APPROVED WITH A CAUTION

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 109, 10 May 1935, Page 6

APPROVED WITH A CAUTION

Over 17,500 ratepayers exercised their right to vote on the City loan proposals.. Thi3 was a good poll, even when allowance is made for "the high proportion (4 per cent.) of informal votes. The council has reason to be gratified, therefore, with the decisive margin shown in favour of the two proposals that were approved. At the same time the vote against the two favoured proposals and the rejection of the third should serve as a warning that, while reasonable borrowing may be sanctioned the City remembers enough of past spending to resist a tendency to free spending. A cautious purseQpening is approved, but not a scatter-cash, boom-raising policy. Possibly the suspicion that the tepid baths scheme was verging on free spending led the voters to reject that item, though it was the smallest loan of the three. Possibly, also, the criticism to which the plan had been subjected by those who were principally interested in the provision caused other voters to say: "If they are not sure whether it is what they want, better leave it for a while." Fortunately there was no such criticism of the works and library proposals. The former proposal was, in part, for urgent work and ratepayers could not separate the more urgent drainage from the less urgent street works. The library vote is even more gratifying from the evidence it affords of City appreciation of the cultural side of municipal life. So decisive a vote at this time is corroborative proof of the need ' for library expansion. It shows that the people are interested, and that improvement of library facilities is really desired. At the same time we would suggest that, if this public attitude is to be maintained, care must be exercised in planning the new library and spending the money. Owing to the absence of the Chief Librarian the proposal went before ratepayers without a plan or, indeed, anything more than a rough outside estimate of cost. Approval under such conditions was a jemarkable expression of confidence in the council, the libraries committee, and the librarian. To retain that confidence the new library should be planned to give scope for development and particularly to fit in with the wider schemes of provincial and Dominion library service outlined by the Chief Librarian and in the Carnegie investigation. But there should be careful avoidance of anything that may be open to criticism as ornate, or not strictly practical. In America where a strong library sense has been developed some of the buildings are luxurious, but we doubt if the library feeling is strong enough here for this. A creditable, serviceable building is needed, but anything more than this might check the growth of public support.