The Waikato Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1878.

Waikato Times, Volume XII, Issue 10, 24 December 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1878.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. ♦ . * * # * Her© shall the Presa the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

Some little misapprehension appears to exist with some of the burgesses respecting the object of Saturday night's meeting, and the position of the borough with regard to the bridge loan. The facts of the case are simply the3e : The Government gives a subsidy of £3000 towards tbe cost of the bridge, the borough finding the balance. This would leave somb £5000 to be raised by debentures ; but there are the approaches, the cost of which will be^conaiderable, and it ia therefore thought wiser to make the borrowing power £7000 instead of £5000, so as to cover any possible extra expenditure on that account. And this is rendered all the more necessary, as whether the sum to be raised by debentures be JJSOOO or £7000 the whole of the securities the borough can give will be required, so that if the smaller sum only were provided for and it was afterwards found necessary to raise another JgIOOO or £2000 the borough could not obtain it for there would be no security left to offer. The special rate, the power to strike which is now asked for, is not, however, likely to be more than a mere security m reserve. It will never be struck, for the simple reason that the tolls of the bridge will cover interest and sinking fund on the debentures, even should those debentures — which have been very favorably negotiated at G percent — have to be fully taken np. Those who advance money on the borough's debentures very naturally ask for the collateral security of a special rate. They do not doubt that the tolls oi the bridge will be amply sufficieut to meat interest and sinking fund, but it so happens that the Borough Council has the powei to make the bridsfe a free one at any moment, aud should they do this where would be the security of the (lebentureholders for their money? This is why, as trust-holders of the money for others, they not unnaturally and very prudently as business business men ask for the additional security of a special rate. It will then clearly rest with the borough whether the special rate is ever required or not. Again, as to the amount to be borrowed The sum is now fixed at £7000. Why, we have already stated. We should, however, go further, and explain that, because power to borrow £7000 is given, it doe* not necessarily follow that £7000 will be borrowed. Eeach debenture will represent a certain suni, siy £50 or £100. The debentures will only be floated as they are required, and only to the extent that they are required, and only foi> thfl purpose for which they are authorised. Ifc was argued the other nighr, that because when tbe bridge superseded tho punt, and the tolls were absorbed m its construction, tb.9 borough, having lost the ferry revenue, would need to use money obtained byfcheapeoial rate for ordinary purposes. But this is simply an impossibility. The Council could not use the bridge loan debentures for any other purpose than the bridge, ojf. strike tho special rate aud use it for ordinary

purposes. They would be simply rendering themselves guilty of misappropriation of public funds if they did so, and to public prosecution for so doing. As to the question of whether the bridge is or is not a colonial concern, we sire past that now* We have actually entered on the work. Besides this the whole policy of the public administration is against such a system, and the Legislature has really gone out of its way m meeting us wi h the £3,000 subsidy. As we have said, the special rate will never be wanted. Who is there doubts that the net receipt of the tolls will ever fall short of the annual sum required ? Why the special rate mnst be struck, we have shown. We will now show that even though strnclc, it need not necessarily be collected. As if to provide for such a contingency, the 113 th clause of the Act provides that, after sach a special rate has been struck, " The Council may, from time to time, amend a special rate, by increasing or diminishing the eatne, if necessary, so that the annual produce thereof shall suffice to provide the interest and sinking fund on account of the loan secured thereon." So that, if the interest and sinking fund on the debentures are met by the bridge tolls, the Council may, from time to time, diminish the rate to actually nothing at all, which is just what, m this case, it would do. We have next to consider the procedure m borrowing to be gone through by the borough. The whole process, as we have said, was gone through some months since, but owing to the informal omission of certain words has to be gone through again. The only security then given was the tolls, no provision was made for striking a special rate, which it is now necessary and now sought to do. The first step is for tbe Council to publish m the borough once m each week, for four successive weeks, the particular work to be undertaken ; the sum proposed to be borrowed for such purpose, any special rate or tolls or rents and profits of any property which it is proposed to pledge as security. The Mayor shall then call a meeting of the burgesses for a day " not more than ten days after the last publication of such notice (hence the necessity of holding the meeting before midnight of Saturday, the last day of the ten) to consider such proposal, and shall preside at the same (hence the necessity of waiting for the Mayor's actual presence), and after due consideration and discussion of the proposal, the Mayor shali give notice that a poll will be taken, setting forth a '.day not less than one tier more than three weeks from Ihe day of the general meeting. The day fixed for the poll is, Friday the 3rd of January next. All this has now been legally done, and it will rest wi*h the burgesses to give their decision by their votes on that day, by voting for or against the proposal considered at Satnrday night's meeting. On the former occasion, the desirability of the loan was affirmed by an almost unanimous vote, and will, doubtless, be so on this occasion. The bridge for Hamilton ia a matter of necessity which no man disputes, and when the merely matter of form part the speoial rate plays m the security given is known and understood, no new objection Will be taken on that ground.