CITY EXPANSION AND CITY FINANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 123, 27 May 1930, Page 6

CITY EXPANSION AND CITY FINANCE.

I am sure that the size of the city area has a great deal to do with the financial difficulties of the council. Greater Auckland is an expensive fetish. My considered opinion is' that the city area has grown too large for proper, and efficient control to be exercised. The latest acquisitions of Tanmki and Avondale have made matters very much more difficult for the council and staff and it .would probably be better for all concerned if these areas were once again handed over to separate control. The question of the size of central cities has received exhaustive study in Britain, America and Canada, and the unanimous conclusion of the experts in municipal government in these countries is that the ideal size for a central city is 90,000 people, and they find that the efficiency of administration invariably decreases progressively as the population increases beyond the ideal figure quoted. Further, this population limit is based on a closely peopled area, whereas in Auckland the outlying portions of the district are very snarselv CO++Wl rttu- „_„„ nf + r '.._ _ * ? J

settled. The area of the city proper would probably carry at least half a million people. Recently a commission inquired into the government of Greater London, and decided that it was advisable to retain the present local authorities. The position in London is that the city proper covers 74,800 acres and is divided into twenty-eight boroughs, an average of 2671 acres per borough. The County of London covers 443,000 acres, in which are situated 120 separate boroughs, etc., giving an average acreage of 3695 per borough. Auckland city has a present area of 18,700 acres, or between five and six times the average London borough. The aim of. the Greater Auckland advocates is "one city from Tamaki to the Whau." The area of this territory is not less than 36,400 acres, and if this became* an accomplished fact the municipality would govern an area ten times that of the averago London borough. As the City Council finds "it impossible to properly administer the present area, one shudders to think what would be the result if the Greater Auckland ideal could'be accomplished. ANXIOUS RATEPAYER.