BIG LOAN PROPOSED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 63, 15 February 1939, Page 8

BIG LOAN PROPOSED.

MANAWATU COUNTY COUNCIL.

ROAD SEALING PROGRAMME.

The opinion that the Manawattt County Council should seek the sanction of the ratepayers for the sealing of the Longburn-llongotea Road was expressed in a letter received by the council, yesterday, from the Rongotea Co-operative Dairy Company, which suggested that the council should then apply for a loan.

The chairman (Cr. W. E. Barber) said he had intended to direct attention to this matter, and he advocated going to the ratepayers to secure their approval for a loan proposal. Cr. R. A. Wilson said that th® council should undertake a comprehensive programme of road sealing. Argument was expressed bv Cr. A. N. Morcom that the machinery for starting the work _ should be put in motion, as the Feilding and Foxton sealing projects were now well under way. He considered that it would be a good policy to seek approval for a. loan of £30,000 to carry out major undertakings of this nature. The chairman said there was the sealing of the Shannon Road to be considered in any comprehensive scheme. Cr. Morcom said the completion of the scheme would bring every ratepayer within three miles of a' sealed road. Plans and estimates would have to be prepared, the chairman said. Action had been held up previously owing to the difficulty of financing the work on favourable loan terms. The county clerk (Mr A. K. Drew) said that all the formalities had been completed last June to apply to the Local. Government Loans Board for permission to place the matter before the ratepayers, but the subject had not been proceeded with because the council had been informed that the loan money was not available on suitable terms, the period of .repayment being too short and the sinking fund rate too heavy. The council decided to apply to the Loans Board for sanction to approach the ratepayers for a £30,000 loan a* originally proposed.