BOROUGH LOAN PROPOSALS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2309, 30 September 1908, Page 2

BOROUGH LOAN PROPOSALS

£52,600 LOAN RECOMMENDED ANIMATED DISCUSSIONS.

A special meeting of the Borough Council was held last evening to discuss tho Mayor’s proposals to borrow a sum of money for street improvements, recreation grounds, and the erection of a bridge across tho Waimata. river. There were present the Mayor (Mr. W. I). Lysnur), Crs. Pottie, Somervell, Wliinray, Bright, Barton, Mann, Sheridan, Williams, and Sawyer.

Tim Works Committee recommended that the necessary steps lie taken to place before tho ratepayers a proposal to borrow loans amounting in all to £52,(500, the vote to he taken on the following issues: Street improvements £4l,B9o,recreation grounds £OISO, .aml Waimata bridge £SOOO. and that cycle tracks be deleted. The following detail of works to be undertaken was attached to the recommendation : TOWN DIVISION.

Gladstone road, tarred macadam and tarred surface ... 4000 Gladstone Road, metal ... 1148 Read’s Quay and Peel Street tarred macadam and tarred surface ... 2976 Palmerston Road, metal ... 393 Childers Road, metal and shingle ... 945 Grey Street, metal and shingle 1320 Aberdeen Road, metal and shingle ... ... .... 1317 Awapuni and Salisbury Roads, shingling and pitching ... 1659 Kerbing and tarring sundry streets ••• ••• 3)67 Metalling and shingling other streets 5981 £23,297 WHATAUPOKO. ■ £ Ormond Rond, metal and shingle ... ••• ••• 1300 Stout Street, formation and shingling Formation, metalling, and shingling other streets 3872 Kerbing and tarring footways 924 £6884 KAITI. £ Wainui Road, formation, pitching and metalling • tow Formation, metalling, and shingling other streets ... ••• 3421 Kerbing and tarring footways 891 £5812 ROAD MACHINERY. Motor waggon and trailer... ,900 Locomotive crane and grab ... 1000 Civic lira ... 200 Crusher, screen, and engine... 900 Hoppers at quarry Watering Van 400 Horse Broom and scoop ... <3 £3323 OTHER ITEMS. First year’s interest on 10an... 2074 Recreation Grounds 5*ol) First year’s interest 3(JU £6150 £ Waimata Bridge . . ... 4810 First year’s interest ... ••• 250 £5060 Grand Total ... £52,600 The Mayor moved that the report be adopted. The Council would see that the bulk of the work to be done was of a permanent nature,, and it 1 was quite impossible to undertake tbe work out of rates, unle-s tho rate was substantially increased. The amount for road machinery had been increased from £2500 to £3323. The Council needed a new stone-crusher, and the other machinery in tho schedule was essential. It was also necessary to face the cost of recreation grounds. The amount required for their purchase was not largo and ground would increase in value as time went on. The grounds to bo acquired would only bo practice grounds for sports, and the matches would have to be played on other reserves. The Waimata bridge was also a necessity, and the County Council would have to contribute largely towards the cost and up-keep. Tlie overseer estimated that- while the money was being expended £2876 would be required for maintenance, but after the work had been completed "£B9ll a year would bo needed for the first five years. The Council would therefore be in a much better position after the loan. Last year £9OO was spent in street maintenance.

Cr. Bright: I don’t think so. The Mayor: Well, in street works and maintenance. The whole of the loan could be raised on a special rate of 7d in the £, and a Is 3d general, rate. That loft the ra'tes exactly in the same position as before the loan was raised.

Cr. Wliinray seconded the adoption of the report) Cr. Darton said that what troubled him was the upkeep of the work in years to come. The object of the committee was to make the permanent work more permanent. Included in the permanent work was tlie tarring of Peel Street and Lowe Street, •and making the centre streets Teady to bear permanent traffic. The . annual cost of maintenance would be £B9ll after five years had gone by, and tho maintenance for the first five years would he paid for out of loan money. Still, the annual upkeep of £B9ll would he an increasing one, for it could not be said that, the life of tho roads would bo permanent. The Mayor said tho ratepayers would be able to spend £52,000 and not raise tho rates, but he (Mr. Darton) could not sec where the interest on maintenance could come from, as' the maintenance was practically wliat was being paid at the present "time. The Mayor said that the overseer had allowed for Patutahi metal at 14s, whereas tlio cost' would bo only Bs.

Cr. Mann: Well, then, what is the value of the report if everything Is to be cut down. Wliat is the use of considering the report at all, if everything is to bo explained away? The Mayor: The maintenance after the loan was expended was the most important. The Council paid £9305 on street work alone Jast yoar. Cr. Darton: There was a lot of new work in that £9305.

The Mayor: That is true, hut we can pay t ; he_ whole of the interest on (.be loan with £11,535 I have no misgivings on the question. Jf the maintenance is an increasing one, it should be remembered flic town is also increasing. A rate of 7d in tlie £ on the present valuation would provide a surplus of £2O a year. Cr. Darton : It will take an extra rate of Is 3d in the £ to meet the maintenance, and can that be met by extra 'valuation ? If the Council will look at the expenditure there is no provision for new streets. (To the Mayor): You said there was £9OOO put down in last year’s balance-sheet for street maintenance and there is not a penny.

The Mayor: The only altered position is the interest, and it docs, not matter whether tho money is spent on interest or maintenance. If wo Were able to spend £9OOO on streets last year we can easily spend £11,535 a year in five years’ lime.

Cr. Bright: It is not proper financing to do repairs out of. loans Loins should be used for permanent works. Repairing out of loans is had finance. Tlio Mayor: It is .admitted we will have to do that--; hut the amount is very small.

Cr. Mann : The figures placed before us are reduced in one item, and increased in another. The Conned should have the correct figures before them.

Cr. Sheridan: I agree with Cr. Mann; it is almost useless to discuss those figures. Tbe Mayor: Who can toll the cost of Patutahi metal?

Cr, Sheridan: I am not in favor of spending £6OOO on recreation grounds, because the Council cannot afford it, and the idea of putting a bridge across tlio Waimata is simply ridiculous. A bridge l is not required for ordinary traffic, but for stock, and it is the duty of the County Council to build the bridge. 1 think it is quito wrong to put tho reoreation

) ground dnd bridge Joans before the ratepayers, because they will think we support them. Or. JJriglit: I think that members of the Works ■Committee instead of pushing the report forward should have yat by and allowed other Councillors to pass judgment upon their work. I anil not disposed to swallow those figures, unless they are checked by a responsible person, or a properly qualified engineor, and that lias not been done. Mr. Morgan is a road overseer, and not an engineer, and tho Council would not be doing its duty in putting a proposal to borrow £52,600 before the ratepayers on tho word of nn overseer, who is not a qualified engineer. When the schedule was first drawn up provision was made to spend money on every street in the town, so that tho ratepayers could bo told there was provision for every street, in the hope that the poll would bo carried. That position had now been abandoned. Suppose the Council went out with tho proposals and tho ratepayers asked what streets were meant by “other streets” Councillors would not be ablo to answer.

The Mayor: Every street that was mentioned in the first schedule is included in the present estimate. Cr. Bright: Cr. Darton told me that the amount had been .reduced and a number of side streets cut out. Wo can go too far by excessive borrowing. There have been towns in the south that have been damned and killed stone dead by big loans, and everybody got out. If we load up our town with rates the people will get, and however desirable tho recreation grounds and bridge may be, we cannot afford them. Cr. Darton is correct that in the estimate nothing is provided next year for maintenance, but tho amount must be'taken out of loan. That is bad finance, and can any sane man say that we will have a loan of 52,600, extinguish our overdraft, and not increase the rates. We propose to borrow £42,000 for streets, and yet we will, with that Joan, spend very little moro than at tlio present time. Cr. Pettie: Only about £2OOO a year more. Cr. Bright: I will be compelled to vote against the proposal, and I hope other Councillors will not make a laughing; stock of themselves by going before the ratepayers with such a scheme. Cr. Sheridan : I am with Cr. Bright that a lot of patching work is in the report, and it will be mucli better to leave the .loan .proposals until we ascertain tho exact position. The Mayor : I hope Cr. Bright will not vote against the proposals, because there is a single discrepancy in tho figures. Cr. Darton: If the Mayor can sliow that the increased cost of maintenance of £6OOO can be raised out of capital value, very well. The Mayor : The extra expenditure is £2624, and not £6OOO. Where do you find the extra expenditure? Cr. Bright: If the Council is not in committee the business of the Council should be conducted with •some decorum. We don’t, wish to stay here all night and have your statements forced down our throats against our wish. Each Councillor should speak once and (to the Mayor) you have the right to reply to the motion. Each Councillor has sufficient intelligence to say all that is necessary at one time. The Mayor: I .am replying to the .motion. Cr. Williams :I want to speak: Cr. Maun: I don’t know that I want to say very much, but I agree with tlie previous speakers, and despite all the explanation that £2876 is put down for street expenditure, and that, at the end of five years, it increases to £B9ll. Twelve months ago I voted for a loan of £20,000, and I .am prepared to vote for a Joan of £25,000 now, to be spent in permanent work, but I cannot support the proposal before the meeting. Cr. Williams: There is no doubt all_ the 'Councillors approve of the principle of doing permanent work out of loan money. This schedule; is disappointing, for it proposes to spend a, certain amount of money on every thoroughfare, and tlie amounts set down are not sufficient to put the roads in repair. That is not permanent work, and I am opposed to spending loan money for such purposes. If we cannot put the streets in a permanent state of repair we should ■not do it with loan money, and I will oppose the proposals. I would like t 0 see tlie freehold of land obed for reserves at Kaiti and Wliatau•poko, even if the Council cannot afford io improve the land. Cr. Pettie: The schedule shows that £40,000 is fo be spent upon roads, but that amount should make them and not merely maintain them. The amount means that altogether only £IO,OOO more will be sxient than ill tlie ordinary way. I am ill grave doubt of the nracticability of the proposals,, although I admit that tlie work should be done. When the schedule is put be lore the ratepayers, I would like to see a drainage propose 1 attached, and for that reason I do riot think the scheme should be decided on at once. If the ratepayers can finance one, they can finance the other, and from a health noint of view, and for the sake of the town, the drainage should be placed first. I would like to propose, as an amendment, that the report be referred back to tho Works Committee to bring down a schedule of permanent street works, not to exceed £25.000, and the first instalment of the drainage scheme. If we can only get the outfall sewer completed within three years I am confident the ratepayers will only bo vicing with each other to be connected with the sewers. Cr. Sheridan seconded the amendment pro forma, but ■would prefer tJiiitr the portion rotating to a. drainage scheme bo. deleted. . Cr,. Pettie agreed to the suggestion. J Cr. Darton: I don’t want to vote for ft loan if it is going to cost another Is 6d in tho rates. I can’t accept the statement that the loan "will not increase the rates. The Mayor: If he Council wants more time to digest the figures I don’t want to press the question to a vote. I shall vote against the amendment. Cr. Somervell said the proposals were the most inmortanfc ever placed before the Council. When tlie Council went, to the ratepayers with a scheme -it would bo necessary to show the increased cost of maintenance. Cr. Pettie withdrew tho amendment so as to show that lie was not opposed to the loan, but with tho hope that the scheme would be referred back to the Finance Committee, and he moved to that effect. Cr. Darton seconded the plot ion that the .report <be referred back to the Finance Committee. . Cr. Pettie’s amendmen t was carried unanimously, and the report was referred back to tbe Finance Committee.