THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, MAY 8, 1906. THE LOAN PROPOSALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13171, 8 May 1906, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, MAY 8, 1906. THE LOAN PROPOSALS.

The loan proposals to be decided by the ratepayers of Auckland City at to-morrow's poll ought to be considered as part of the general scheme of our municipal housekeeping. It would be very unwise to assume that the entire energy of i municipal administration should be directed along any particular channel when we have so many and so diverse municipal requirements. Roads and streets are highly necessary parts of our municipal development, and there is no intention on the part of the Mayor and Council to belittle or overlook them. On the contrary, the Council has made ample provision for them, and Mr. Myers has very conclusively shown that this provision is considerably in excess of the amounts which have been expended in other cities. The broad financial scheme upon which the Council has based the borrowing of the necessary money to erect a Town Hall, to bridge the Cemetery Gully,- and to provide an electric lighting plant, allocates an annual £20,000 for streets maintenance, which is more than has been spent in any previous year, excepting 1902-3, when,the extensive tramway work necessitated exceptional road repairs. The City has boh miles of roads, so that an average of £360 per mile per annum is provided for their upkeep and improvement. Wellington spends £300 per mile; Dunedin £259 per mile; Christchurch only £157 per mile. It is quite true that in some cities the road difficulties to .be encountered are greater than in others, but making all possible allowances for differences the plain fact remains that Auckland compares more than favourably with other cities in the road policy of its present capable municipal administration. Nor is this £20,000 per annum the only provision made by our Council. The sum of £4000 is provided for new work, which will be expended under the direction of the City Engineer recently appointed, as soon as he arrives, in properly forming tne streets most urgently requiring that attention. Mr. Myers has informed the public that a still further sum of from £15,000 to £20,000 will be available annually without increasing the rates, so that in a very few years there will be nothing to-be desired by the most < ardent advocates of improved streets and up-to-date roads. This is surely ?, progressive as well as-a, prudent policy, being based upon the resources of the municipality already' within sight, and upon the reasonable expeetafcibn that a minimum degree of increase in the staple revenues may be relied upon. The water revenue alone increased by £2910 in 1905-6 as -against 190-1-5. The estimated increase in revenue for the present year, upon special rates alone, will be £1125, owing to increased valua-

tions. And .we have but to look around Auckland and see the re-markable-growth of the suburbs— which all contribute to the commercial and industrial prosperity of the City Proper, to realise that it has every reason to place confidence in the cautious financial forecast of its Mayor and Councillors. Mr. Myers has placed himself on record as satisfied that the loans proposed can be raised without increasing rates, and has demonstrated that from the present civic revenues, supplemented by their normal increase, the streets of the city are being amply provided for. The ratepayers have therefore every reason to consider the loan proposals upon their merits and to dismiss the spectres of neglected roads and crushing rates conjured up to defeat the plans of our Mayor and Council.

As for the electric lighting, plant item, it has been estimated by experts that for an expenditure, of £25,000 we shall after two years make a municipal profit of £15,000. The caution of our city administrators is typically illustrated by the modesty of their claim that this loan will be " self-supporting. The loan I will be more than self-supporting if the plant only makes a quarter of the estimated profit. There can hardly be two opinions as to the advisableness of providing the lighting plant asked for by. the CouncilAs for the Town Hall item, we are unable to understand the opposition it encounters. Twenty years ago it was so popularly advocated that money was borrowed for it and land purchased as a site. To-day the need of it is being urgently felt in the most widely separated quarters. The Liedei'tafel and the Liberal and Labour organisations combine to support the proposal, for the one says that there is no adequate accommodation for Music in Auckland, though the students of the great art are greatly increasing in number, while the other points out that the chief of New Zealand cities has no public meeting place for its citizens. Provision will be made in the proposed building for a large and a small hall; not only must the receipts from these be considerable, but they will provide all classes with the facilities that it has always been a recognised duty of municipalities to provide. Wellingtonwhich spends less by £00 per mile annually upon its streets than does Auckland —has a magnificent Municipal Hall, containing a grand organ. Auckland has no better meeting place than the barn-like Drill Hall, which was never designed to have acoustic advantages, and did not acquire them accidentally. Apart from mere hall space, we have at present nothing like sufficient accommodation for our municipal offices and for the rival claimants to the municipal library building. The art treasures so largely provided by the generosity of public-spirited citizens suffer from lack of room, and the Elam School of Art, which has provided tuition for so many thousands of workmen's children who could not otherwise have obtained it, is crowded beyond endurance, with no prospect of relief until the city offices can be removed into another building. As for the city offices, we would remind the ratepayers of Auckland that civic affairs now constitute a most important and extensive business, and we Avould ask them to compare the accommodation provided with that of any private firm.. carrying on anything like as extensive and varied work. Nor will the Town Hall be a white elephant. Including the cost of additional land for a site and an ample margin for the inevitable contingencies, it will cost £80,000, but there will be revenue from the day it is formally opened. Therei will be rents of various kinds, estimated by Mr. Myers at £1000 per annum net, which is an exceedingly moderate estimate, and may confidently be taken as a minimum. This would leave somewhat over £2000 per annum as a charge upon the city for making up the interest on the loan, which £2000—or £2500 at the outside —cannot be regarded as extravagant, considering that it includes rental for ample city offices and a permanent architectural adornment to our city- The Cemetery Bridge, as proposed by the Council, would cost £30,000, which would be extravagant were it only to connect Grafton Road with Upper Symondsstreet. But it is really the making of a missing link in a chain of important streets, which will then immediately constitute another main artery in a direction where relief from existing traffic congestion is sorely needed. We must keep Auckland moving with the times if we expect it to maintain its place among colonial cities, and we must lay out money in desirable permanent improvements if we intend to reap the material advantages of easy communication in all directions. It has been suggested that Newmarket ought to contribute, but if Newmarket looked at the matter in the parochial way some Aucklanders view it Newmarket might- not only refuse to contribute, but might try to make Khyber Pass and Manukau Road even more inconvenient than they are. For the progress of the great . trading centre that is growing up along Karangahape and Ponsonby Roads is as dependent upon the making to it of good and convenient approaches' as is the more generally recognised interest of Queen-street. Improved communication means always increased trade, and increased trade means not only more work and more wealth, but higher valuations. Directly, the Cemetery Bridge will not return a penny to the city treasury ; indirectly it will quickly pay the interest on its cost and will ultimately repay the loan, not once, but over and over again. When we can take these progressive steps, as Mr. Myers assures .us, without increasing present rates we have no hesitation in urging the ratepayers of Auckland to vote themselves, and exert their influence with the indifferent, on behalf of the loan proposals to be decided upon to-mor-row.