MOUNT EDEN RATES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 148, 24 June 1932, Page 3

MOUNT EDEN RATES.

COUNCIL CRITICISED

MOTION OF NO-CONFIDENCE.

BURDEN" UNNECESSARILY HEAVY?

The action of the Mount Eden Borough Council in increasing rates for tho current year was criticised by Mr. J. J. Mulvihill, a member of the council, when he addressed a meeting of the Mount Eden Ratepayers and Householders' Association at the Gordon Eoad Hall last evening. Mr. W. J. Hammill presided.

Mr. Mulvihill said he did not claim to be an expert on municipal finance, and his arguments would be based on logic and common sense. The Ratepayers , Association ivas not a "one-man show," but a virile body with a membership of S.") 0. The decision to increase the rates was part of a deep-laid plan, the aftermath of the defeat of the amalgamation proposal. Tho present council wns controlled by a "big three," consisting of the Mayor (Mr. T. McNab) and Messrs. W. H. Nagle and F. S. Battley, who were persistent advocates of joining the city. The rate had been struck at 4/11 for the year. It should not have been more than 4/3, or at the outside 4/9, a figure considered proper in a manifesto signed liy six members of the council. Of these

si. , ; members one, Mr. H. D. Connelly, ■subsequently voted with the majority in the council.

Mount Eden was now in the unique position of being tho only local body within a radius of 20 miles of Auckland that had increased its rates. He {[noted figures to show that the ratepayers were being asked to pay £7189 more than was necessary. That sum represented a rate of ujd. So far the ratepayers were living in blissful ignorance of what the rate demands would be, but when the demands were issued they would receive it .shock. Tho new rate represented an average increase of £2 or £2 5/ on each property. Ho criticised a statement made by the Mayor of Auckland in respect to water charges. Mr. Hutchison had forecasted a rise in the rate if amalgamation was not carried. Outside local bodies were dissatisfied with the position and were looking for water supplies other than those, of the city.

11l referring to unpaid rates the speaker said there was £33,47-3 outstanding, and £5354 of sundry accounts. One. ratepayer alone owed £700. Some, people deliberately avoided payment and embarrassed the council. Mount Eden was collecting less for outstanding rates than other local bodies. He denied that Mount Eden waa a poverty-stricken borough.

A resolution v/as carried expressing want of confidence in the Mayor and those councillors who voted for unnecessurily increasing the rates and calling upon Mr. Connelly to resign his seat and recontest it with a nominee of the Rate-paj-cra' Association.