MOUNT ALBERT SCHEME.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 196, 17 August 1920, Page 7

MOUNT ALBERT SCHEME.

LOAN OF £191,000.

STREETS, DRAINAGE, BUILDINGS.

It is the intention of the Mount Albert' Borough Council to riut before its ratepayers a three-fold scheme of drainage, permanent road formation, and municipal and 3ibrary buildings that is expected to involve an expenditure of £11)1,000. This is to be raised by loan, and the work to complete the improvements will be spread over ten years. j Last night the Mayor (Mr. T. B. Clay) said this proposition was justified by the remarkable expansion and present high standing of the borough. The phenomenal growth of the. district was instanced by the fact that although £98,020 had been floated in special loans since 1902, the special rates struck to repay them Clad dropped from 2_d to 3d in the £. Excluding the 10 per cent margin required by law, the increased rate for the proposed £191,000 loan would be 2 13-100 din the £. By the second year, which would 'be 1922-23, one-farthing rate would be wanted, and for every £20,000 spent after this an extra fifth of a penny in the pound would be required. This scheme would call for a rate that would be lower than that required for smaller loans previously floated. THE THREE-FOLD OBJECT. ' The first part of the scheme is £9,000 for the erection of dignified municipal buildings and a library on a site already earmarked for the purpose. Next comes a £100,000 proposal for the permanent construction of roaas, providing firstclass footpaths, easy carriage ways or smooth and durable surface, and complete facilities for the drainage of the stormwater. Much of this money will be expended on the New North "Road, which is to be coated with a bitumen that will materially decrease the present maintenance cost. The outer end past the tram line is to be metalled and coated j to a width of 32ft, and Edendale Road j is to have its formation much improved and footpaths laid out. The setting of ! a good system of sewerage is expected to cost £§2,000, which includes stormwater drainage, and a large area westward from Dominion Road, and includ- ■ ing Rocky Nook, is to be connected with .tho main system of Auckland. Some of this cost will probably be borne by adjacent local bodies. I The Mayor remarked that the effects !of a fairly large loan like this would not be to increase rates, as so many people thought, but really to reduce them. The ratable value of the borough this year was estimated at £1,075,000, but* the Council had been waiting some time for a revaluation, and it was almost a certainty that when this was made by the Government it would bring an addition of anything between 30 and 50 per cent , to this figure. INSTALMENTS TO SPEND. The loan will be expended in equat portiefca nfter the first year. The first expense will be £25,000, of which £9,000 I

will be used for the new library and municipal chambers. The next year' another £20,000 will be taken, and so on till the tenth year, when only £6,000 will remain. It has been estimated that titrates each year will grow very slightly under present •circumstances. For the first year they will'be nil, the second a ■ farthing, find l-5d per year thereafter. | An increase of even 25 per cent on valua-' tion represents a decrease in the special rate to 4-25 d, while the increase of 50 . per cent that is more than probable ' before five years are past will mean a decrease to 2-15 d in the rate. The scheme received the full endorsement of. the Borough Councillors last evening.