HIGHER RATES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 154, 1 July 1937, Page 8

HIGHER RATES.

CHAMBER'S CONCERN.

STATE HOUSING POSITION.

HO SPIT AX EXPENDITURE.

Concern that the Auckland City Council had found it necessary to take steps in the direction of a higher

schedule of rates was expressed bv the council of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce at a meeting to-day.

The expression of opinion on the rating increase was made as a result of the council's adoption of recommendations submitted by the Parliamentary and taxation committee.

It was decided to reject one recommendation which read as follows:—"It is felt, however, that the hands of the council have been largely forced by the recent increase in labour costs ard cost of living."

Objection was first raised to the reference to livinjr costs in this recommendation. It was stated that labour costs embiaced the cost of 1 iving. Several members then suggested that the whole clause should lie struck out as unnecessary, and the statement was made that other local bodies subjected to similar influences had been able to reduce their rates.

"We all realise there has been a general rise of overhead costs in businesses and institutions throughout the land," said the president, Mr. W. R. Fee. It was inevitable that the City Council would have to provide for additional income.

It was hoped that the rate increase would he merely temporary, and that when matters had been adjusted to suit altered conditions a reduction in rates would be possible.

"The housing policy of the Government has made it more important that the Government should accept the same responsibility for rates on its properties as private owners are compelled to accept," was a further recommendation. The president said the position in this respect was still indefinite. If the Government was going to occupy a large area of the city and compete with the owners of private houses, it should be subject to the same responsibility. '"The council should in the meantime refrain from capital expenditure on proposals that would cause a further increase in rates," it was urged. Owing to the increasing burden which ratepayers were being compelled to carry in respect of hospitals, it was felt that a larger proportion of hospital expenditure should be borne by the Consolidated Fund, in vifew of the fact that the hospitals existed for the benefit of all sections of the community.