AUCKLAND'S APATHY.

NZ Truth, Issue 253, 30 April 1910, Page 7

AUCKLAND'S APATHY.

The £225,000 "Electric Light" Loan.

Auckland's City Council made a recommendation to the ratepayers that they be empowered to borrow a sum of £225,00.0 for the purpose of erecting a complete electric lighting plant for municipal and private lighting, and a poll was taken on Wednesday last whether Lhe Council should or should not be empowered to borrow and spend this large sum of money m the diiection indicated. So apathetic were the ratepayers, who were aware of the poll being t:i!cen, that only 542 recorded their votes, •490 m the affirmative and .146 m the negative, and according to the law the ' City Council can at once put the loan on i the market. I That thousands of the citizens had no i knowledge of a poll being taken or of I the proposals there can be no doubt. No attempt was made by any member of 'il'-e council to enlighten them, and except for a closely printed and obscuro '. advertisement, intermit lentlv published by the returning oificer, there was no indication that such a moineutous question , was to be decided. "Truth" strongly

affirmed the desirability of having the whole matter thrashed out m open coun- , cii; and denounced the present pernicious practice of calling for authority for expending large sums of" money m tho devious way at present adopted, but while the ratepayers remain apathetic, and the Citizen's League never shows animation except when some miserable personal election is to be fought, the iniquitous system is likely to be allowed to obtain, and relief can be sought only by the amending of the statutes. To argue for a moment that any municipality or public body should be permitted to build up the public debu bi its ratepayers by nearly a quarter of a millioji, oa the bare majority of about 5 per cent, of the total population of the city or borough, is indefensible, and the present practice only opens the door for underground engineering, and the introduction of Tammany tactics, which have -before | now shown themselves to : be prominent m municipal affairs m the northern city. A large percentage of the total votes available should be polled before any public body is permitted to increase its loan indebtedness, and there can he no doubt that the spirit and intention oi the Municipalities Act was not realised when authority to borrow neatly a quarter of a million was agreed to and made legal by a handful of ratepayers. Auckland sold its street rights for a. "mess of potage," it has built up the gas corporation till its present position is almost unassailable, and now it is going to dump an enormous sum of moneT into electric lighting property, trusting that the suburbs will come m and help the city to bear ili e buxden, bwt the city councillors have reckoned without their host. Newmarket has already stated its intention to leave the gaudy electrical city supply severely alone, and the majority of the other boroughs arc likely to follow suit, with the result that with every loan of the kind the much desired greater Aucklaud scheme is being pushed further into the future. The loan of any amount of money to be devoted to the acquirement of the cormorant gas company and the restitution of the city and suburban street rights now held by Walklate's shareholders would receive unanimous public support, and approval and the wasteful borough system * would •merge into a greater Auckland at once, but it requires a strong municipal leader to accomplish such good results, and, unfortunately for the city, he is not yet on the municipal horizon.