GLEN EDEN HALL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 102, 1 May 1936, Page 6

GLEN EDEN HALL.

The recent Town Hall loan which the ratepayers were asked to sanction demands more than passing attention. The Town Board first of all tried to get its loan without the consent of the ratepayers. Having failed in this, its first attempt, it then called tenders for Town Board offices. A deputation composed of local business people, nearly all of whom are ratepayers, waited on the board and asked it not to proceed with this scheme without first consulting the ratepayers. Notwithstanding this, the board deliberately let a contract for £1250 for a palatial set of offices in a side street, and fully ten chains removed from the main highway. It is a fair assumption to say that with architect's fees, extras and furnishings, this and unsightly set of offices will cost the ratepayers in the vicinity of £1500. Having defied the deputations which waited on the board, it then proceeded to ask sanction to a loan of £3,'500 to buikl a hall on to the back of this building, thus giving the ratepayers no choice of site. RATEPAYER.

[Replying to tlie above, the town clerk of the Glen Eden Town Board states that everything; done by the board in connection with the proposal was subject to the approval of the Loans Board, and nothing could be done without that approval. Officers of the Loans Board inspected the* site, the plans of the proposed building, the financial position of the board, and saw to it that the ratepayers would not be burdened with anything in the form of a "white elephant." The Loans Board took every precaution to protect the ratepayers before approving the proposal. The Town Board could do nothing without the Loans Board's sanction.—Ed.]