The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1908. THE GOVERNMENT AND LOCAL BODIES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 274, 12 August 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1908. THE GOVERNMENT AND LOCAL BODIES.

. —r $ There is an important principle involved in the dispute between the Petone Borough Council and the Minister for Labour. The facts of the case aro very simple. The Government refused to pay rates on the workers' settlements established in the Borough, and remained obstinate in the matter until the Council threatened to cut off the municipal services supplied to the tenants. There are three more workers' dwollings in couvsc of erection, and the Council, in ! order to avoid future trouble over thoj rates,, decided, boforo connecting these

premises with tho water supply, to ask for an assurance from the Labour Department that the rates would be paid. Considering all the cireumstanccs, this was a prudent decision and a reasonable request, but its effect upon the Minister for Labour was distressing. His whole being revolted from the " indignity" which it was sought to put upon him. Was the Government, he passionately asked, " in the habit of repudiating its legal liabilities 1 " Why did this presumptuous body insult the Qovcrnmcnt by requiring from it an undertaking that was not required from private persons in like circumstances? "It seems to me," he furiously declared, " that you are determined to annoy the Government to the utmost pf your limited powers, and to make it impossible for tho Department to extend ttie scheme of providing workers with suitable dwellings at reasonable rents." Exactly where lay the " indignity " in the Council's inquiry it is not easy to seo. In finy event, the Government was hardly in a position to stand on its dignity, since the Council had very good reason to exercise a little prudence when dealing with a property-owner whom it knew from bitter experience to be what is cpmiiionly called a " bad mark." We should havo thought that his famous threatening telegram to the Blackball miners would have taught Mb. Millar tq make sure of his ground, and to hesitate long before throwing stones from a window of his glass house. Had it chosen, the Council could easily have replied with instructive effect to the questions asked by the Minister's outraged dignity, but it wisely perceived that figures were t|)e best repartee. The total rates payablo on the Heretaunga settlement during tho two years 1906-08 under private ownership would have been £123. The Government and tenants paid only about £47.. Tho loss on the Wilford settlement was £628. The total loss to the borough on two years' rating was

What appears specially to have angered the Minister, who, as a Minister, would seem to agree with Falstaff that " base is the slave who pays," was a general complaint to Parliament by the Borough Council respecting tho hardships that the borough has sustained at tho Government's hands. The contempt with which the Government trpats all kinds of local by-Jaws is an old story. It is truo that the Government is practically exempt from the operation of local enactments, but there has always been a strong feeling that when tho State takes the place of a private person or persons in a local community it should conform to tho rules governing those persons. Especially is this desirable in the matter of rates. It may be conceded that ■ Crown land held for administrative purposes might be free from rates. But it is quite another matter when the Statp occupancy of land in any district under a rating authority is for purposes similar to those'for which land is occupied by private individuals. If, for example, thp Government bought half the residential area of Wellington in order to become a large landlord, it should certainly pay rates. Otherwise tho private owners of property would bo paying their own rates and those of the Government's tenants. In Petone, to take the actual case, the non-payment of rates on Government property using the municipal services would require the ratepayers to pay one-third more than their just share. Of course, by leaving other people to pay the piper, the Government is enabled to |ooast of its great kindness to the poor man in providing him with a cheap home. Like so" much of the Government's philanthropy, the boon of workers' homes is paid for, not mprely by private enterprise, but in a largo measure by the private enterprise with which the State has come into competition as a landlord. The time has arrived when the question shpultl he finally settled on a fairer basis. The Petone Council was exceptionally fortunate in being able on one occasion to force the Government to pay . rates on its property, but Parliament should amend a law that thus exposes local bodies to anxiety and private citizens to robbery—for. such it amounts to—by a Government that grows hot at the idea of promising that it will not repeat its former unfairness to a borough.