INCREASES TO COUNCIL STAFF

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25548, 16 July 1948, Page 10

INCREASES TO COUNCIL STAFF

“It is not submitted that the existing staff of the City Council could completely cope with the larger area and responsibilities without minor increases,’’ said Mr Feast, “but it is submitted that the city staff is sufficiently large and elastic to ensure that increases would be only minor, and would not entail increases in the executives. Eventually they would result in the total numerical strength of the several staffs required at present to administer the area which the city asks should be included in its boundaries.” New areas added to the city would have the benefit of full-time technical and professional staff, he said. The Riccarton Borough and the Heathcote. Halswell, arid Paparua County Councils did not employ full-time civil engineers. None of the local bodies affected had, he believed, full-time traffic inspectors, or was able to call on the full-time services of surveyors, town-planners, architects, horticulturists, and, with the exception of Waimairi County Council, sanitary or building inspectors. "The larger the staff the greater must be its elasticity and its capacity for absorbing additional or extended duties,” he continued. “In expressing this opinion I am guided by the experience after the amalgamation of New Brighton and Sumner with the city. In each case the administrative staff consisted of six persons, not including works staff and a gas and electrical engineer and part-time traffic inspector in the case of Sumner. Now the Sumner and New Brighton offices are operated by one person in each case, and the balance of the work has been absorbed by the city staff without any increase in numbers. It was not suggested that there would be any immediate reduction in the administrative costs of the tramway and drainage undertakings, except that there would be a fairly substantial saving in electoral expenses, and possibly the eventual housing in one centre of most of the administrative functions of the Tramway and Drainage Boards. Mr Feast, referring to the Citv Council’s policy of providing and maintaining suburban libraries, said there were now 14 libraries, some of which were on the fringes of the city. The total subsidies paid to libraries last year was £1759, and the vote for suburban libraries this year was £6259. For the last seven years the city had contributed £2OOO a year to the Canterbury Public Library. It had agreed to take complete control of the library from October 1, and had already provided for

£l5OO for repairs. Of the 4327 subscribers to the library, 850 were resident in areas affected by the council’s proposals for amalgamation. There was no information about the extent to which the reference department was used without cost by the residents of those areas. Lyttelton’s Amenities If Lyttelton was amalgamated with the city what extra amenities would Lyttelton enjoy? asked Mr P. Wynn-Williams (for the Lyttelton Borough Council). Mr Feast replied that Lyttelton would benefit bv technical advice and by extra fire brigade services.

Mr Wynn-Williams: Would you agree that one of the results would be that Lyttelton would pay about £4OOO a year more?—That would appear to be the case. Mr Feast did not agree with Mr A. C. Perry (for the Heathcote County Council) that the administrative costs of the City Council were the highest of the lour main centres of New Zealand. Cross-examination of Mr Feast will be continued when the commission resumes this morning. The commission will sit next week until mid-day on Friday, when it will adjourn until Tuesday. July 27. On July 30 it will adjourn until August 9 because of a fixture in Nelson.