THUMBS DOWN

Evening Star, Issue 22630, 23 April 1937, Page 8

THUMBS DOWN

PROPOSED £IOO,OOO LOAN KILLED NEARLY 4,000 ANTI-MAJORITY Dunedin ratepayers, by an overwhelming majority, yesterday decisively rejected the proposal of the City Council to borrow £IOO,OOO for street improvement purposes. Out of a total of 20,817 people eligible to vote, 10,073 exercised their right, and the result was as follows: For the proposal 2,996 Against the proposal ... 6,970 Majority against 3,974 Polling was carried out in 32 booths in the city and suburbs, and in only two of these was there a majority, of negligible proportions, in favour of the loan. In most of the other booths the decision against the proposal was very decisive. Everything was in readiness at the Town Hall for a speedy count of the votes after the closing of the polling places at 7 p.m. The first return, from Mr S. Solomon’s garage at Belleknowes, was received by the returning officer (Mr R. A. Johnston) at 7.16 p.m. This showed a majority against the proposal, and further returns revealed increasing majorities against until the figures from the booth opposite the Roslyn Woollen Mills were received. At that place the votes were in favour of the proposal by 62 to 66, and at the 'Woodhaugh Mission Hall the proposal was favoured by 31 to 30. The majority at both those places, however, was negligible compared with the Unfavourable majority at all the other booths, and when the returns were completed, the majority against the proposal was recorded as 3,974. The time was 7.55 p.m.' when the last return was received, and as the clock finished chiming 8 o’clock Mr Johnston announced the result from the Town Hall steps. Only about 40 people were present to hear it announced, but in these days of radio such a small attendance could_ not be taken as indicating a lack of interest, for thousands of people listened in at their homes for the final figures. There wore only a few murmurs from the small crowd, which dispersed quietly without any visible signs of approval or disapproval. DETAILS OF VOTING. Following are the details of the voting at the various booths :

COMMENT BY MAYOR MODERN PROGRESS RETARDED WIDER FRANCHISE SUGGESTED “ The result is certainly decisive., and leaves no doubt as to the attitude of the ratepayers,” said the mayor (the Rev. E. T. Cox), when commenting on the defeat of the proposal. “It seems that those who already have good reading facilities and footways are determined that those who have not- shall continue to remain without them.

“ The poll brings up the question of the desirability of the present system remaining in force,” the mayor added. “ This is the third large city in New Zealand where a poll for civic improvements has been defeated in the_ past few months, and in my mind there is no doubt that the Government will have to take cognisance of this fact and see to it that the progress of modern cities is not retarded by the hostility of ratepayers. It will be for the Government to decide whether a wider franchise is not desirable. Had this poll been put to a vote of the people I believe it would have been carried overwhelmingly, but the ratepayer section in any community is usually that which retards progress. “I do not think that the defeat of the poll will have any effect whatever on the rates imposed' in the coming year,” the mayor concluded.

“ At least in. my own mind I am quit* convinced that the imposition of .high rates is not desirable, and that progressive measures should be undertaken only with the assistance of loan money when the repayment can be spread ovef a considerable neriod of years.

CR SILVERSTOME’S VIEW DECISION ACCEPTED IN KARTIII CITIZENS SHOULD VOTE, HOT PROPERTY Cr M. Silverstone, chairman of th® Finance Committee, had little comment to make this morning regarding th® loan proposal. ■ . . . “ In the meantime the decision of ( tli» ratepayers is accepted,” he said. “So far as I am personally concerned, the loan proposal will not be submitted again by the present council under the existing franchise. In future citizens will vote, not property, which has no right to vote.”

For Agst. Inf. North - east Valley Town Hall 105 202 _ Salvation Army Hall, North road 122 206 6 Opoho Presbyterian Church 67 158 1 Gladstone Road Presbyterian Church ... 21 31 Woodhaugh Mission Hall 31 30 ' __ George Street School Hall .... 98 308 4 Orange Hall, Leith street 43 137 1 Knox Church Sunday School, King street 217 . 621 8 Town Hall Concert Chamber 179 596 9 Burns Hall 105 513 4 Shop, 366 Princes street 90 259 6 St. Andrew’s Church Hall, Carrol street 29 147 Russell Street Mission Hall 46 121 2 Marigold Salon, Musselburgh Rise Anderson’s Bay Presbyterian Sunday School 111 259 4 96 253 3 Kensington Oddfellows’ Hall ' 65 137 4 South Dunedin Town Hall 260 351 . 7 Wesley Street Methodist Sunday School Hall ; 111 122 4 Oddfellows’ ''Hall, David street ... .... 188 281 2 Caversham Methodist Sunday School 145 ‘ 241 4 Hydro Tea Rooms, St. Clair 41 141 2 Carisbrook Grand Stand . ... 55 62 2 Mornington Baptist Church Hall 80 134 5 Mornington Tram Sheds 172 364 7 Mr S. Solomon’s Garage, Bellebnowes ... Mornington Scouts’ Hall 25 64 4 50 89 t _ Dining Rooms opposite Roslyn Woollen Mills ... 62 56 1 Wakari Hall 127 169 5 Bunting’s Store, Halfway Bush 21 44 2 Salvation Army Hall, Highgato ... ... 83 269 4 Roslyn Institute, Highgate ... ... 58 205 3 Coronation Hall, Maori Hill 93 400 3 :— ... Totals ... ...2,996 6,970 107