ONSLOW BOROUGH LOAN.

Evening Post, Volume LV, Issue 61, 14 March 1898, Page 2

ONSLOW BOROUGH LOAN.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir — As you have opened your columns to a letter in favour of the above proposal, I rely on yotuf- sense of fair play to show a like indulgence to the other side. We all know that one sl(Ory is good until another is told, and the proposed Onslovv loan is a case in point. Your correspondent " North Ward " says that by raising the amount of loan money allotted to South Ward from £1000, as proposed in the November scheme, to £1500 all hardship is removed. If that poll had been carried the South Ward would have received £500 less than it is now admitted to be entitled to, but as it failed the extra money is held out as a bait to buy its consent. But of the £1500 now allotted £640 is devoted to a road for the sole benefit'of the North Ward. The result is that the South Ward really receives £140 less than it would have done under the first scheme, which is admitted to have been partial and unfair. The ratepa3 r ers of tha.t Ward, therefore, may be excused if they do not feel properly grateful. Four months ago, says your correspondent, the capital value of the borough was £157,737; the recent valuations make it £235,500. Allow me to say that the capital value is the same now as it was four months ago, and it will remain so until the new valuations have beon completed and adopted by the Council. I hardly see how he can know what the new valuations will be, as an application to the Valuation Department two or three weeks ago for the Onslow valuations was met by the reply that they could not be given till after the sitting of the Assessment Court. But assuming that your correspondent has access to information not available to the general public, and that his figures are correct, what do they prove ? Here are his figures : — Present Proposed Valuation. Valuation. South Ward (Wadestown) £56,360 £66,500 East Ward(Kaiwarra) 54,197 64,000 North Ward (Khandallah) 47,180 105,000 That is, while the increase in South and East Wards is about 18 per cent., the increase in North Ward is more than ]20 per cent. Consequently, while the working men of Wadestown and Kaiwarra have been rated up to the hilt, the bank clerks, Civil servants, and holders for the rise at Khandallah have for years been paying less than half what they ought to have paid, and can well afford to pay for their own* road, as their poorer neighbours have done. On any other supposition they are now enormously overvalued, and if the valuations are sustained they are not likely to add to their burden 9 b}' voting for this loan. Four months ago the Council estimated the cost of the Khandallah road at £3500 ; in the new scheme it is set down at £2400. Neither estimate makes any allowance for land which will have to be compulsorily taken, ■which in the case of one landowner alone will be nearly five acres, valued at £100 an acre. Both estimates are absurdly low. The work cannot possibly be done for the money, and further borrowing will have to be resorted to. A word as to " North Ward's " so-called " facts." First, he says the scheme imposes no financial injustice upon us; we pay for what we get and no more. But it is a financial injustice to make us pay for works we don't want, and which are put in to benefit others. If we have to pay for what we get, we will see that we get what we want. Secondly, he sajs that a ward loan would cost more than one raised by the whole borough. This is pure nonsense. The loan would be raised by the borough, and the security being good, £1000 could be raised on just as favourable terms as £5000. The money could be borrowed at a dozen places in town at 4i p.c, perhaps less. Next, we cannot, says " North Ward," raise any loan without first obtaining the consent of the Council. It needs no ghost, come from the grave, to tell us this. Lastty, vote for the scheme, he says, and we are certain of the money; refrain from voting, and we will wait a long time before we get any alternative plan. As to this, the South Ward Councillors could, in an afternoon, draw up a scheme of works which would be acceptable to everj rbody, and the. ratepayers are anxious that they should do so,, and are willing to pay for their own works themselves. They don't want to go on fast at other people's expense, and I commend this as a good example for the North Ward to follow. Onslow consists of two "practically Independent portions. North a"nd East Wards being united and South Ward isolated. The dissension that your correspondent laments will always exist so long as the two former Wards use their voting power to inflict injustice on the minority. There is now an excellent opportunity to heal the breach. By Friday night's paper I see the present loan proposal is hung up, and it is to be sincerely hoped it may never be cut down. Possibly the Mayor has had some prickings of conscience, and is more disposed to deal fairly with the various parts of the borough. Let him call upon the Councillors to meet and agree upon what works are necessary and within their means in their respective Wards, and endeavour to come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement. But don't let him be led away by the shallow arguments and flimsy pretences of " North Ward " to rely upon brute force alone. I am, &c, Eustic. Wadestown, 12th March.