Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1895.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 120, 23 May 1895, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1895.

His Worship the Mayor has communicated to the local news papers tho draft of a scheme of town improvement for which he suggests that £25,000 should be borrowed. Ho proposes that this sum should bo spent on various works as stated in another column. At present Nelson is the most lightly taxed of any of the larger boroughs of the colony, and it mußt be confessed that even if £25,000 were borrowed the total debt would be trilling to that which other towns have incurred. \Vu do not know whether Mr Tru.sk has founded his estimates on professional information, but of course this would have to be obtained before tho scheme could be submitted to the ratepayers for acceptance or refusal. There can be no doubt that all the works suggested are highly desirable, and would greatly add to the attractiveness of the town as aplaceof residence, butit should not be taken for granted that the result of tho improvements would so increase the population that in three years the rates would be brought down to their normal state. Cheapness of living helps to make a place attractive, and the knowledge that the city rates are ■ light is greatly in favour of Nelson. Though there are occasions when it is necessary and right to increase public burdens, borrowing itself is an evil. The rates are a iirst charge on all real property in a. borough. • he interest of the debt must be paid before anything ehe, and thus the immediate effort is to reduce i

value. In estimating what property is worth a deduction must, be made of a sum. equal to the capital on which the additional rates would be interest. The Mayor makes a point of the labour which would be employed during the expenditure of the borrowel money, but that extra employment has its dangers in the future. The experience of tho public works expenditure in New Zealand should teach this. During the expenditure of borrowed money more men are employed than in the normal state of thing3. Tli p. work and money must come to an end sooner or later, and then we have the unemployed with all the distress and heartbreaking of which we hear daily in most parts of the colony. Fortunately there iq less distress in Nelson than in most towns, and there can be little doubt that one great reason is that population hss not been tempted here by the expenditure of great sums of borrowed money. When Mr Trusk puts his scheme fully before the public it will be titro to say whether its advantages will be so grept as to outweigh the undoubted objections to borrowing, but in the meantime it is well that those objections should be thoroughly appreciated.