MAYOR’S ADDRESS AT TOI TOI VALLEY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 4 May 1938, Page 3

MAYOR’S ADDRESS AT TOI TOI VALLEY

ACCOUNT OF STEWARDSHIP ! GIVEN BIG WORKS STILL IN HAND ! The Mayor. Mr G. L. Page, in openi ing his campaign in the Toi Toi Hall J last night, described the work that had 1 been done by the City Council during • his term of office, the electric light and I water schemes, sewerage repairs and : the re-organisation of reserves control I being subjects dealt with. Mr Page said ! there were two major schemes (electrical and water) still in hand and he considered that electors would be wise to leave the present mayor in office to finish the job. There was a small attendance of electors. Mr M. Phipps was elected to the chair Mr Page said he would give an account of his stewardship while mayor. Many works of importance to the city had been started and many carried out. j A hydro-electric scheme was assured for the city; a water scheme had been undertaken; had been an extension of the pressure sewer; costly repairs had been made to the sewers in such areas as the Wood, Waimea street and Brook street; a new superintendent of reserves had been appointed; the gasworks been put under a manager; work had been done on the tip; and an amount of tarsealing done. A question the councillors were often faced with was, Where do the rates go? Mr Page explained that out of every pound of rates, administration cost Hfd; mantenance of municipal building, printing, etc.. 6d; street lighting s]d; new construction on streets sd; maintenance of roads Is 7£d; sewerage extension 7d; maintenance of sewers. Is 6d; reserves maintenance, Is Old: new plant Id; traffic control 2Xd: unemployment 6d; grants 3d; baths deficiency l£d; transfer to other accounts 4Jd; miscellaneous 7d; rubbish service 3ifd. The council was respon- ! sible lor all these which amounted to about 10s in £. But there were some expenses over which they had no conIrol. such as loan charges, 5s Bsd; hos- : pital levy 2s sd; Harbour Board rate | Is 3d, and Fire Building levy fld. The Mayor denied that the rates were increasing. In 1926 special and general rates brought in £26.763. while in 1936 they amounted to only £25,824. In' 1926 a house (selected at random) paid £l3 7s 5d in general and water rates, but last year the same house paid only £ll 9s 9d. Some people were apt to look at the total rate demand without considering other local body charges. They would have to increase the rate for the hospital (this year as the levy had gone up. From 1928 to 1938 the hospital had doubled. Rates were going up but the council was not responsible. l TAR-SEALING OF ROADS During the last three years, said Mr Page, ten miles of-road had been tar- | sealed. 22 miles of road and 7 miles of iootpath being done last year. The speaker claimed some credit for introducing the present system of tar-seal-ing in Nelson. He saw what was being done in Wellington and induced the council to experiment with a strip in Hampden street west, and this portion had not needed much attention since. They had done a good many miles of streets with that method. It had all been done out of revenue, not one penny loan being raised for work on streets or They had not done the tar-scaling work in that end of the town that they had intended, said the Mayor, because they had had to curtail expenditure on the roads so as to take advantage of the No. 13 scheme. They had put all they could into repairing the sewers. He hoped it would be possible in the coming year to attend to these streets. The council had appointed a new gas manager and relieved the City Engineer, Mr J. G. Littlejohn, who could put his whole time into the water scheme. Mr Page said he pointed out to the council a few years ago that the gasworks were losing. In 1927 only £BBO was written off as depreciation. The following year compulsory depreciation came in and they wrote off £2901) and the profit dropped to £B7O. The posi-

tion to-day was that after writing off £4BOO they were making a profit of £2533. The price had not changed in 30 years as far as the speaker could ascertain. although there had been a big increase in wages and material and a decrease in the number of hours worked. But the works were paying better to-day than ever before and he felt he could claim some credit for what had been done. As chairman of the gas committee he was going to recommend that, the meter rent be abolished.

HYDRO ELECTRIC SCHEMES The Govvan had been suggested as j a source of supply for electric light, went on Mr Page, but the amount of ! revenue the city would have had to find in five years was so prohibitive that they were unable to go ahead with that scheme. The amount to be found 1 under the piesent scheme was much j less and they had struck a good bargain to buy at Government rates. In 1936 the city was in a serious posi- j tion owing to the increasing load on ! the turbine at the port station. It had reached the peak of its output and they were faced with having to buy further plant. It would cost them £2O.- j 000 to do the work necessary and in- ; stall the new plant. They were then ' nearing negotiations to take current ; from the Waimea Electric Power j Board, and it would cost them another £20.000 to bring this in from Stoke when the hydro scheme came in. Then a new standby plant was put in by the Hume Company at Stoke, saving the council £20,000 and this was put towards erecting the line out to Stoke. That line would serve when the Cobb scheme came in. Naturally that had taken a load off his shoulders as Mayor. Mr Page paid a tribute to the Electrical Engineer, Mr E. Fleming, and the Power House staff for the way they had carried on even when they knew there was a danger of a breakdown.

RE-ORGANISATION OF RESERVES CONTROL Turning to the subject of reserves the Mayor said that he felt that unless there was re-organisation of the reserves control tl ey woul i not be able to cont : nue to call Nelson \ garden city. The council had supported his suggestion of a supervisor, who had been appointed, and the mayor went on to detail work that had been done. If he was returned to office he noped to see fno-e improvements to reserves especially along the bank of the Maitai river, which could be made a beauty spot of the city. He a’so wanted to see the Church Hill vastly improved. There had been a lot of work done at the tip where there was now provision for croquet lawns, and the camping ground was another area which had been greatly improved. REPAIRING SEWERS Previous councils knew of the bad conditions of the sewers, said Mr Page, but would not tackle the job because of the big expense. But under the No. 13 scheme the council gave its wholehearted support in putting the sewers in good order again. The storm water in Trafalgar street had been diverted into the river to prevent flooding in Waimea street through interruption of the flow. The work of getting houses off the old sewer onto the new had been tackled by the council and out of 135 to be done to-day there were only 11 not done. PROVISION OF WATER There was probably nothing of so great importance to the city as the water scheme, said Mr Page. The estimate and the loan authorised was for £123.000. and the Government granted £35,000. A tender for £IOB.OOO was accepted, leaving £14,900 to finish the work of building the intake dam and the purchase of property, etc. The engineer’s estimate for these was about £IO.OOO. This work had been ’deferred lor a while. The terms of payment made it unnecessary to raise a lean, the company taking the whole of the payment out In debentures. It would not be necessary to raise any money for the water scheme this year. The two most important schemes, for the provision of water and electricity, had yet to be completed, said Mr Page, and he urged electors not to change horses in midstream. He himself had a large stake in the city and paid large rates, so he was just as concerned about the rates as they were. He wanted the opportunity to carry out the important work yet to be finalised. If re-elected he was sure he would be able to carry those works to a successful conclusion, in the coming years a good deal of money would be spent not only by the City Council, but also by the Hospital Board. The people needed men at the head of affairs with a good deal of experience in financial matters, and Mr Page said he could claim some experience in that way. He had been a member of the Finance Committee for seven years.

MAYOR’S POLICY Setting out his policy Mr Page said he would keep rates as low as possible consistent with development and efficient control; he hoped to see further extension of tar-sealing, giving special attention to those streets which had no formed footpaths; he wished to see improvements to the Church Hill and development and improvement of the river bank: and additional playing areas at the reclamation for croquet, basketball and hockey. He asked electors in making their choice of a candidate to consider his record of service to the city and the many things he had introduced of real value to the city. In reply to a question Mr Page said the figures quoted regarding the rates applied to this year’s rates. On the motion of Messrs S. Braine and J. Edridge a vote of thanks to and confidence in the speaker was carried.