SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1894. NEXT CENTURY OR THIS? THE PROPOSED TOWN HALL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4902, 14 December 1894, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1894. NEXT CENTURY OR THIS? THE PROPOSED TOWN HALL.

A sum of £SOO lias been ear-marked for a Masterton Town Hall, and the estimated cost of such a structure on the Hues laid down by the Chairman cannot be put down at less than £3,000, and ought not, for the credit of the town to be calculated at a lower figure It is suggested that from one to two hundred pounds can be added annually to the £SOO nest-egg, and if any schoolboy be asked how long it will be on this basis before the hall is built, we venture to affirm that the answer will be considerably over ten years, Now, we take it that the problem to be solved is not how to build a town hall in ten or twelve years'timo, but how to put it up at once. We acknowledge an indebtedness to one of the Trustees, Mr A. Vile, for setting this ball in motion, but it wants to go a good deal further than he has put it, if it is to be of any immediate use to the town. We do not believe thai even Mi 1 Vile is contented to wait ten'or twelve years for the hall, and we venture to sug-1 gest to him a iwdus operandi by i which the structure might be put up i during tho ensuing year, We assume ] that next year the Trust will have in hand a cash balance of at 1 least seven hundred and fifty pounds, < which can be devoted to the undertaking, The balance of £2,250 required to erect a hall costing £3,000 could be found by the Trust issuing! debentures, These debentures, we I bave reason to believe, would be taken up in Masterton in one lot, at, iay five per cent, interest, without ;ho slightest. difEculfcy., It is within mr knowledge, that debenture stock s now in demand and can be placed in exceptionally, favourable terms. Phe next suggestion we make is that ho Trust should take up investnent shares in the local Building Society, shares that would mature t the same time as the debentures ell due, and which would pay .them ff in full, Now the annual cost to he Trust of such an operation is asily calculated;— £ Annual interest on debentures 125 Investment 'shares of the ulti- ' mate value of £2,225,c05t per . annum ... 135' .V-Total. ■'.'.''■'■■;.•':. £260 , For'eleven years the Trust would' we to provide for an annual lia-i ility of £260, but as it would relive at 'least: £IQO per mum for rentals in connection with le building, its annual contribution mid be fairlyjputVdown at £l6O. bis meads that by devoting 160 of its'revenue, for; eleven

years it can secure the immediate possession- of a''three ''thousand pounds hall, and at the end of the cleared off and paid its entire cost.,. We shall be glad if any who take an interest in the question will criticise our figures and point out anyjmrtioular in which they may be misleading, Atownhall to,be. completed; in the course of the next century is not our idea of what is required in Hastertoh and we suggest as an alternative proposal that it be completed withinthe ensuing twelve months and paid for within the next- eleven ! years. A proposal for the construction of a ballduring the next .century is not one )i or', which the town is likely, to express any great gratitude to.the Trust. But if a proposal on the lines we;, have indicated were submitted to a meeting of the voters in the Town Land Trust district, we venture to say it would be earned by acclamation.