GUY LOAN PROPOSAL

Evening Star, Issue 22620, 12 April 1937, Page 3

GUY LOAN PROPOSAL

RAISING OF £160,000 SUPPORT OF RATEPAYERS SOUGHT The first of a series of meetings was held in the South Dunedin Town Hail on Saturday night for the purpose of furnishing the ratepayers with full information on the subject of the £IOO,000 loan proposal, upon which a poll will be taken on Thursday, April 22. Addresses were given by the mayor (Rev. E. T. Cox) and Cr D. C. Cameron. Mr A. E. B. Ward occupied the chair, and the town clerk (Mr R. A. Johnston) was also present. The Mayor explained that the raising of the £IOO,OOO would not add to the city’s total indebtedness. The reason for this, he said, was that under the conversion scheme which took place three years ago, when the sum of £2,300,000 was converted to 4J per cent, debentures, arrangements were made to pay off £IOO,OOO yearly, with the result that in 23 years the whole of the loan would be wiped out. Two 3'ears ago the water loan of £IBI,OOO was raised. This sum had now been spent and the water reticulated throughout the city, but though the water department had an increased debt of practically £200,000 and was saddled with the interest and sinking fund charges of that loan, the aggregate indebtedness of the city had not been increased, owing to the conversion scheme having paid off two annual amounts of £IOO,OOO each.

If this loan was carried , the same result would follow. There would be added to the city’s indebtedness another £IOO,OOO loan, but having paid off £IOO,OOO of the existing loan during the year, the city' would stand on March 31 next with its present indebtedness. Owing to a reduction in the money voted to the works department during the depression, said the mayor, the city had lagged behind in its reading policy, and it was a matter of urgency that the leeway should be made up. It was utterly impossible to accomplish the work out of revenue without imposing an unbearable burden on the ratepayers. Suppose, for example, the council, in the event of these proposals not being carried, decided to do this work out of rates. By spreading the work over live years it could bo done by using £20,000 yearly, but to secure that amount would mean the imposition of a rate of 4Jd. The loan would provide work directly for 18 months for 200 men. This in turn would mean the employment of another 200 in other trades and industries. Thus the wellbeing of the people was being met, and the wages of at least 400 men would be spent weekly in the'business houses of the city. “To my mind,” Mr Cox said, “ there is not one sound argument that can be raised against the carrying of the loan, and those ratepayers who insisted upon a poll being taken are to be thanked for making it necessary for us to propound the scheme in such detail to the public. Lastly’, the schedule of work embraces nearly every’ street in the city, and is spread across every area to give equal benefits to all.”

Cr Cameron also spoke in favour of the loan. “ 1 am convinced,” he said, “ from my experience as a councillor and as a member of the Works Committee, that this loan provides for urgent necessary, works and improvements that should be done if Dunedin is to keep in line with other cities and provide its citizens with what they are justly entitled to.” An invitation for questions brought no response, and the meeting was brought to a close with votes of thanks to the speakers and to the chair. Addresses on the loan proposals were also delivered in the Wnkari Hall on Saturday evening by Cr M. Silverstone (chairman of the Finance Committee of the City Council), the chairman of the Works Committee (Cr J. W Munro), and Cr W. W, Batchelor.