POLLS FOR LOANS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 49, 27 February 1945, Page 6

POLLS FOR LOANS

ALTERATION SUGGESTED

While the association believed that the present methods of raising local body finance were satisfactory and should remain so far as the electricity supply service was concerned, it would suggest one small amendment in the application of the method of conducting a poll to sanction the raising of a loan, said the Electric Power Boards and Supply Authorities' Association in evidence today before the Parliamentary Committee on Local Government.

Under the existing law the sanction of the ratepayers was deemed to have been obtained if a specified majority of those voting exercised their votes in favour of the proposal, said the association.

In practice, most clamour on a loan proposal came from its opponents, and if was quite possible for a noisy minority to defeat a proposal simply because so many of those in favour did not attend the poll.

It was suggested that the law be amended so that a loan proposal should be deemed to have been carried unless a defined proportion of those enrolled and entitled to vote exercised their votes against the proposal.

Referring to the provision of funds by the State for local government expenditure, the association believed that the present system had provided good service to the people of the Dominion, and had provided alternative avenues of investment that were valued both by trustees and private investors, as well as by financial institutions, and was opposed to any change in the method of providing funds for local body loans.