he Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1909. A QUESTION OF PROCEDURE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2664, 20 November 1909, Page 4

he Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1909. A QUESTION OF PROCEDURE.

The correspondent who wrote in yesterday’s issue asking for more details concerning the proposed Borough loans raised an important point. ]Jo wanted to know in what order the various works were to be undertaken. The financial statement drawn up by the Town Clerk, presumably under the instructions of the Mayor, provided for the expenditure of £175.000 in equal amounts of £35,000 over a term of live years. Our correspondent desires to know—and many ratepayers will be equally curious—whether each of the works to be taken in hand is to get its share of each instalment of £35,00U. Obviously this would bring tfbout an absurd position, yet in the absence of definite information the public" will necessarily be in a state of fog as to how the money is to be allocated and qpent. We should imagine that a couple of years should be ample for the completion of the sewerage system. This, in itself, would entirely exhaust the two years’ allowance of £70,000 made in the statement submitted at last meeting of the 'Council, leaving nothing for roads, trams, electric light and so forth. Yet as a matter of fact- the first two years after the loan has been sanctioned will be the heaviest for road expenditure for the plant will have to be purchased before operations can be commenced. If the ratepayers decide to borrow money to build a bridge over the Waimata and to secure more recreation grounds they will expect to be supplied with these within a reasonable period of the passing of the lean proposals. Similarly the erection of a waterworks reservoir, the establishment of an electric light plant and the initiation of a tram, way scheme are all matters that will have to he dealt with expeditiously. In other words, the division of the loan into five equal amounts for annual expenditure will not meet with the views of the ratepayers. Once they sanction the various works they will expect that vigorous measures .shall be taken to. complete them. If an energetic policy is undertaken between two and three years should find the sewerage system installed, the tramways and the electric lighting completed as well as a large (portion of the roads. This, with the recreation grounds, Waimata bridge and waterworks reservoir will account 'for the bulk of the loan money. It would be reasonable, therefore, to estimate that by the end of 1912 the Borough will have completed work to the amount of £120,000 instead of the £70,000 which is mentioned in the Financial .statement prepared by the Town Clerk, and by the end of 1913 more than £150,000 should have been spent instead of the £105,000 mentioned in •the official estimate. This increase of the interest bill would have a marked effect- upon the -financial position of the •Council during the years 1912, 1913, 1914. Of course, the Mayor may have an answer to the accusation which these figures imply, but the fact the. a the matter has not been discussed by the Council is additional -proof of the accuracy of our contention that the loan proposals have not been properly considered by the body whose duty it is to consider them. At last meeting Councillor Darton protested against the -fact that the Finance Committee had never .been called together since the formation of the present Council. 'He claimed that the loan proposals should have ‘been carefully gone through, by. the Finance Committee before being ’submitted to the ratepayers. Undoubtedly he was in the right, but heing .on 'the ‘ ‘opposition benches” in -the- Council his protest received no consideration.