GORDON PARK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 90, 16 April 1929, Page 6

GORDON PARK

THE TRUE POSITION To secure a free gift of £3OOO fo! tho city of Wanganui was the feat achieved by Air Hope Gibbons when he secured Gordon Park for the people. The Land and the Mortgage. Some people say that Mr Gibbons had a mortgage on the land and forced l he purchase to repay himself.. This is false. He had no mortgage or any other financial interest. The City records show that the purchase money was paid to the owner—not to the mortgagee. The mortgage in this case was the Public Trustee. Others say that the ratepayers turned down the loan and he stole'the m oney from the rates. He could not steal the money from the rates, because the Auditor-General would not permit the procedure. It is the Audi-tor-General’s duty to challenge any and every irregularity. The true position was as follows:—At the beginning of 1924 Air Thomas Allison suggested the purchase of 36 acres for £4OOO, the Bruce Trustees finding £2OOO and the City £2OOO. A proposal to borrow £17,000 for the purchase of reserves, including £2500 for Gordon Park was turned down at the end of 1924 by 1900 votes to 800; at the same time other reserves propos: Is were turned down by 1700 to 1000 and £5OOO for necessary drainage was turned down by exactly the same figures (1700 to 1000). Every one knew that those 1700 voters were organised to give “one in the eye to Hope,” and would have downed any other proposal by tho same figures. In 1926 tho area was increased to 40 acres, and the price to the City reduced to £lOOO, the Government finding £lOOO The Council, not Air Hope Gibbons alone, decided by a unanimous vote to accept tho offer. The City Paid 5s in the £. The cost of Gordon Park to the City was just 5s in the £. Tho Bruce Trustee found £2OOO, the Government found £lOOO, tho City Council found £looo— price, £4OOO. Thus to have let tho proposition pass would have been equal to losing £3OOO for the City. The electors are asked to vote for the man who had the business acumen to secure this £3OOO without cost to the ratepayers. What man or woman would turn down this proposition for himselff Just as every man . would accept it if he i could, so was Mr Hope Gibbons justified in securing it for the City.*