HARD CONDITIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 166, 16 July 1931, Page 7

HARD CONDITIONS.

LOAN FOR BrRKDALE ROADS,

COUNCIL ASKS RECONSIDERATION

Keen disappointment was expressed by the Mayor. Mr. J. P. McPhail, and members of the Birkenhead Borough Council last evening, when a letter from the Local Government Loans Board was read, limiting the period to seven years for the proposed loan of £5000 for Birkdale road improvements along the bus route. The loan is required for reconstructing in bitumen Birkdale Road, Puriri Avenue. Kiwi Road. Ran eat ir a Road and Victoria Road West. Other conditions laid down by the Loans Board were that the annual interest must not exceed 5| per cent, that a sinking fund of 121 per cent per annum must be established, and that no portion of the interest or sinking fund should be paid out of the loan. The Mayor said the terms made the loan almost impossible. The annual eharees would amount to £990. requiring a special rate of fd in the £ on the unimproved value of the whole borough. The present bittimen road at Birkenhead had been down seven years, and was good enou.crh for another seven years. The period of the loan should be for at least 14 years. It was decided to request reconsideration by the Loans Board. The position is also to be placed before the Minister of Labour, in vi'ew of the desire for the absorption of unemployed men.