THE BOROUGH LOAN PROPOSALS.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 6926, 26 January 1906, Page 2

THE BOROUGH LOAN PROPOSALS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sin,—The exhaustive report submitted to your readers yesterday by the Mayor (Air J. S. Bond), on the Hamilton loan proposals will no doubt commend itself as a whole to ratepayers. Nevertheless, thnse are some points upon which there is a divergence of opinion, and others upon which more information is desirable. Ratepayers would like to know how the amount of £12,000 for purchase of gasworks is made up. Have the directors yet been approached? For surely commercial courtesy demands that the directors should baaukod to put a price upon plant, land, dwellings, etc., piior to to the advent of the arbitrators. Then, again, under the Hamilton Gasworks Act it is provided that where the profits from the gasworks has not been equivalent to an average of ten per cent, over the whole pariod from the date when gas shall ba first supplied from the gasworks until the date when ths purchase by the Hamilton Borough Council is completed by the paymeat of the purchase money then tne arbitrators shall add to the price assessed as aforesaid a»um which together with the profit actually received would be tha equivalent to such average annual profit of 10 per cent. Ratepayers are asking," Is this amount reckoned in the -£ 12,000, and what is it likely to amount to P The statement that the gas Company will this year receive £2BO for gas (equal to about one sixth of its total revenue) is not as much a treichant reason for purchasing the gasworks as a strong argument for the Council to use the pruning knife with regard to this expenditure. With an asset like the Waikato River surely a report on electric light is reasonable. The argument that the 541 acres of borough domain lands and reserves will be greatly enhanced by spending £13,000 on street improvements, is no doubt, a sound one, especially when it is now intended to subdivide many of these lands, before they are again submitted to competition, but the fact of the municipality already owning practically one third of the land within the borough, i 3 by no meanß a sound reason for asking the ratepayers to sanction the purchase of another " breathing space," when it is remembered that the gorse and briar on the adjacent Hill's Borough Terrace was a year or two ago eradicated by means of private subscriptions, or when it is recollected that the Council are now pleading for stock drivers to place oattle on the lake reserve in to down noxious growth. .£l-72 (additional loan for Town Hall) gives the public some indication at lait as to how much th 9 unfinished Town Hill has really cost bayond the original £3OOO sane tioned by ratepayers; and besides being a colossal monument to past log rolling, is a perpetual reminder that ratepayers should not neglect to weigh the pros and cons of every item of any loan proposal. Steam motor service (Frankton Junction to Town Hall). What has Hamilton East done that it should be ignored ? Where is the logic in the borough taking the risk of such a service, when Frankton landowners will receive the greatest benefit and take no risk, and Hamilton East, which is apparently ignore I, be a»ked to assist in paying the proba 1 >ie lose ? We cau well understand our East friends having no time for such a luxury. Thanking yuu in anticipation, I am, etc, J. E. TIDD. Hamilton. January 26th.