The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1912. LOAN PROPOSALS.

Waipa Post, Volume III, Issue 135, 9 August 1912, Page 2

The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1912. LOAN PROPOSALS.

OUR great interest in the future prosperity of Te Awamutu must plead as an excuse, if any is required, for our recurn nee to-day to the loan question. It is perhaps a pity that the matter must be fought on the somewhat sordid question of rates alone. The privilege of deciding the issue is rightly vested in the hands of the man who pays the rates, but surely he is not the only one to whom an appeal should be made or who is able to give an unbiased opinion on the matter. In fact, we had almost said, that given a sincere and genuine interest in the welfare of a town, the man whose actual cash interests are nil, is better able to arrive at a wise decision.

Wlia.t we all want is to see Te Awamutu provided with the proper up-to-date facilities with which' other towns are served, and able to take her place with them in competing for a fair share of town population. Few, if any, of the residents of this town realize what an exceptionally fine site Te Awamutu occupies, surrounded as it is with beautiful farms, and adjacent to vast tracts of practically unopened land in the King Country, that must ere long b; brought into bearing. Ihe Londoner who walks by St. Paul’s Cathedral day after day without bestowing a glance on its majestic outliny, is just on a par with the Te Awamutan who spends his life in one of the most charming portions of the North Island of New Zealand without ever realising either the beauty of his surroundings or his unique opportunities. What we might call “pride of situation’’ is well enough marked in most places in New Zealand, but in Te Awamutu, which has every right to some pride, it is most conspicuous by its absence. The present juncture is one at which all citizens, whether ratepayers or not> should do their utmost to help the town as a body to arrive at a proper decision on the question of loan proposals. Our own opinion on the matter has been too frequently stated to make it necessary to repeat it, but there is one fact that we think has not. been sufficiently emphasized, and one that will tend to allay feelings of anxiety as to the somewhat large amount of the rates that are to be struck to ensure the payment of interest on the proposed loans. It is this, that the rates have been struck on a valuation of £91,000. Had the Town Board decided to wait until the re-valuation next year, which cannot be less than £120,000, a considerably smaller rate would, of course, have been struck. Having regard to the fact, however, that the rate for the year ending April, 1913, (id.) has already been struck, and that the first year’s interest on the proposed loans will be payable out of capital, it was not considered necessary to hold back the proposals until such re-valuation. The County rates, at present totalling about %d in the £, will not of course be affected by these loans. It is only the Town Board rate that will be increased, and that not until April 1914, by which time the supplementary valuations will bring the ratable value of our town up to a sum that will call for a much smaller rate to produce the same amount ,of interest. The water and street loan of £20,000 has already been submitted to the Government for approval, and a promise has been made that it the proposal is carried the money will be provided. For the gas loan of £B,OOO resort will have to be made to the open market, but little difficulty is anticipated in obtaining money for so profitable a business.