THE PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2467, 3 May 1888, Page 2

THE PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

TO THE EDITOR. Silt, —At a special meeting of the Hamilton Borough Council held last night, it was resolved that a committee consisting of the Mayor, Councillors Knox, Sandes, Salmon, von Stunner, Missen, Bell, and Wood, be appointed to take into consideration the advisability of erecting tlio proposed public buildings, and that the Government be asked to contribute £1,000 towards it. Now, an a citizen of New Zealand, I, for one, beg to enter my protest against any public money being voted for such a purpose for the buildings are not, nor are they ever likely to be required. It is proposed now tliat they be erected of wood, at a cost of £2,500, so that if £1000 bo got from Government, that would leave £1,500 to be taken from loan, which, at oil per cent., would be £82 lOd per annum interest, to bo taken from the rates. Thero would also be required a caretaker at, say, £75, with insurance on wooden building about £22 10, making in all, without anything for repairs, lights, etc., £178 per annum, which, at oven tho present valuation, would amount to in the £, to be taken from the pockets of the alreadyoverburdened ratepayers; or, in other words, raising the rates from Is to Is all to raise the value of one or two councillors' property, and tor no earthly benefit to the burgesses at large. It was argued by one or two of the councillors that the Government were about to appoint a Land Purchase Commissioner, who would have to reside in Hamilton. What utter nonsense ! In the first place, the Ngatihaua and Waikato tribes have no land to sell, and Maniapoto cannot sell until the land is through the Court, whenever that may be, and it is my iinpressiou, very few of them will consent tu sell at all. Moreover the Government have got no money at present to buy land with, so that I think that sop is very much too thin. Another councillor says that he was elected pledged to the building, and he will carry out his pledge. Let me tell that councillor that things have materially altered since then, and that if ho stood for election at the present moment, and even hinted that he was in favour of the soheine, his seat would know him no more. As I pointed out at the meeting theio is already a fair share of monuments of folly in Hamilton, there are the baths costing upwards of £100 for which, by-the-bye, we "'ere to get £10 rent for the season, which I need not say we did not. There arc tho new saleyards which will cost £330, or £30 per year for the poor latepayers, and for which ho gets nothing, with the exception of those that are in business on that side ot the river. I will now come to our financial position, on: , overdraft, inclusive of a balance due on yards, is £4(>o, for which wo pay !) per cent, wo are paying on loan of £15,000, iiS per cut, or £330 per annum, less, of course, £-1000, that is at fixed deposit at "i per cent., £200, or say £20 less than we are paying, for, two years ago, when we borrowed the loan, tho rateable value of the Borough was £10,127 10s, the present year it is £0,51)0, so Jthut if all the loan was expended it would take Is 1J rate to pay interest on loan alone. I havo endeavoured to show the matter in as clear a light as possible, but will havo some further remarks to mako in a future issue.—l am, etc., Isaac Coaths.