The Press Thursday, May 1, 1930. Tramway Loans.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19916, 1 May 1930, Page 10

The Press Thursday, May 1, 1930. Tramway Loans.

Further additions are contemplated to the CJffistQhsrch Tramway Board's already very fceavy loan liability, and at the, meeting of the Board on the twelfth of this month motions to apply to the Local Government Loans Board for its approval of the proposed new borrowings will be considered. The proposed new loans total £23,000, pi which £SOOO represents the Board's contribution to tha cost of the new bridge over the Avon at New Brighton. There is also what is termed an excess cost loan of £BOOO for the purpose of renewing the doubjq track between QarJyle and Brougham streets, Syden* ham. It is proposed to raise this loan under authority contained in the Christehurch Tramway Oistricfc Apt, 1920, which empowers the Board to raise by special order such loans as may be necessary fpr the, purpose qf renewing or replacing any part or parts of the Board's, 'undertaking or works, provided tjjafc the ainonpt of any such loan shall not exceed the difference in cost oi material and labour at the time the renewal is der cided upon, and the cost of materia) and Jahour at the time when the part or parts of the Board's undertaking or works so to be renewed or replaced W«TB first constructed or acquired. Tha special power obtained hy the Board relating to excess costs loans is p| Gonaiderable importance, and if it js exercised there wiU be a vast addU tjofl to the loan liability of the Board not represented by a corresponding addition to the works of the undertaking. What this addition, means may bo understood from some observations made by the retiring Chairman of the Board in December last, when he said that although the total original cps,t of tracks, overhead equipment, power bouse, cars, etc., represented roughly #BOQQ g Wile, the replacement eosfc of the track ftloae w<wW amount now tq &3 f POQ a mile, and tbat ftq cost o| permanent way was now JOO pe? cent, mow than.it wa§ flftaao y»ftra ago, What really is happening is that exm% repiaoeraeafc costs seme, from eapit«d;and sal from reserves, and the only capital the Tramway Board possesses consists of its power to raise loans. If traffic and revenue and profits progressed in harmony with the progression in replacement costs the position would adjust itself automatically j. but that is exactly what is not happening. The capitalisation of the undertaking; is advancing wfiihj fcpftde, isi|^ining f The %M Jean, o| £IO,OOO, is for development and inv provement work principally connected with the trolley bus services to be instituted, later. This loan ia to be fftiW* mpsT the 1921 Amapdinjit Aaf, wbfeh givi§|» the Board power to raise not mqig jfcan £20,000 annually for nWWfMJF ajnd improve,, menfr of the Board's existing system, bat it is stipulated that such loans eapneji be applied in the cogitation 9t ft»y saw JiOe, other th&n a eop T version o&j* single line into a double line, or in the extension of any exists ing line. The foregoing loans are to be raised by special order without a poll of ratepayers, but in the case of, the development loans under the 1021 #tet|(t;li»i is b@anj # t»jg§ a poll |f requested to do so by a petition signed by not fewer than 1000 rater flayers. The position regarding the loan liability of the Board is therefore very serious. The detailed accounts, fa? the, year 1929-30 "are not jM available; but at the close of the pre* Viouai year the loan liability ameoptgd t6 £1,115,550,, and there have been in* eraases since then. In four yearg Joans totalling . over £BOO,OOO will reach ajfttnrity, and .«*psymen> will bavq tq be made to the lenders. Sinking fund investments 4 #e eß d of tfje 1939 financial year amounted to £186,000, §sd even with accretions in the meantime they will be totally inadequate to extinguish the liability. There were, however, in that year depredation fngds amounting to £264,000 which the Bgard has power to employ as sinking funds. This gave a total of approxir raately £450,000 available at ta,e end of the 1929 financial year for the redemption of loans amounting to ! : H4islHHfe.•'.'.& wbieh room than £800,600 will mature in 1934, and the remainder ten years later. Whatever. ' is done in the way of apportioning thg redemption money between the two maturities, it is clear that a renewal loan or a conversion loan for a considerable anje, wil| have to bqfleptiated by the Boajft} ill fP ur years,' tqne, and i# (s fll*§ lgeai p*@bable thg| a higher rflltfi §£ b»teregfr will have 1% be P*]<!, since a considerable portion of the £BOO,OOO loans was raised at what is now tb« vejy Jaw rate P# four and a anarte* jh>» cent. *ffhat, boweve*, chiefly eeneems the ratepayers is whether the value of the undertaking as a transport business will balance the loan liabilities they are asked to car*y pa. it will, the situation, is v»iy disturbing-

Uwrtiploymfßt Ttlh. We priflf a telegram M&y from WeJ T lington outlining some proposals by with -uawaplaywent. We pyiat shis

BWSiagp beeanse we have already given publloity to the Report to which, in the main, it is a reply, and because Sir Harold is not a politician with his eye on any section, of " the people." It ia quite certain, all the same, that there has been far too much talk about unemployment everywhere, mi fa? too muph spaee. devoted to it in all the newspapers. The wprst serviqa that ean be rendered to the unemployed themselves is to exaggerate their hardships} the worst that can be rendered to the community, to exaggerate their numbers—and it fa almost impossible not to exaggerate when the same people an 4 the same problem are kept per* manently in the UmeHght, Even Sir Harold. Beauchamp, though he has »o difficulty in disposing of the poll-tax proposal recommended by the Unemployment Committee, perpetuates the Committee's fundamental error as soon as he turns to tt practical politics " himself. It is true that the poll»tax would be difficult to collect, irritating, injurious to our credit, and in the end unjust, because paid by one section of the community only. But it is? pot true, as the Committee and Sir Harold seem to assume, that unemployment will- always be with us, and that we must therefpre"establish a fund for its permanent relief. It will of eoursp become true if we try to make it true *— there will always be unemployed if it is always the case, and always announced, that work will be provided for them if they cannot find it themselves: work which is not too hard, and wages which are not too low, in a locality which is not too far away from the pleasures that most men prefer to independence. But there ia no reason why unemployment, on any large scale, should be chronic, and it is certain demoralisation for an increasing number pf men each year te free them from ihc necessity of finding work and keeping it, sir Harold's plan for raising the relief |und-=by a tax on tea and on sugftr—need not now be discussed, hut it is. astonishing that he apparently contemplates using it as the Government is at present using the money provided by tax-payers in other ways. He is careful to stipulate that relief wages should he lower than standard wages, and that assistance should be refused to any man who is not willing to exert himself. But he says ngthing at all about the necessity of spending this fund productively. He would indeed seem to be willing that jfc should be made available to all kinds of spending authorities on the present haphazard plan, which is simply another way of giving tho original error its maximum effect in wastefulness, It is bad enough to encourage men to expect the community to find work f<?r them, It is many times worse to give them work to do which benefits nobody, and merely provides them with an excuse for drawing their wag*s.