LOCAL BODY LOANS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 September 1924, Page 4

LOCAL BODY LOANS

WHO GETS THE MONEY P

COUNTIES OR TOWNS?

At the meeting of the Eltham County Council .on Saturday the chairman (Cr. C. J. Belcher) drew attention to a discussion in the Legislative Council on the previous day, when objection was taken to the amount of loans being made to local bodies

The chairman spoke strongly on the subject of such loans, stating that it was not the counties that were getting the loans,: but the towns and cities. Recent legislation restricted county councils to not more than £SOOO of loan money per annum. Cr. McWilliam pointed out that the county councils only spent money on works that were absolutely essential. They experienced considerable trouble when they wanted a little loan money to put down a few chains of metal, and the result was that some settlers paid rates and struggled through the mud for years. He had been informed when in Wellington recently that the intention was to block local bodies from raising loans and turn all availabel money into the farmers’ hands. That was all very well, but where was the advantage in blocking county councils to such an extent that farmers could not get their produce over the mud roads. “Every time Igo to Stratford and look at that expensive clock tower there,” said Cr. McWilliam, “I have the inclination to blow it up.” “It is time we made our position quite clear,” said . Cr. McWilliam, in moving the following motion: “That this council protests against the threatened restriction of necessary, borrowing on the part of county councils under the allegation that the public bodies of the Dominion are over-borrowing, to the detriment of the money market of the farmers of the country. That while it is obvious that considerable extravagance in borrowing has been practised by the cities and boroughs, this council desires to state emphatically that it has been exceptionally moderate in its loan proposals, and that these have been for the metalling of mud roads and the erection of bridges, which are absolutely necessary in the interests of the country’s production, and that for these purposes its powers to borrow should not be further restricted.”

Or. Carter, in seconding, said he had been satisfied for a long time that the towns were receiving preference. Cr. Knuckey described the expenditure of loan money ; iii the towns as unwarranted. and expressed the opinion that Stratford’s post office and bridge were twenty years ahead of the times. The motion was. then carried unanimously.