HOW TO DIVIDE LOAVES AND FISHES

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 57, 9 March 1922, Page 6

HOW TO DIVIDE LOAVES AND FISHES

The City Engineer's first report to the new Works Committee of the City Council, published last week, proposes that the abnormal practice of meeting capital expenditure out of revenue should nowi be tapered off; that revenue' should, as far as. possible, be reserved for maintenance charges and other' charges proper to revenue; and that, in the allocation of the expenditure of the revenue, regard should be had to the rate-revenue of the district in which the expenditure occurs. As the Engineer puts it:

The amount allocated for the various districts of the city should bear'a reasonable proportion to the rates obtained from such district.

Insofar as the above sentence applies to legitimate expenditure out of revenue, ,it appears to be reasonable. That such expenditure, in a district should be a reasonable (not a rigid) proportion to the raterevenue of the district appears to be not unfair- And it would certainly help the Works Committee if there was some sort of an elastic rule to follow. In-the-matter' of capital expenditure out of loan, the case is different. The district with the biggest rate-yield is not necessarily the district needing the biggest capital outlay in new roads and other developmental Work. In fact, the reverse is often the case. The most obvious reason for this difference is the fact that a populous quarter with a big rate^yield is generally in possession of its improvements ; whereas the less populous quarters need the improvements in order to attract population to them and build up their rates. Therefore, if is'right that' a City Proper should use its financial credit to improve less capitalised suburbs, for it is on those suburbs that a-. City Proper relies for relief of its congestion. If the City Engineer wishes to apply an elastic rule to expenditure out of rates, without prejudice to expenditure out of loan* we agree with him. But it the highly developed portion of a city were to become unduly niggardly in lending its creditor the improvement of less developed portions, the mutual advantages of an amalgamation such as Greater Wellington would be to a large extent lost. That the City Engineer is in no way inclined to stint the proper development of the outlying suburbs is, we tajce it, indicated by his advocacy of a new arterial roaji to Khandallah. A wise liberality in the allocation of capital expenditure would be not inconsistent with a determination to resist undue attacks upon revenue engineered by means of local importunities.