The Press Tuesday, July 31, 1928. Local Bodies' Expenditure.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19376, 31 July 1928, Page 6

The Press Tuesday, July 31, 1928. Local Bodies' Expenditure.

t The third edition of the Local Authorities Handbook has just been issued from the Census and Statistics Office, and brings up to date the statistics relating to the operations of the 700 or so bodies engaged in the work of local government. In recent years people have begun to take some notice of the fact that the local governing bodies are so numerous and of the fact that these bodies borrow and collect and spend very large sums of money. In 1906-7 the gross indebtedness of local governing authorities on account of debentures amounted to £13,903,153. Twenty years later the total was £64,012,247. The net indebtedness increased from £12,284,651 in 1906-7 to £56,523,579. This is practically a five-fold increase in twenty years. During the same period the gross debt of the General Government increased fourfold, but the present total of about 250 millions sterling includes about 80 millions for the financing of our part in the war; and if this is deducted, it will be seen that the " National Debt" increased by much less than 200 per cent, while the indebtedness of the local bodies was increasing by 500 per cent. Nearly 15 millions sterling of the borrowings of the local bodies were raised for the development of waterpower, but even when account is had of this the rate at which the total indebtedness has grown has been very great. The boroughs' debt has increased in the last decade from Hi to 27$ millions; the debt of the counties from a little over a quarter of a million to over 3J millions in ten years; and so on. The main purposes of the loans at present outstanding (totalling over 64 millions) are as follows: Electric supply and lighting, £14,894,092; roads, streets, footways, and bridges, £13,465,876; drainage, sewerage, and water supply, £12,876,723; harbourworks, £10,279,337; and tramways, buses, and other passenger and carrying services, £4,903,419. It is quite evident that the country has been, in the common phrase, " doing itself well" in the last twenty years, and particularly well in the last decade. The population of Great Britain is about 32 times as large as tlhe population of New Zealand, and if Britain had borrowed for such works as are managed by local bodies here lit the rateat which New Zealand has been going she would have borrowed nearly 1200 millions in the last ten years. While the indebtedness of the local bodies has been increasing, the, population has been growing, but so much more slowly , that the gross debt, which was £lO 4s Id per head in 1900, is now more than four times as mtieh—actually it was £44 10s 4d per, head in 1927. The annual. charge has. in the same period increased from lis 4fl per head to £2 16s 4d per head. The taxation levied by the local bodies, which twenty years ago was under 1$ millions, was nearly 6 millions in 1927, or nearly as much as' the direct taxation levied by the General Government. These figures require to be emphasised because it is still too frequently overlooked that the operations of the Government are very far from being the only public operations involving expenditure and employment that need be considered. The permanent employees of the local ■ bodies now number over 16,000, and the "casual" employees over 10,000 — a total of over 26,000; and their wages and salaries amounted in 1927 to over 6 millions sterling. When these figures' are added to those relating to the Government Departments, we get totals which' must be disturbing to those who realise that it is an ill thing to have a great proportion of the population dependent upon public employment and public expenditure.