Papanui and the City.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17624, 29 November 1922, Page 8

Papanui and the City.

With littje more than' a week to go before the general election political matters are engaging the attention of most people. But, in one suburban district to-day politics will be forgotten. Papanui is having a poll of itß own, to decide whether it shall become a part of Greater or remain as at present a rural area under the control of a County Council. On the face of it, there seems but one answer to the question. Its proximity to the city, and the fact that there is no break in the continuity of settlement between St.-Albans and Papanui, and nothing to indicate when one leaves the city and enters the territory of the Waimairi County Council, suggest that amalgamation with Greater Christohurch is the natural destiny of Papanui. That such is the,case has been for a considerable time the fixed belief of the local Progress League and; it may be "added, of the Commission appointed by i the Government some time ago to take fevidence and report on the proposal, who recommended, on the ground that Papanui was densely populated and directly contiguous to the city, that it should be included in Greater Christchurch. The project has provoked stronger opposition than any similar proposal for tho amalgamation of adjacent districts with the city; but the advocates of the present system of government have not succeeded in making out a good ease for the retention of a method of administration which Papanui has quite outgrown. We have no: wish to enter into a discussion of the numerous trivialities which have somewhat marred the controversy between the two contending bodies of public opinion in the district concerned. ' But we may point out that the argument advanced by one of the imported speakers a,t tho anti-amalgama-tion meeting on Monday night, ■ that amalgamation with the city "was all "in favour of the big man," does hot at all agree with the strong advocacy of the movement at a previous meeting by a representative, as he described himself, "of the smaller fry " and the working classes." Much has been said by opponents of the proposal as to the disastrous effect that the rating-on-unimproved-value system will have on Papanui properties, but however this may be with the larger property-owners, a rating system under which the rates paid on residential properties of an acre or less, will be less if Papanui joins the city than if it remains under the County Council, must be to the advantage of the majority of ratepayers —particularly if this reduction is accompanied by a cheaper and more efficient supply of electric light and power, and the benefits derived from the services of the City Fire Brigade, which, even in the absence of a high-pressure water supply, will be of no little value. There are other advantages, to. be gained by a closely-settled district joining up with a city possessing a well-organised staff of experts in various branches of

municipal administration which will at once suggest themselves to unbiassed people, and which will, we believe, contribute to assist the Papanui Progress League to carry its proposal at to-day's poll.