STRATFORD.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144050, 20 March 1913, Page 2

STRATFORD.

(From Our Resident Agent.) March 18.—It is really somewhat of a relief to hear that the uncertainty with regard to the route of the Opunake railway, is at an end! The Public Works surveyors are commencing the detail survey at Te Roti. The dream of railways radiating to all points of the compass from Stratford is at end; but are we down-hearted? No! The Railway Department is putting up that long-desired fence to hide from the public gaze the unaesthetic back-yards of Broadway. There should be heavy polling on the loan proposals to-morrow. They have been discussed by the Borough Council for years and years, and there has been a great expenditure of printers’ ink in the correspondence columns of the press. All the same, I would not back the average ratepayer to pass any kind of examination either on the need for the contemplated works or on the incidence of the resulting taxation. In. small matters. as in the largest it is the way of the world to go it blind;. However, “there is a Providence that shapes our ends, etc.” ( - LOAN PROPOSALS REJECTED. ; March 19.—Polling for the £42,000 borough loan took place to-day. The poll was not a large one, but the verdict was most decisive. There were four issues—streets, bridge, water, drainage—and every one was rejected. The figures were:—

*o For Against Streets .... 141 280 .... 182 257 Water .... 165 255 Drainage .... 134 286