MR RUSSELL ON THE CAMBRIDGE LOAN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2557, 29 November 1888, Page 3

MR RUSSELL ON THE CAMBRIDGE LOAN.

TO THE EDITOR. SIU,--Mr G. W. Russell seems to bo greatly annoyed that ho has been charged with advocating a loan of £3000 for the Cambridge Borough, and draws attention to the fact that the mayor-elect, Mr Clements, was a strong supporter of the loan, and in fact seconded the proposition. That I believe is quite true, and that Mr Russell only supported tho £3000 loan in a half-hearted sort of a way is also true: but if my memory does not play me false, he strongly advocated a loan of £10,000 to supply the town with water from Maungakawa during tho later existence of the Town Hoard. If that loan had beon carried, we should now have had a special rate struck to pay the interest. That is the loan that Mr Clements opposed tooth and nail, and is, I presume, the one that your correspondent referred to. The £3000, I well recollect, was to liquidate the bank overdraft, pay off the Karapiro bridgo debt, and complete tho making of all streets in tho borough, and as the money ivas to be borrowed at 5 per cent, interest, and the period of repayment was to extend ovor a number of (I believe, 50) years, we should, had it been carried, be in pretty much the same position as at present, plus a few more streets to keep in order. If, however, the £10,000 had oeen successfully negotiated, it would have meant ruin to the township. If you will refer to your file of papers for 18S5, I think you will find my statement is correct, and, if it is, I certainly fail to see how Mr Russell has been wrongfully trotted out for the purposes of comparison, or that the premises of your correspondent are incorrect. Mr Kussell has often told us that "comparisons are oderous," (it is one of his favourite little jokes), and I believe he is right, as the £10,000 one has a particularly high flavour. Ttustinc the above may help to elucidate matters.—l am, ifcc., A RaTKP.U'KR. Cambridge, November '27th, ISSS.