Go to Wellington, drink their milk, and then come back and drink our’s.” (Applause.)

The housing survey recently carried out, Mr Jordan continued showed that the standard of living in Masterton was good. Overcrowding was only reported in four cases, and in three of those, extra sleeping accommodation was available. The fourth case, incidentally, was a Government railway cottage.

Dealing with the subject of Crown rates, Mr Jordan said he had made repeated efforts to make the Crown face up to its responsibilities.. The Minister of Finance, the Hon W. Nash, had said that the Crown only paid for services rendered, but Mr Jordan had replied that the Borough levied rates for services rendered, and for nothing else, therefore the Crown should pay the lot. Mr Jordan said that all the tar seal-

ing of streets had been done out of revenue, which, in principle, he thought, was wrong. A start had recently been made with a job that had been staring Masterton in the face for the past 80 years, that of straightening the Waipoua River. The work was now well under way. After referring to the gas undertaking, which was prospering in spite of keen competition from electric power, Mr Jordan said that during his 13 years in office he had found it necessary at times to say something to the public regarding its duty. He had believed it his duty to say what he had, and he would not withdraw any of it (Applause). He thanked the retiring councillors for their help and co-operation during his term in office.

Mr C. R. Goudge, a candidate for the Borough Council, enumerated fourteen points of his platform, and said he was not contesting the election in any spirit of competition, but was merely exercising the perogative given in a democratic country. The Deputy-Mayor, Councillor W. White, Councillor R. Russell and Mr G. W. Morice, a new candidate, also briefly addressed the meeting. Mr Morice said he had no axe to grind, and he paid a tribute to the splendid work of the Mayor, and members of the retiring council. At the conclusion of the meeting a vote of thanks was passed to the chairman.