POLLING TO-DAY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 119, 13 February 1935, Page 6

POLLING TO-DAY

Paremata Bridge Loan Seeking the consent of the ratepayers in the Taupo riding of the Hutt County to the borrowing of £7OOO to pay partially for the construction of a bridge across the Porirua Harbour at Paremata and a road to connect the bridge with Plimmerton, a poll will be held by the county council to-day. The polling places are St. Andrew’s Hall, Plimmerton; the Tennis Club Hall, Pukerua Bay; the Opera House, Palmerston North; and the county council office, Bowen Street. Wellington. The hours of polling are between 9 a.m. and 7 I’- 111 - . The purpose of this loan, which will be known as the “Paremata Bridge and Road Loan, 1935,” is to pay only a portion of the cost of the proposed improvement, the greater part being met by the highways fund. The ratepayers last year gave their consent to the raising of £ll,OOO to build a bridge on the same site and the road, a toll to be collected from the traffic passing over it to meet the charges. That plan is superseded by the one now laid before the ratepayers, which is to raise a smaller sum as a payment to be subsidised by the State. The total amount to be expended on the bridge and road under the new scheme is >to be greater than under the old one, and the bridge will not be closed by a toll gate but available to all travellers, as are other public roads. NO FREE MONEY Highways Board’s Attitude In a statement made yesterdtiy on the Paremata bridge question, Mr. R. L. Button, councillor for the riding, said he had authentic information

that some of those in opposition to tlie bridge were claiming that if the ratepayers rejected the poll they (the opposition) had undeniable information that the Main Highways Board would at once build the road and the bridge without cost to the ratepayers. Mr. Button said he had interviewed the chairman of the Main Highways Board, who had authorised the following statement: “That at no time has the board ever considered giving free money for this bridge—nor would it be morally fair to do so, seeing that the board is receiving contributions from every local authority throughout the Dominion.”

Among London taxi-drivers there are scores over seventy years of age, while a few are over eighty.