THE RATES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 273, 11 August 1908, Page 7

THE RATES.

PRICE OF CIVILISATION.

SLIGHT INCREASE THIS YEAR. PROGRESS OF THE CITY. ;'Tho rate, papers for, the first half of the year . 1908-9 are out, and the rates are being paid in. One only has to loiter a few minutes in tho rates office to .know that new municipal demands havo been made, for there is the money rolling over tho coimter, in return for which the payor folds up a printed form of thin crisp paper that bears the Council's receipt stamp, and stows is away among a miscellaneous lot of papers in his pocket-book, and twists it up and shoves it in his trousers pocket. It is the city's dole—and really lie gets a good deal more than a stamped form. The money that has just been swept into the municipal till pays for his water and the means to carry it away when used. It gives him flagged footpaths to walk on instead of primitive earthand; if he "bikes" or motors, or drives in the city as a habit oi rarely, for business or pleasure, there are clean wood blocks and more or less honest macadam, for his money. The rates are his little quota towards tho upkeep of the beautiful, but expensive, 'Botanical Gardens, the recreation grounds, and city reserves. It represents so much less dust on the road and in, the eye during tho year. It also means free music of varying educative value. Tho rates keep the destructor going night and day, and pay officials to find out the insanitary spots that will develop in tho best regulated cities. 'Indeed tho'rates are tho price of civilisation, and whether they are paid direct, or in rent, or merely as a lodger they represent the price of municipal progress. Upwards. > Rates fluctuate, but it is always, or shall we say, nearly always in tho one direction—upwards; It has been stated that instances are on'record of rates having been reduced in some city somewhere, and a mathematical humourist has declared that there will be no rates to pa.y at all in Glasgow in 3579 years, but Wellington will have none of this paltering with the steady rise in its chief source of revenue.. So up they go. Thoy did not go up with a violent jerk this year. A deliberate finesse was brought to • bear upon the figures, - and when they came before the Court it was stated that tho now rates wore, practically what thoy wero last year. So they are, only higher. The only difference is that there is a rise of l-10th of a penny on the-unimproved value, and a decrease of jd. in the annual value (on which the hospital and charitable aid rate is based). What this means requires some explanation. • " You see," said a man who ought to know, "if you've got a magnificent building on your section you gain 1 because the annual value is less."

• " That's all vory well," said the owner of a fine building, "but my experience is that if you put up a magnificent building, you put up the unimproved value, and the un'improveq has gone up a fraction of a penny." There did'nt seem any argument left on tho part of the , "magnificent building" man, who changed the subject by making a remark about the fleet. Moving Ahead. Flippancy set aside, most people are finding out that the rates they have to pay this year are heavier than last year, and it stands to reason that it must be so in the case of a city that is moving ahead as fast as, in Wellington. . The security against drought in the summers of the future, the protection of the Te Aro baths from the violence of the elements, the drainage of the city and suburbs, the improved and.improving streets, the ' new • destructor and the saiiitary benefits it bestows, the improvement of Oriental Bay, the. making of recreation grounds all have to be paid for—: out of the rates. Apparently the city cannot look to its tramways to lessen the load, though that was freely suggested when the new system was being discussed, p that any salvation the future holds lies in its electrical monopoly. Even the prospective profits from that source will bo eaten up for years to come by'having to bring the works up-to-date, so really there is no hope of lighter rates in this city for many years' to come—if ever!