RELIEF LOAN.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20919, 28 July 1933, Page 10

RELIEF LOAN.

AUCKLAND APPLICATION REFUSED. POLL MUST BE TAKEN. [THE PRESS Special Service.] AUCKLAND, July 27. The Local Government Loans Board has refused to permit the City Council to proceed with its loan proposals for a programme of relief v/orks without first taking a poll of the ratepayers, and in giving this qualified sanction to the council's scheme it has reduced the total sum that may be borrowed from £133,700 to £119,000. Advice to this effect was received this evening. It was the intention of the council to carry out relief works under the Local Authorities Empowering (Relief of Unemployment) Act, 1926, and it was hoped to obtain authority to proceed before the act expires next Monday. The original application by the council for sanction of a loan under ! the special unemployment legislation which dispenses with the usual poll of ratepayers was not granted by the Loans Board on the grounds that the proposals were too comprehensive and that no money could be borrowed under that legislation after July 31, 1933. The board was of the opinion that a poll should be held in the ordinary way. Having an assurance that the money could be obtained in the events of the Loans Board agreeing to the council's proposal, the council renewed its application, and today the Mayor was in Wellington m consultation with members of the board. A special meeting of the council was held to-day to pass certain resolutions concerning the loan proposal. The DeputyMayor (Mr A. J. Entrican) said that the Town Clerk (Mr J. S. Brigham) had been in communication by telephone with Mr Hutchison, and as a result of that conversation the council would be asked to pass a special resolution authorising the Mayor to complete his negotiations with the board. This resolution, which was adopted, was as follows: "That the Local Government Loans Board be asked to authorise the raising of a relief of unemployment loan of £ 133,700 on the table mortgage principle for such term and on such conditions as may be agreed between the Loans Board and the Mayor, and that the Mayor be authorised accordingly.' The meeting was then adjourned until noon to-morrow, when the council will probably be asked to pass other resolutions, a draft ci which will be brought from Wellington by the Mayor.,