STREET WIDENING AND FINANCE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 57, 17 September 1928, Page 8

STREET WIDENING AND FINANCE

(To the Editor.) gj V; — Will you kindly publish the following comment on the discussion which1, .! according to report in the Press to-day, took place at the meeting of the City Council on Thursday evening on the question of street widening and finance? Firstly, I would like to express satisfae tion at the fact that at last a majority of councillors has taken serious heed of the repeated warnings that the council is spending far too much money on street widening and that a halt should be called. It is indeed very refreshing to realise that for once' the council has emerged from the star chamber and held the discussion in open meeting, so that we know what our representatives thought and said on this important matter. It is particularly gratifying to know that soms of tea councillors really have the couvagc to stick to their guns, and not be browbeaten by the spendthrift section on the question of so large a commitment of tiie ratepayers without their sanction. The ratepayers generally will appreciate the able manner in which the opposition to the proposal stated the case against the proposal and for the ratepayers. Very valuable information came out of the discussion, such, for instance, as the admission that the council has within the last nine months raised sums of £150,000 and £50,000 respectively and made commitments of a further £100,000 to be met in the near future, all without consulting the ratepayers.- I know of an additional loan of over-.£200,000 which has been decided on without a poll, thus making a total of half a million pounds of commitments within nine months, which the ratepayers were debarred by the council from having a say iii. To be added to this is the proposa' to borrow a large sum foi library improvements, civic centre, access to suburbs, tepid baths, and last, but not least. Aye are told by the Mayor that we are committed to Quinton'e. corner scheme. The ratepayers should know who prepared this Quinton's corner pill, which Councillor H. D. Bennett states was taken in one swallow. The ratepayers have had the nugarcoating by way of propaganda, but is there a bitter centre yet to come? Was the seriousness of the position not known then, and why was the warning not issued before this commitment was made and similar action taken then to that taken on Thursday night? Surely this is an inexplicable differentiation. What really is the sum involved in this undertaking, and why has the whole position not been made known to the ratepayers who have to foot the bill? " The Mayor said that Wellington is in. an excellent financial position, and that we should at all hazards try to maintain that position, and yet he strikes a note of alarm, almost in the same breath. Contrast this with Councillor H. D. Bennett's comment that "one can begin to appreciate the widespread dissatisfaction existing against the conduct of the city's affairs." Although Councillor H. D. Bennett has correctly appreciated public feeling, he has done nothing to alleviate that feeling, but on the contrary, by his action over the street widening, he has done much to aggravate it. What can he expect the public to think of the management of the city's affairs when he has been largely responsible for the mismanagement and dissatisfaction? He asks the ratepayers to believe that the proposed expenditure of die £77,000 is in effect for street narrowing purposes. He (Councillor Bennett) is an ardent- supporter of indiscriminate street widening, and yet is prepared co spend our money when it suits his case to the tune of £77,000 on street narrowing. The facts are that the Corporation's finances are bidding fair to become very serious, and it could not be otherwise when such colossal commitments are made in such a haphazard, happy-go-lucky, non-policy manner. But even now there is hope of-retrieving the position if. the finances are carefully watched and a proper policy of expenditure formulated, and the law which authorises the raising of loans at the whim of the council without a poll of the ratepayers is repealed, and new blood introduced into the council in substitution for those councillors who have proved themselves unable to | administer the affairs of the city without a reasonable regard to the ratepayers' interests.—l am, etc., T. W. M'DONALD, Chairman, Vigilance Committee.