PROPOSAL DEFEATED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 130, 3 June 1937, Page 8

PROPOSAL DEFEATED.

NO RATE REDUCTION. TAKAPUNA POSITION. By six votes to four, the Takapuna Borough Council last night decided against a proposal made by the Mayor, Mr. J. Guiniven, in a letter to the council, suggesting that the rates for the year 1937-38 should be reduced from 1/ to lid in the £. "To reduce the rates would not only give relief, but would be a bar to extravagance and wasteful expenditure," said Mr. Guiniven in his letter to the council. Speaking to his motion that the rates be reduced from 1/ to lid in the £, Mr. Guiniven said that the council, as the trustees of the ratepayers, should lighten the burden of ratepayers. Certain relief had been brought about by law and by voluntary conversions, and he thought it would be wrong if the council kept the rates at 1/. Mr. A. K. McFarlane said he felt sure that many ratepayers would be glad to pay another penny in the £ if they could have some permanent and constructive work done in the borough. "You would not benefit ratepayers by reducing rates," Mr. McFarlane said. Deputy-Mayor's Opinion. Mr. W. M. White, deputy-Mayor and chairman of the works committee, said he did not look upon the Mayor's resolution as a serious matter. Last year the council paid overdraft interest amounting to £834 18/1. To reduce the rate now would only mean increasing the overdraft interest. Mr. F. G. Gibson spoke against the resolution, and said that if the rates were reduced the council would not be able to do any work in the back portion of the borough, where it was so badly needed.