WAIMAIRI COUNTY ROADS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18635, 9 March 1926, Page 11

WAIMAIRI COUNTY ROADS.

TO THE KOTOS 0? "SHS PEESS." Sir,—As the time draws near for the poll for the Waimairi County Council loan of £40.000 for the main "roads improvement scheme, it is quite time that the ratepayers woke up and U"jk a little interest in same. It is with this object in view v that I pen these lines. The Council authorities would like to make the ratepayers believe that they have only to find £40,000, and then sret another like amount from the Highways Board, which is true as far as it goes. .Now, this is the point where the ratepayers need to think well before they make a mistake at the poll. To secure the £40,000 from the Hij-.i-wnys Board the ratepayers will in twenty years .'-he term of the loan) have to find £72,000 in interest and principal, worked out as follows: The Council will strike a rate of one farthing in -the £, which they state is £3OOO per annum. Multiply this by 20 and you.have £72,000. Then again, the ratepayers owning motor-cars will have to pay in car tax in the same period a further amount which I estimate at £GO,OOO. I will count on 1500 car-owners at £2 per annum in the Waimairi Conntv Council area. That totals £3OOO per year, or £60,000 in 20 vears. the term of loan, makin a total of £132.000 to enable them to secure £40.000 from the Highwavs Hoard, with no true guarantee that the roads will be in sound condition at the end of the term of loan. Are ratepayers getting a fair deal from the Council authorities? The ratepayers require to consider well if they have a right to pay for two main roads from the north into the city, which are included in the loan proposals. Again, who is going to reap the most benefit from the scheme when it is put into operation? I would say the through motor traffic into the city, and the city people on their week-end pleasure trips, and still the Waimairi ratepayers have to _ foot the bill, whereas the city motorists will just have to pay their motor tax. Trusting that these few lines will arouse the ratepayers so that they may beepme interested before the loan is carried.—Yours, etc., W. G. CHAPMAN. Papanui, March Bth.