DELAYED IMPROVEMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 303, 20 December 1913, Page 10

DELAYED IMPROVEMENTS.

EXPENDITURE OF LOAN MONEY.

A deputation consisting of Messrs L. Amoldson and Lees waited upon the Remuera Road Board at a meeting held last evening with a petition signed by the ratepayers of Orakei Road, which requested that the original sum of £1,600 allocated for Orakei Road out of the £ 10,000 loan, should be expended as soon as possible. Mr Arnoldson said, that during the eleven years he had lived in the road no improvements had been effected beyond the cutting away of the grass and a little fencing. The residents wished to know where the money was, and what was the chance of having the improvements carried out.

The chairman (Mr J. Dempsey) explained that the Board was in much the same position asnfhe petitioners, in that they too did not Know where the money was. They had work costing £10.000 to carry out and only £2.500 to do it with. The amount in nand was being distributed in effecting the necessary road improvements as fairly as possible. On completion of the work in hand, Orakei Road would receive immediate attention. An unfortunate fact in connection with the roads of the district was that when the previous Board had raised the loan some two years ago they had not raised enough. The result was tharfc some of the works had been neglected, and in the ease of Victoria Avenue, where work had been done in connection with the tramway extension, there was still several hundreds of pounds owing on the work after the whole loan had been absorbed.

Mr. O. W. Murray stated that he thought the fault lay with the previous Board, which had spent money unreasonably, and where it was not urgently needed. Money should have been spent on Orakei Road long ago.

Mr. Lees said that the ratepayers were paying money supposed to be used for their benefit. So far they had received nothing in return for the interest.