Western Star AND WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED Every Tuesday and Friday. TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1920. THE DAY-SATURDAY 27TH.

Western Star, 23 March 1920, Page 2

Western Star AND WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED Every Tuesday and Friday. TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1920. THE DAY-SATURDAY 27TH.

Next Saturday, March 27th, the ratepayers of Southland province will be aisked' to make an important decision—a decision that will affect every family within the confines of its borders. On that date the poll will bo taken on the question of the hydroelectric power loan, and the Electric Power Board elected quite recently by the ratepayers unanimously urges all to vote for the proposal to raise the necessary loan to carry out- a work which will, when completed, most undoubtedly revolutionise industrial methods and means of transport, transform the home, stimulate development, and promote what all earnestly desire—Progress. For several weeks the columns of the press have been full of arguments in favour of the decision being given in. the affirmiaftve, and we take it that with those our readers arc perfectly familiar, and they need not at this bombo recapitulated. Looked at from any point of view they remain unanswerable, and it only remains for the ratepayers to show that they have faith in their own unrivalled province, and that they are determined not to lag, behind other parts of New Zealand and leading countries of the world by voting for a proposal that will keep it in the van of progress. The Government is developing water power in the North Island, but they only construct the head works and the main transmission lines to the distributing stations, leaving the reticulation in the hands of the local bodies. Two schemes are in hand, but every province is clamouring for the Government to undertake such work. This is impossible, because the Government requires money for so many purposes that there is a limit to the work can undertake in a given mnnber of years. Hence, to wait for •the Government would mean that Southland would have to stagnate for a period of ten or fifteen years, while other provinces would he in possession of hydro-electric power to the great disadvantage of this portion of the Dominion. When borrowing the Government has to take into consideration the sums raised by local bodies, and ratepayers would do well to remember that should the proposal of the Southland Electric Power Board be negatived, which we- do not for one moment anticipate, the Government will simply increase its liability to promote hydro-electric development elsewhere. Last week the town of Wanganui alone decided to expend a quarter of a million on a similar project, and the borough of Hamilton, together with the surrounding districts, all prosperous dairying centres, is pushing along a big scheme of its own, while Otago is now bemoaning the fact that Southland has got ahead of it, and is taking exactly the same preliminary steps as were adopted in Southland to obtain as quickly as possible what all Now Zealand would like to have without delay. The scheme should never involve any rating for the simple reason that the preliminary, expenses and the interest and sinking fund during the course of the construction of the works will be paid out of loan 'moneys, and when the scheme is in operation the revenue received for the lighting ana power will provide all that is necessary to meet all charges. The townships in this district which have no public lighting at present will most certainly approve the proposal, and it having been stated at a recent meeting of the Riverton Borough Council that the existing lighting plant should be scrapped, Riverton ratepayers will follow their example and vote on fd oe for the proposal.