The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCOPORATRED The Evening News, The Morning New and The Echo. FRIDAY. APRIL 20, 1883.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 3971, 20 April 1883, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCOPORATRED The Evening News, The Morning New and The Echo.

FRIDAY. APRIL 20, 1883.

For the cause that locks tulitaoca > For the wrong that need] resistance. For the future in the distance, And the EOod that wo can do.

CODNCILLOR BOAEDMAN, in mOTiDg last night for returns regardinß tho water accounts, said that from the published halfyearly statements of the Council it was clear that a considerable lednction conld be made in the 2J and 2 par cent, consumers' fate, and he intended to move in that direction. Tho consumers' branch of the account for the year ending March, 1881, showed: income, £4,397; expenditure) £2853; surplus, £1,544, or more than 50 per cent, iv excess. The rate, therefore, as shown by the account, could have been considerably reduced in 1881. The accounts for tho year ending March, 1882, showed: income, £5707 ; expenditure, £2839 ; surplus, £2868, so that tho income was double the' expenditure, ar.d the ratepayers should bave had the Benefit, and not have such a heavy rate inflicted npon them. With regard to the loan account, he said it was not made out so as to (.how the amount of loan, the amount expended, the charges, for interest, and the income from the five per cent. rate. But he hoped the Finance Committee would see it was put into proper shape, ti e remarked also that tho Council cou'd not legally levy a rate largely in excess of the charges to be met, and carry tho surplus, as had .been done, to another account. Any surplus at the end of any. half-year must be carried forward to the next half-year, and , be reckoned for the ratepayers' benefit ia fixing the next water rate. The drift of these remarks may not at first be fully apparent to the ratepayers, but on consideration of their bearing, it will bo seen that they involve an important principle in taxation, apart from the immediate question ot cheapening the cost of the water 'supply t6 consumers. It appears that the Council have been collecting more money under the consumers' rate than was required to pay the expenses, and have appropriated the surplus to the works and loan accounts. Now, this practice is not only illegal, but involves a vicious principle. Under the cover of a water rate, the Corporation is squeezing out of the burgesses money, which,, if required at all, should be raised by an increase of tho general rate, They are collecting'money ostensibly for one purpose and applying it to another. The cost of the : small water services used in many large business premises is at present excessive, without being swelled by an import levied snrreptitionsly for general purposes. We hope, therefore, that Mr Board man will press this matter to an issue. Supplying a much wider area from the existing pumps and reservoirs, the Council ougbtnow toba m a position to decrease the aver&gecost to consumer?,, and Mr Boardman seems to have succeeded in- proving from the revenue accounts that a reduction might have been made before,but for the misappropriation of funds to purposes foreign to those for which they were raised.