The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1913. LOANS.

Waipa Post, Volume V, Issue 228, 11 July 1913, Page 2

The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1913. LOANS.

THE outstanding features of yesterday's meeting of the Te Awamutu Town Board are the decisions affecting furt her suggested loans which it is proposed .to raise for the carrying out of municipal works. Both the proposed loans commend themselves as being for expenditure upon highly necessary and profitable public works. That for electric lighting is practically a reversion to a poll taken some months ago for a coal gas lighting system, and the decision of ratepayers at the taking of the poll for this loan should be easily prophesied, as he recent lighting polls have evidenced a keen desire for the introduction 01 a public lighting scheme —-and more particularly electricity. The suggested loan for street improvements is equally important, and will doubtless be welcomed by the wide-awake townsman. It has been said ' street improvements ' necessitate a direct tax on the ratepayer, as, unlike lighting, no earning power results from the expenditure of the loan moneys.. But it is a recognised fact that " navigable," clean and tidy streets have an indirect earning power for the time, labour, and inconvenience saved, as a result of the improved conditions, must most surely be of value. If cost to the ratepaycr is to be considered, it will be well to take into account the constant drain upon the Board's purse now necessitated through the constant call for temporary repairs. This ever recurring waste of public money —and it is waste, for even though large sums are annually expended our tracks get worse and worse as a result of the increased traffic —is not conducive to the advancement of Te Awamutu. Clean tidy roads are attractive and convenient, and it must be evident to everyone that the annual charges of necessary loan money to properly form the roads will not far exceed the ever recurring costs of temporary repairs. Certain it is that, if convenience, cleanliness and tidiness are considered, the streets improvement loan must prove the ! most profitable to everybody. The Board is to be commended tor ■ biiugiiig fnr-.vard this loan. The ; cry for "roads" to replace mud or dust is constant, and the result at ! ih.e ballot-box should be entirely in favour of the loan, ii it be not, then complaints will count for little, as ratepayers will have elected to wade ankle deep in mud, or be blinded by dust—and should not complain if they get their desires.