WELLINGTON'S CITY FINANCES

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 298, 13 September 1941, Page 8

WELLINGTON'S CITY FINANCES

From the ratepayers’ point of view the discussion at this week’s meeting of the Wellington City Council on the state of finances tor the current year’s expenditure was a disquieting one. The news that »departmental funds have been overspent (proportionate to the period of the financial year) to an unusual extent is not altogether unexpected in view of the severity of the winter and the many calls on the city’s funds for repair work and in other emergency directions. Moreover, it is not unusual that expenditure should be proportionately higher in the earlier months of the year. But coupled with the apparent fact that city maintenance works — particularly street works — are not keeping pace with ordinary wear and tear and deterioration, it creates a position which is disturbing. The decline in tramway revenue is another cause for concern. No doubt petrol restriction has increased public patronage of tramcars, but on the other hand city lighting restrictions have discouraged many people from leaving their homes after dark. As the mayorpointed out, the recent introduction of fixed prices for staple commodities and essential services, stands in the way of any move the council may wish to make to adjust fares and wipe out the deficit of nearly £2OOO shown in the tramways return. Here, then, as well as in the general finances of the city the issues before the council are very plain. Either economies must be brought about or ultimately the ratepayers will be required to shoulder an additional burden. In the sphere of maintenance, particularly that of streets and drainage, inadequate expenditure is invariably false economy. T hat docs not mean, however, that all non-essential allocations should not be heavily pruned, if not withheld. The council has given some earnest of its intention to scrutinize such allocations even more closely, and in this they will have the support of the great majority of ratepayers. City development and improvement, like national and private expenditure of the kind, should take second place or be set aside for the war period. Ratepayers will recognize this, because the alternative — that of an increase in the annual levy upon them would come as a most untimely hardship.