HARBOUR BRIDGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 134, 8 June 1934, Page 5

HARBOUR BRIDGE.

INTEREST ON LOAN. WOULD RATEPAYERS GUARANTEE? ! MR. GUINIVEN'S STATEMENT. Are the ratepayers of the North Shore prepared to guarantee the payment of interest on the cost of the proposed harbour bridge ? According to Mr. J. Guiniven, Mayor, of Takapuna, and a member of the Local Bodies' Harbour Bridge. Committee, there is 310 possibility of the bridge being built until such a guarantee is provided. Mr. Guiniven writes to the

j"Star": — "As it was upon my suggestion that th< I Local Bodies' Harbour Bridge Commit tee came into existence, I wish to refute certain statements made by Mr. Davidson at the last meeting of the Northcote Borough Council in connection with the alleged antagonism towards the Auckland Harbour Bridge Company. As it was painfully obvious that the company had undertaken an impossible task as regards obtaining the necessary finance to construct the bridge, and without any ('guarantee from the Government and initerested local bodies, the committee I immediately after its inauguration, j approached the directors of the company j and offered to collaborate with them. It [ was evident that if North Shore local j bodies were going to succeed in inducing their ratepayers to sanction a levy, however small, representation on the directorate was necessary. "This proposal was flatly turned down by the company, and as Mr. Harris and the company were everlastingly assuring the public that the bridge would be started in a short period of time, the committee patiently waited for something substantial to be effected. Later 011 advice was received from responsible I parties in England that only one firm I

had ever seriously considered building the bridge, and then only upon the assumption that the New Zealand or British Governments would guarantee interest payments for approximately five years. We were then officially informed that both Governments refused to give any guarantee. We approached an Australian firm, and ascertained that the necessary money was available, provided that the charter was cancelled, and the local bodies and Government were interested in the project.

"The only inference to be drawn from the foregoing statements is that there is no possibility of the bridge being built until the charter is cancelled and the North Shore ratepayers agree to provide something in the way of a guarantee regards interest payments."