LOAN FOR ROADS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22465, 8 July 1936, Page 15

LOAN FOR ROADS

COSTLESS CREDIT WANTED RESOLUTION BY RATEPAYERS [from our own correspondent] CAMBRIDGE, Tuesday The proposal of the Waikato County Council to raiso a loan of £70,000 for roading and bridges was discussed at a meeting of ratepayers of the Cambridge Riding, in tho Hautapu Hall last night. The following resolution was carried: — That, as the Government now has control of the Reserve Bank and the issue of credit, the council npply to tho Government for the moneys required to carry out the roading scheme, such application to be under costless credit on debt-free money conditions, repayment to be by annual instalment from the ratepayers on a basis which will extinguish the debt in 20 years. In explaining the loan proposal, Mr. A. Woodward, county engineer, said the allocation over the county would be: —Main highways, £43.006; main county roads, £17,900; bridges, £9034. Mr. Harbutt said a £70,000 loan at 5 per cent cxtinguishable in 30 years would , involve a total payment of £175,000. Ho therefore considered that, as the Government could raise £17,000,000 for public works by using tho country's credit, it was reasonable to expect that local bodies could finance by the same method, particularly when provision was being made to extinguish the local debt, whereas the £17,000,000 was likely to be added to the national debt and never repaid.