ROADS & BRIDGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 November 1938, Page 6

ROADS & BRIDGES

PROPOSED WORK IN UPPER TAUERU RIDING INCREASED GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY WANTED. INSPECTION BY MINISTER REQUESTED. There was an attendance of thirty ratepayers of the Upper Taueru Riding at a meeting held at Bideford to consider a proposal to raise a special loan over the whole riding for bridge and road works, towards the cost of which the Government had provided a £1 for £1 subsidy. The chairman of the Masterton County Council, Mr R. E. Gordon Lee, presided. Outlining the proposals, Mr Lee said lhe works proposed were: Wainui-o-mapu Bridge No. 1. costing £1604; Wainui-o-mapu Bridge No. 2, £1186; Miller’s Road Bridge, £1564, and Mangarei Road metalling £2400, of a total cost of £6754. The total Government subsidy on these works on a £1 for £1 basis of the subsidisable items would be £3302 and the cost to the Upper Taueru Riding, including the cost of Taising the loan, was estimated at £3500, said Mr Lee. It had already been explained that some time • ago the Government sought the cooperation of the council in a five-year schedule of work designed to improve . existing access roads to back country land in this county. The council, fur- . nished the requisite information in the . hope that something substantial would be undertaken by the Government in its reported desire to assist, on a ’ large scale, the important question of improved access to back-country settlers. With the exception of two [ roads, which ‘ give access to one settler in each case, where a free grant had been made it might be mentioned ■ that the grants made available by the Government had been limited to £1 ■ for £l. Representations were made ■ through Mr J. Robertson, M.P., for a greater subsidy than £1 for £1 and ■ he undertook to interview the Minis- , ter of Public Works on the subject ■ after the elections. They had receiv- ' ed no further intimation from Mr Robertson in this connection. SPECIAL LOAN SUGGESTED. , “To the extent that these works are • regarded as urgent by the ratepayers i directly interested, and that they can- , not be financed in the ordinary way ■ from revenue funds,” said Mr Lee, . “no other alternative is available but . to raise a special loan to provide the council’s proportion of the cost if the ■ grants made available by the Government are to be taken advantage of.” The suggested term of the loan, said i Mr Lee, was 15 years with- interest at current rates, namely 31 per cent, with the repayments so arranged that the full loan would be repaid at the expiration of that term. The annual estimated loan charges for each item of work were as follows: —Wainui-o-mapu Bridge No. 1, £77 14s 6d; Wai-nui-omapu Bridge No. 2, £59 8s 9d; Miller’s Road Bridge, £73 3s: Manga-, lei Road metalling, £lO9 14s 6d; total, £320 0s 9d. From these figures it would be observed that the total estimated annual loan charges on these loans amounted to £320 0s 9d, this representing an increase in rates, taking the figures for the current year as the basis, of approximately 10| oer cent or 12s 8d per £lOOO of capital valuation. The present rates amounted to £6 4s per £lOOO of capital valuation and with the annual loan charges for the proposed works added this figure would be increased to £6 16s 8d per £lOOO. CONVERSION OPERATIONS. “I anticipate,” said Mr Lee, “that some of you hia;- ask the question, why should we be called upon to assist in the payment of these loan charges since the works to be undertaken under these proposals do not concern the access to our properties, tnd that may appear quite a reasonable question. The answer to that question is that some four or five years ago the tnen Government asked for the co-operation of the council and urged that it should take advantage of the facilities it? had provided in connection with local body loan conversion schemes, the object in view being a reduction in interest charges. While the saving to the council in interest charges following the passing of the Local Authorities Interest Reduction Act, passed in 1933, meant a direct saving to the ratepayers of the county in interest of £422 per anum, by converting the loans a further saving of £l9O pelannum was possible, making a total annual saving of £612 m interest charges. The council decided to assist the Government by converting its loans but in doing so it had to face up to verv strong pressure by the then Minister of Finance, that the old special rating area system of local body finance had long outlived its usefulness, and that the basis of the conversion should be the consolidation of lhe then existing loans into one conversion loan secured by a uniform rate over the whole Of the county. The council, as a matter of policy, op--co'cd this suggested method of financing the conversion loan a--d was successful in resisting the uniform rate proposal. The then Government made an amendment to the lav, enabling county councils, who had strenuously opposed the uniform rating system, to consolidate lhe then existing loans and to levy a consolidated rate on a differential basis as security for the conversion loan over ti e several ridings. TV is being in line with the council’s policy up to that point where it would not give way on the abolition of ridings, it was then reluctantly compelled to consider the advantages t would undoubtedly gain bv con-

ve’’ c ioh, notwithstanding that it meant in the process, the abolition of the old special rating area system. It was realised that some material fluctuations in the incidence of rates would take place within the several ridings, particularly in cases where none, or a very small proportion of the rates represented special interest rates, but in the main it can be claimed that the result was more satisfactory to the majority of the ratepayers of this county than attempting the doublebarrel action of wiping out both special rating areas and ridings. In reducing this explanation to a few vords it means this - That following the conversion there are no special rating areas today in the Upper Taueru Riding and all rates levied within the riding are pooled and paid for on a capital valuation basis. Having taken that action there does not appear to be any justification for the- council

reverting to the old system of special rating areas for the works included ih ihe proposals now under discussion, even assuming that there is nothing to prevent the council from setting up special rating areas for new loans. ' A motion for the favourable consideration of the raising of a loan for the work, as outlined by Mr Lee, was dropped in favour of a resolution that the council be requested to arrange, ihrough Mr J. Robertson. M.P.. for the Minister of Public Works to visit the district and inspect each of the works included in the loan proposals, with a view to obtaining a greater subsidy than £1 for £l.