REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE

Taranaki Daily News, 7 March 1934, Page 6

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE

NORTH EGMONT COMMITTEE

QUESTION OF MOUNTAIN ROAD. MINISTER’S SYMPATHETIC VIEW. “I realise you are carrying a burden not for yourselves but for the country and that it is in excess of what could be reasonably expected,” the Minister of Lands, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, told members of the North Committee of the Egmont National Park Board at the conclusion of his reply to representations for assistance made to him by members at the North Mount Egmont hostel yesterday afternoon. The Minister in reply to Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., said it might be possible to get the Highways Board to recognise the road to the hostel, the maintenance of which is causing the committee anxiety, as coming under its jurisdiction. Mr. F. Amoore, chairman, told the Minister that the road was formed in 1927 and taken over by the committee in 1928. The Public Works Department estimate of the cost was £lO,OOO but this had been reduced to £7OOO, which was financed by the department on a pound for pound basis—£3soo by it and £3500 by the committee. The committee approached the New Plymouth Borough Council, which raised a loan on table mortgage. There was £lO5 due in interest on this next month and £175 in the next six months, the size of payments alternating. The committee had been faced with an expenditure of £BOO unless the road was to go to rack and ruin, but after a good deal of negotiation secured a share of an art union which paid for this. It was now faced with the question of park fees. Several years ago it had been able to raise over £BOO a year in park fees; this year with a month to go it had only £5OO and at the end of the annual period the fees would not reach £6OO. . - The hostel was provided by the people of New Plymouth who took up shares. They were to pay only a nominal call at the beginning and thereafter nothing. However as things went they had to pay periodical calls and were still paying. The company was forced into liquidation and the North Committee had been faced with shutting the hostel, which was unthinkable, or taking it over. It was offered very good terms and took over at £l2OO, practically the cost of the furnishing only. It cost the people of New Plymouth £7500 and all they had was the privilege of paying calls. COMMITTEE’S HOPES. In the last seven or eight months of the year it had taken over the committee lost £9O and this year, when the full annual period ended in March, £220 had been lost up to the present. The committee had £3O in hand and was hopeful of obtaining enough to meet the borough loan payment but over and after that the committee did not know how it was to finance the hostel over the winter when it had a very lean time. If the committee was forced to close the hostel it would be a calamity. The committee’s annual liability on the road, interest and principal, was £2BO a year. It would assist the committee as far as the road was concerned if the Government could take over the overhead expenses in connection therewith, or relieve it of the interest and principal. Mr. W. H. Moyes said the committee’s revenue was insufficient to meet its outgoings and it had long been saddled with the annual payment of £2BO on the road. There was very little chance of its balancing its budget. The committee wau faced with a number of things it would like to do in connection with the hostel. He felt the upkeep of the road which was used by the public, and which had cost £BOO to resurface, was not a matter for the committee. As things were it would be absolutely necessary to close down, at least for the winter period. In reply the Minister said he was in sympathy with the committee; Anyone must appreciate the national as well as the local value of the hostel and its surroundings. It was purely a question of finance. As the committee knew the Government’s revenue was not coming in as in better times and every "additional expense had to be reviewed in the light of whether it could be provided from present sources of revenue. Mr. Smith asked if it would be possible to get the Main Highways Board to recognise the road. The Minister replied that this was quite possible. In conclusion Mr. Ransom promised to give consideration to the committee’s representations.