GLEN EDEN LOAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22404, 28 April 1936, Page 14

GLEN EDEN LOAN

FURTHER INQUIRY SOUGHT ACTION BY RATEPAYERS Legal advice has been sought by a number of Glen Eden ratepayers with a view to having; a magisterial recount of the votes cast in a poll on a proposal to borrow £3500 for a new town hall. After the poll last Wednesday it was announced that 110 votes were recorded for the proposal and the same number against, but after a recount on Friday it was stated that one of the votes against the proposal had been found to be invalid, and that the scheme was therefore approved by 110 votes to 109. A correspondent signing himself "Disgusted Ratepayer" writes to the Herald as follows: —"The recent Glen Eden town hall loan, which the ratepayers were asked to sanction, demands more than passing attention. The Town Board first of all tried to get its loan without the consent of the ratepayers. Having failed in this, its first attempt, they then called tenders for town board offices. A deputation of local business people, nearly all of whom are ratepayers, waited on the board and asked it not to proceed with this scheme without first consulting tlio ratepayers. Notwithstanding, the board let a contract for £1250 for a palatial set of offices in a side street, and fully 10 chains removed from the main highway. It is a fair assumption to say that with architect's fees, extras and furnishings, this unnecessary and unsightly set of offices will cost the ratepayers in the vicinity of £ISOO. Having defied the deoutations which waited on it, the board then proceeded to ask sanction to a loan of £3500 to build a hall on the back of this building, thus giving the ratepayers no choice of site."