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Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 139, 14 June 1913, Page 8

[to the editor.]

Sir, I notice an advertisement in yesterday's Express signed by the Mayor and five Councillors instructing us ratepayers how to vote on Wednesday next. They tell us with magnificent condescension well worthy of our heartfelt gratitude that they are more intimately in touch with the Borough requirements than are we poor benighted ratepayers. It wras no doubt our ignorance and the fact that we could not be trusted that actuated our kind-hearted Mayor and three of his Councillors to vote at a recent meeting of the Council that the ratepayers should not be consulted on the continuance of the scheme. Had they carried the resolution no poll would have been taken, and the ratepayers would no doubt have- been informed that our Mayor had commanded and it was ours but to obey— and pay! Luckily for us, he waa beaten,' and no\y, with an assurance which might be considered resourceful were it not insulting to the intelligence of ©very elector in the town, he dictates to us by advertisement how ho wants us to vote. But thanks be, Mr Mayor, you have yet to learn that Iwe voters have sufficient gumption to I know how to exercise our votes un-. aided by you. V Now, what is , the real reason _ why the Mayor and his chosen Councillors are so anxious to hurry on a scheme which, by the already recorded vote, of the ratepayers, has been condemned? With one exception, the Councillors who signed that advertisement are owners of shops, offices, or garages in the centre of the town, where j an abundant supply of water would be invaluable, and no doubt enhance the value of their particular properties. Now mark this well, ratepayers! 1 These Councillors would get the supj ply at half prices, whilst we small | ratepayers and all owners of private houses would have to pay full rates. It is not intended to carry the pipes to the outlying portions of the town such as Islington, 'May field, Redwood i Street, and Alabama Road, but every j ratepayer in these localities will have '. to pay half rates and get nothing for '. it. In fact, it is nothing more than a I scheme which will benefit the centre of the town, and the largest proportion of the expense will fall upon the house- ] owner. Besides this it will cost every ! one of us £50 to connect with, the .water'and sewerage mains. Then our troubles will begin, and we will find our plumbers' bills each year run into big amounts and our present rates and taxes will be more than doubled. But the most serious consideration of all to the houseowner is the fact— and it is a. fact admitted by every one who has an intimate knowledge of ■■municipal- 'administration—that «S; taxation increases values of property I must decline. Take for instance a i small property-owner, the present selling value of whose house and seci tion is. £600. If this wretched water ! scheme is carried it practically means ' that he gives a first mortgage to the : Council to the value of £200, and ; should he then wish to sell the most 'he can hope to get is the equity, or say £400. Ratepayers, this is an absolute and solid fact, and if you vote for the scheme yon may rely upon it ' you are depreciating the selling value of every residence in Blenheim by at least one-third. Do not then be misled by the transparent claptrap that it will only cost the small ratepayers a trifle in rates each year; do not swallow the jam-coated pill that Councillor Griffiths prescribed for you at last^ meeting when he said the chief ingredient was only a rate of a fraction of a penny in. the pound addi- : tional. Be assured the dose will be I more than trebled to cope with the j disease and will have to be repeated ; annually for 36$ years with nauseaI ting effects. I counsel you, rateI payers, beware of those recentlyi fledged municipal physicians, and save your properties from heavy loss in values by voting against the continuance of that miserable scheme.

A SMALL RATEPAYER