BOROUGH ADMINISTRATION.

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14767, 5 October 1921, Page 6

BOROUGH ADMINISTRATION.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The report of the discussion on the improvements being carried out at McGarriglc's corner is certainly painful reading- How the "pick of Hamilton’s business men” could drift into such a hopeless tangle is hard to understand. They get an estimate of £SO, then the estimate is increased to £IOO, and finally it cost £7OO, and another £l3O is required to complete it; but there seems to be no record of any authority lo go on with the work at the extra cost. Not much wonder the borough finance is in a hopeless mess! But is this the only bungle? How about the little street at Harden Place? Who was it undertaken for? what has it cost? and what is it likely to cost to finish it? Is it in the same box ns McHarriglc’s corner? Those who find the money have a right to know how the affairs of the borough are carried on and whether the various works arc carried out to plan and within the estimates. Plans and estimates should be written and filed for future guidance—nnt written on the tablets of the memory of. some of the Councillors. They say they arc not engineers (anyone can see that), and if that is the case there is all the more need to have properly-prepared plans and estimates and slick to them. At the end of the financial year a balance-sheet of the past year should bc“. prepared, and an estimate of revenue and expenditure prepared for the coming year. The public works committee and the engineer should meet and go carefully into the necessary works required and the cost of same. The public works committee and the finance committee should then meet jointly lo sec what revenue would be required to carry out all the works proposed. If they find the proposals fair and reasonable then the finance committee should arrange the finance to meet all those obligations- Then the whole should be submitted in a written report lo the Council; the Council should then discuss the report in all its different bearings in open Council and adjourn Die discussion for at any rale a weokj to give the councillors time lo calmly consider all the different points. At the adjourned meeting the report should be adopted or amended as their wisdom directs. There should also be a certain amount set aside for contingencies to cope with anything that may arise which could not be foreseen. When the estimates arc once adopted they should he rigidly adhered to; with the exception of any absolute need which may arise which could not have been seen, such expenditure to lie paid out of the contingent fund. If the business was carried on on those lines then I here would be no fear of flic affairs of the borough getting into the hopeless tangle that they arc in; and, further, the works undertaken would he carried out at ,'!0 or ifi per cent, less than they now cost under the present system, or i should rather say want of system. I am sorry for the old councillors who have given years of their life trying to serve the public; no doubt they have done their best, but a man can only give what he lias got.—l am, etc., A. C. MILNE.