MANAWATU DAILY TIMES MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1919. THOSE LOAN PROPOSALS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 14198, 25 August 1919, Page 4

MANAWATU DAILY TIMES MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1919. THOSE LOAN PROPOSALS.

We are not surprised that some alarm lias been created in the minds of ratepayers by the announcement that the lighting and tramway proposals which were originally estimated to cost £85,000 are now computed ‘‘on a conservative estimate” as likely to entail an. expenditure of £125,000. The original scheme for lighting and reticulation was £20,000. Mr Black now says ho thinks the reticulation will cost £OOO per mile for forty miles. This means an addition for power and lighting of £4OOO. In view of the urgency which exists for power and light, and having in mind the fact that the hydro-elec-trical engineers advise the installation of a stand-by plant, it would seem good business to go ahead with this part of the scheme. But the difficulty is that, as the ratepayers have authorised both lighting and tramways —and as the Mayor and some of the Councillors are apparently dead on to have the existing scheme of tramways gone on with no matter what the cost —an attempt is being made to dovetail one scheme into the other. Therefore, instead of asking the ratepayers to go on with a power and lighting scheme which will cost round and about £24,000, the Mayor on Tuesday night will ask them "as a mere matter of form” to authorise a

dovetailed scheme which will eventually land them in a commitment of £125,000 or more.

As far as can be judged from the figures available the 5% miles of tramway which was to have cost £65,000, is now likely to saddle the ratepayers with something between £75,000 and £IOI,OOO which is a very tall order indeed, especially when it is remembered that the route chosen is particularly illfitted to serve the bulk of the population. The ratepayers will not only have to fihd this large sum of money, but they will have to make up out of current revenue the huge loss which will certainly be entailed. More than that the users of trams, will, as Councillor Crabb points out to-day, have to put up with largo fares for- small sections. They may be prepared to do this. They may be prepared to endorse what the Mayor is palpably sot upon commiting them to. They may be too apathetic to care whatever way it goes. We shall judge about that after to-morrow' night’s meeting. • • * 9 But what those who go to the meeting will bo entitled to ask the Mayor is for an absolute pronouncement, not only about the lighting and tramway projects, but about the proposals which the Council at present prefers to keep up its sleeve. Councillor Crabb thinks these will total £150,000; Councillor Eliott says they will involve £200,000! The Mayor says these extra loans will not be touched upon at to-morrow’s meeting. Ho wants to get the £125,000 matter disposed of before the £150,000 or £200,000 proposals come on. It may happen that the ratepayers will have other notions about this. It is quite possible that the majority of them will not concern themselves one way or the other. But there is this aspect of the situation: that if the Borough is involved in £75,000 to £IOO,OOO for trams, and a big loss is thereby incurred, the general revenue will be materially affected, and there will be so much less for road-maintenance and general upkeep. Now everybody knows the state the Borough road.s are in at present, and most observant people are aware that they arc going from bad to worse. Councillor Crabb says that what the Council is, in part, keeping up its sleeve is a proposal to spend £60,000 in concreting the principal streets, and another resolution to spend £BOOO in the purchase of electrically propelled vehicles, presumably as feeders to the 5V 2 miles of trams. * * « * But under the Mayor’s scheme the trams must come first and the good roads afterwards. Our point is that it would bo bettor to -abandon the partial tramway scheme and go in for good roads and motor ’buses. Wc arc emboldened to this advocacy because of the accumulating evidence that in older countries the motor ’buses are so popular that the overheads arc finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet. Mr Fred Bryant demonstrated this the other day when he sent us a copy of the report of no less an authority than the manager of the Loudon County Council, who admitted the popularity of the ’buses as accounting for the losses on the trams. But our opinion in this matter —and our conviction that electrical motor ’buses serving the whole of the people the whole of the time would be preferable to 5% miles of trains serving a part of the people a part of the time —is not the main issue to be decided now. If the ratepayers are really awake to what is going on they should insist on having all the cards on the table. This town needs lighting and power. Is it possible for it to got lighting and power costing, say £24,000, without being inveigled into a scheme of lighting, power and trams costing £125,000? Perhaps our local contemporary will emerge from its dark contemplation of the Bolsheviks of .Russia and tell the people of Palmerston what its views are on these important local problems!