LOAN PROPOSALS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144665, 27 April 1915, Page 6

LOAN PROPOSALS.

MEETING OF RATEPAYERS. The mooting of ratepayers held in the Town Hall on Monday night to discuss loan proposals involving £20,000 for street works, a concrete culvert in Brougham Street, and a destructor, and £OOOO for municipal offices and a museum, apparently aroused very little interest-, the attendance bring particularly disappointing. The Mayor (Mr. J. E. Wilson) presided.

THE MAYOR’S REMARKS,

The Mayor, after explaining that the retiring council felt that they should place the proposals before the ratepayers. and that he as retiring Mayor should explain the position to them, went on to saj’ that the matter came j up some few months ago. when at his : request the engineer submitted a rcj port to the council showing which ! streets of the town were worn out and [required to be entirely remade; those i which had n certain limited life; and | also those which were in a.reasonably I good condition. That return came from I the engineer in August Inst, and was I submitted to the council in Sepfcemi her, disclosing a position which the j ratepayers would probably not bo sur- ; prised’at. The borough engineer for | many years past bad Hot had the amount of money at hi? disposal to keep the streets m that plate of repair that they should have boon kept in. and the inevitable result had been that a number of the streets had been worn out. The proposals now submitted to the ratepayers wore those upon which the council had decided ns being for necessary works, and those it was proposed to carry out by making soltar macadam roads. He regretted that they had to ccme'to iho ratepayers now and ask for a further Joan. Personally, lie thought the matter should have hern foreseen either when the £42,000 streetloan was being raised—and incidentally he considered this was one of the worst hits of business the borough ever did. for if the council had’ contented itself with raising £IO.OOO. which was originally estimated as being the amount necessary and asked for. for necessary works, they would have boon in a very much bettor position to-day—or it should have been provided tor in tho tramway loan, for it ought to have been known to those who framed those estimates that when the tramways wero installed tho whole ot the route would have to bo remade, and therefore provision should properly have been made there for it. Thin was not done, however, and now the council had to oowo to the ratepayers, for when the tramways wore carried througu the whole of tho route, unless remade, would l>e impassable. The council proposed to lay down a soltar macadam roadway, such as they had in Currie Street near the railway goods yard? along ■ the whole route ot the tramways from Fitzroy to the terminus at Molnroa, also along .Devon Street to tho # terminus of the tramway limn? and as far as tho C'ui/icld Hoad. The cos': for tho tramway route was estimated by the engineer at ITU.OOO. and then in addition the council proposed to lay down the following streets in a similar manner:—

Courtennv St., Currie SI. to Watson St ...• 3011 Rowderham St.. Currie St. to Morley St 1100 Gill St,. Currie St. to Hobson St. yuO Vivian St.. Robe St. to Dawsou s- ; iioo Dawson St.. Standish Hill to Devon St. 07S Einrdct St.. Gill St. to Fillis St. 7U2 Wallace Place, Standish Hill to Tnkapa Sr Odd Devon St., .Morlev St. to Cut-field Road HO Cut field Road, Devon St. to St. Atlhyn Si 375 Standish Si., Dawson St. to Wall;re Place -130

The work as proposed was considerably more costly than ordinary macadam street work, but the council was unanimous that they should not come before the ratepayers and ask them to authorise a loan for the making of ordinary macadam streets which would be worn out in the course of a very few years, as had been shown by past experience, it was felt they should' submit proposals for making a road which they could reasonably expect to have when the loan was repaid, and the council was satisfied that the process of roadmaking by the use of Soltar as practised by the engineer provided a good road for tho amount that it cost. Of course it was not so good as asphalt or concrete, but tho cost of tho latter was such that it was out of tho question at this time. If tho roads were laid down as tho council recommended, and they were- looked after in a reasonable manner afterwards, they would be practically everlasting. BROUGHAM STREET CULVERT. There was a further proposition, tho Mayor continued, for constructing a culvert in Brougham Street over tho Mangatnku stream. The engineer had advised the council that the present culvert was in such a .state as to. render tho roadway in a very unsafe stale. Tho council proposed to build a proper concrete culvert and thus settle this matter for all time. The engineer's estimate of the cost was £1560.

DESTRUCTOR. A further item in the loan proposals was that of a destructor. Tt had been recognised for a. long time. past that the town had needed some better means of disposing, of refuse, and it was proposed to erect a destructor, the, cost of which was estimated at £IOOO, on a site at the far end' of Lemon Street,' near the Henni stream. By this means all rubbish would he effectively disposed of. To meet the interest on this the council proposed under the new by-laws .which had been framed and which wore now in course of being passed into law to make it compulsory within certain areas that all rubbish was to ho deposited in proper receptacles and removed at regular intervals cither by the council or contractors to

this council, and a levy would be made upon those? whe-enme yvithin the scope of the services The- levy would not bo very heavy, but would provide enough to pay either the council's staff or its contractor foe the removal of the rubbish and enough to meet interest on the loan.

Continuing, the Mayor remarked that the borough now comprised over 4000 •acres, and the council had only a limited income from rates available for the I maintenance of streets, and yet from time to lime in years past part of this money had been applied not to the ordinary work; of maintenance, but actually lo make now streets. This was a thing they ought not to do. They should not bo using their ordinary revenue for capital expenditure, but it was what they had had to do and was one of the reasons for the position which had arisen to-day. The council had use for all the money that it could .allocate to the engineer for the ordinary maintenance of the streets of the borough without having to make new streets. At any rate it was absolutely impossible now for the council to make now roads out of the ordinary revenue, but new roads must bo made, and therefore the council'came to the ratepayers for authority to raise the required money to make those roads, and suggested that they be permanent. The matter would come before them for decision on May 21. and personally lie said he had no hesitation in recommending the ratepayers to authorise the council to raise this money. The money had got to be found for re-mak-ing these streets or they would be impassable. If the ratepayers said they would not authorise this money.then the council would be put to this alternative. Either it must with the limited amount of money at its disposal do what it could to patch these streets and trv to keep them open for traffic —which he consideiod impossible—or it would do the work by getting rs much as they could by way of overdraft and do what they could from year to year, repaying the overdraft by levying the full amount of rates they wore empowered by law to. r use. It was awkward to have to put it this way. Ho did not do u by way of threat, but ho did wish them to understand that the council had given this matter its very grave consideration and fcho proposition now* submitted to the ratepayers was the result of those deliberations.

In conclusion, ins Worship added that the laying down of these roads was proposed under the enro of tho present borough engineer, Mr. Skiirop, hut it was quite possible that Mr. Skitrqp would ho resigning his position under tho council. Tho matter was still in abeyance. Mr. Skitrop had informed him (the speaker), however, that there was no difficulty about his process of using soltar. It was quite simple, and whoever was iu charge would have no difficulty in carrying out the* same process.

la reply to Mr. R. Cork, the Mayor explained that £’2'i. 109 of the £42,000 loan had been expended up to the present time, and of this there would bo an amount of nearly i'-1000 coming back from the Electric. Eight Department for expenditure on the waterworks intake, which was an electric light charge. With the exception of the Doralto Road, whore tho cost was very slightly exceeded, the loan works so far carried out had been completed within the estimates of tho engineer, and in some cases fairly below the estimated cost. This was a matter lie was very glad to have had the opportunity of explaining, because there was considerable misapprehension in the town as to what had become of the loan. Ratepayers may rest assured that tho money which had been spent up to the present time had carried out. the work for which it was borrowed, and they had money in hand to carry out the works which had yet to bo put through. In reply to Councillor A. E. Wal k ins. the borough engineer explained that no difficulty would he experienced in regard to metal supplies for tho proposed works.

PROPOSED MUNTCT PA E OFFICES AND MUSEUM.

Councillor A. 11. Johnstone then addressed the meeting on the above works, tor which it was proposed to borrow £6OOO. Ho remarked that, with regard to the museum, it was not intended that it should accommodate collections of biological specimens, stuffed birds, and so on, such as were usually housed in museums in other parts of the Dominion. What was intended was that it should contain the historical records 'of the Taranaki district, and. more particularly, those relating to the town of New Plymouth and its immediate surroundings. Ho did not think anyone would quarrel with him if he said that no part of New Zealand had more historical interest attached to it than had this district. Most of those records had fallen into private .hands, and many of them probably were hist to the town for over. It happened, however, that Mr. IV. H. Skinner, who was for many years resident hero, had collected a very large number of "records, and also articles of interest relating to the Maori and European occupation, and with commendable generosity —generosity very seldom found in this tonm or district—had offered to place the whole of his collection in the hands of the borough .provided the citizens would suitably house' them. The question of housing tips collection had been tbe subject of anxious consideration of the council for some time past.'Various proposals had been submitted, and ultimately the council had come to the conclusion that rather than orcct any building which would only be of a temporary nature, it would be hotter if a comprehensive, design for .municipal buildings, including town hall, provision for offices and'for a museum, were obtained, and that such part of the buiidihg as would be necessary for housing the . town clerk’s staff and the council itself, and the museum ' collection, should be proceeded'with norv, and. the rest of tho buiidihg 1 erected in subsequent years, when more funds were'available. The council had purchased a magnificent site , between Carrington Hoad , and Liardct Street; and it was suggested that the wing of the proposed building should he erected on that site. . The site Itself was unrivalled in the town in 'many respects. .. There were certain municipal’enterprises which did not return anything in the way of cash,, and this was one of them, hut it was none the less worthy of their consideration on that account. .There were two sources, however, froin which revenue could bo, derived towards the payment of interest. In the first place, the site of tho present Town Hall would be made available for other purposes, and the rents received would be available .for payment of interest, and it was possible that the Polynesian Society would ask for permission to house its collection in tho building, and would be willing to pay something, for, this privilege. He hoped that the citizens, would support the council in this scheme. It would be the greatest pity if , the historical records Which Mr. Skinner had offered were allowed to pass, away from the 'town. Already , several collections had gone by, but ho believed there were several.. collections still intact in the neighbourhood which might be given to the town provided suitable accommodation was provided..: He urged tho ratepayers to favourably consider the scheme and to cast their votes so that, ihaddition to the loan about which bis

Worship had referred, they would carry -one to” enable them -to place, a' suitable building on then council’s site for Town Hall and municipal offices. The Mayor .supported Councillor Johnstone's, remarks, and agreed that the town should not- lose the opportunity of acquiring the valuable collection ■of historical records, etc., possessed by MV. Skinner, and, which he had offered to the- town. If they were lost now they could never be recovered, and they would have documents ’and curios of historical value to this town and district spread over the whole country when they should be .housed here. Councillor W. A. Collis said the town had already lost a number of collections because it, did not possess a suitable building in which to .-place them. . Ho added that there were two other .collections under offer at the present time, and the town also had a large and valuable collection in the . existing museum. *

Mr. R. Cook said he was out for progress, and was in sympathy with the proposals which had been submitted by the Mayor and , Councillor Johnstone, and lie expressed the hope that .the ratepayers would autiioriso the council to proceed. He moved that this,meeting approves of tho schemes as placet} before them by tho council.

Mr. J. Clarke, in seconding the moexpressed his keen disappointment :.i the small attendance of ratepayers; Ho emphasised the fact that it was absolutely imperative that the council should be provided with the necessary money to rc-mako those streets, and the lime had undoubtedly arjrived when the town should erect proper municipal 'buildings. The motion was carried unanimously, and tho meeting then terminated.