ONE ITEM PASSED.

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1937, Page 10

ONE ITEM PASSED.

SEWERAGE APPROVED

RONGOTAI ISSUE

The decision of Wellington ratepayers, or of the small number ■who voted yesterday, upon the six loan proposals was definitely expressed. One item only, the proposal to borrow £200,000 for the modernisation of the city sewerage system, was approved, and the other five were voted out, in

each case by a substantial margin,

Even though the six items carried the unanimous support of the members of the City Council, concillors had not been confident that all would be approved. The sewerage item was regarded as certain to be supported, for the work had to be done and would have been done in any case (under an order from the Health Department) and the aerodrome proposal . was generally regarded as a probability, but forecasts on the other four items were not confidently made. The aerodrome proposal went down under sn adverse majority of over 1500 votes, so Wellington is left again with an unfinished airport, barely adequate for present requirements, while every other centre in New Zealand is making ready for the rapid growth in air traffic that is just ahead. The Government had offered the city £70,000 towards the work, but that offer was conditional upon the city also finding :'■ £70,000. The proposals put before ratepayers were:—• £ Sewerage 200,000. Completion of Rongotai Aerodrome 70,000 .' Street works, drainage, and ; waterworks 28,500 .' Gardens, reserves, and beaches 20,000 Branch libraries 15,000 Cemeteries 8,000 The voting was as follows:— ' InFor. Agst. formal. i Sewerage 4591 3185 128 Aerodrome 3109 4628 210 Street works 3352 4353 200 Gardens & reserves 2308 5345 249 ' Branch libraries .. 2012 5G42 252 Cemeteries 2888 4807 212 The poll was, as is usually so when ~ loan polls are taken at other dates ■. than of the full municipal elections, a small one, for of the 31,585 ratepayers : on the roll fewer than 8000 recorded .' their votes. ' ■ BAD WEATHER FOR VOTING. So bad was the weather during the , afternoon that many people in the suburbs were either prevented from going to polling places or deferred ; their voting to the last hour in the hope of a patch of better weather. At ■ one of the suburban halls where the T. polls staff had enjoyed a thorough .-.. day's rest voters rolled up during the . last half-hour. At 7 o'clock the doors were closed on a capacity house and ;'.' the polls staff queued the voters up. ..The result of the first count was announced at 9.25 p.m.

There were an unusually large number of informal votes, and a recount will probably result in a fair proportion of these being allowed as valid, but they can make no difference in the results of the poll.

It should be. mentioned that, though the total of names upon the main and supplementary rolls is 31,585, a number of these names are of people who have moved away f.rom Wellington or who have died recently, so that the actual number of persons entitled to vote yesterday was somewhat lower than 31,000. There are about 22,000 owners of property in Wellington, and the remainder of the total is made up of names of wives and husbands of ratepayers.