That £2000 Loan.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 6487, 14 September 1915, Page 3

That £2000 Loan.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Will you kindly grant me space in 'your journal to sound a note of warning to my fellow ratepayers in this Borough. To-morrow we will be called upon to record our votes for cr against a further loan of the apparently small amount of £2000, neatly done up in two parcels of £1000 each. Not long ago the then Mayor and Borough Councillors (whether it was the Mayor or some other member of the Council Ido not kqow) made a proposal to improve the town and borrow the large sum of £30,000 for that purpose, and through the apathy of the ratepayers they were allowed to proceed—get the money and spsnd it at their own sweet will. Well, what have we got for it? A town hall and municipal building—large er.ough for a town of 30,000 inhabitants — which will cost, ere it is complete and fully equipped, nothing less than £10,000. A building costing £2000 would have met all our requirements for years to come.

Electricity we could have done without for years to come, or until the present population had trebled. We have an efficient gas supply for all purposes, including street lighting, for which I understand the Borough has contracted with the gas company for several years ahead. This business I am told will coat £15,000. Steam Roller —Few Boroughs of four times our population had ventured on such a costly tool. We have no use for such a thing except to roll mud. So here we are, the £30,000, and fhucb more, all gone, and no metal on the roads, and not a decent footpath in the whole Borough, property spoiled by roaa grading, which was not required, and the pretty little town of four or five years ago denuded of its shady trees, and the ratepayers heavily taxed to pay for all these unprofitable fads; and now they, like Oliver Twist, want more! Remember, the £2,030 is only the thin edge of the wedge. We will be wanting metal for the roads before next winter, and then another large loan will be wanted. Remember, we are already about the heaviest rated small borough in the Domiion. —I am, etc., MANX. Tauranga, Sept 13th, 1915.