The Otautau Standard AND WALLANCE COUTNY CHRONICLE. Wednesday, June 21st, 1905. TOWN EXPANSION.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume 1, Issue VIII, 21 June 1905, Page 2

The Otautau Standard AND WALLANCE COUTNY CHRONICLE. Wednesday, June 2 1st, 1905. TOWN EXPANSION.

The meeting of ratepayers held on Friday affirmed the proposal of the Town Board* to raise a loan of £600 for Street improvements, and the matter is to be finally determined by the ratepayers at the poll on Friday the 80th instant. We think the Town Board are acting wisely m the step they are taking. The increase m the value of the town property has made the special rate, levied to meet the interest on the Loan raised for the sewer m the Main Street, furnish the Board with revenue sufficient to pay the interest oh the new loan now proposed m addition, so that the residents will enjoy the increased facilities which the expenditure of £600 on their streets will afford without added taxation, and as the -annual payment to the Government provides a sinking tund to redeem the Loan, we are not piling up debt for posterity to pay. The schedule of works submitted for approval includes upwards of £300 to be spent on the Main Street and this brings us to the point we wish to emphasise and ask ratepayers to seriously consider. Readers of our columns will have noticed that there is a contro- ! versy between the Town Board and the Wallace County Council over expenditure on the Main Street. This is nc recent development ; it has cropped up with amazing reg--1 ularity from the inception of the Town Board. The position has now got to that stage when it is desirable for ratepayers to take action and endeavour to remedy a very unsatisfactory state of things. Ihe place has advanced beyond the stage of a one street village, and considerable sums of money have been invested by residents qway. from the Main Street, and they are entitled to equal improvements and facilities m consideration of the rates they pay. The revenue now derivable by -the County Council from taxation within the Town District is far m excess of the amour t required for the upkeep of the Main Street. We believe that the Council has full power and authority to delegate to the Town Board the collection and expenditure of the late levied by the Council m the 1 own District, so that no bar exists m that direction. We have the statement of the Chairman of the County Council, that " the Town Board is doing well out of the Council." If this represents the opinion held by the Councillors, it should remove any objection by that body to the Town Board assuming control of the collection and expenditure of the fate, which appears to us to ' c specially provided for m sections 156, 157 and 158 of the Counties Act, 1886. There is also another feature of the position, and that is that every portion of a Main Road within the limits of a lown District shall be unde^/the control of the County Council, who shall bear the cost of making and maintaining same, vide clause 251 of the same Act ; and it is more than questionable whether all th*_ money spent by the Town Board prior to 1904 was not illegal and purely a gift to the County Council, as it was only m the Counties Amendment Act of that year, that authority was given by Parliament, enabling Councils to concede to Town Boards the right to construct and repair footpaths on a Main Street out of their own revenues. This expenditure, legal or illegal, we do not need to cavil over, as tne progressive policy adopted by the present and previous '1 own Boards has given us the advantage of facilities, m the way of decent footpaths and pavement--, that we probably would not have enjoyed for the next 15 or 20 years had we depended on the Council to make them, and residents have the satisfaction of knowing that while they have paid for these pavement? themselves, the rates they have paid to the Council and which, with subsidies, have, during the last 8 years, amounted to £680, have helped to make good roads leading into the towu, and thus assisted its development. Tha time has now arrived when the two bodies should meet and endeavour to decide on transfening control of the County's town rales and expenditure to. the Board, for which, we believe, ample provision can be found m existing Acts. If this cannp*: be j satisfactorily concluded, then there is [ another remedy within reach of ratepayers, which might be gi yen effect to without causing any rupture m the amicable relationship of the two bodies and which, if nothing comes of present proposals, we shall refer to later on.