SERIOUS POSITION

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 120, 24 May 1933, Page 3

SERIOUS POSITION

MAKARA COUNTY

CHAIRMAN'S REVIEW

EXCHANGE CRITICISED

"At the present time the position of the county is far from satisfactory, as was shown, when we were considering the. estimates this morning" said Mr. E. Windley, retiring chairman of, the Makara .County Council today, reviewing tho county's finances at the annual meeting of the council. "Possibly we cannot expect much more under the existing (conditions," ■he continued, "and our problem is, How are we going to carry on in the future? "We are endeavouring to reduce expenditure, but we are faced with unavoidable expenditure from having so many unemployed in the country engaged under the No. 5 scheme. We have realised from time to time that we have a duty in helping.to overcome tho unemployment problem, 'but it is very difficult for the counpillors when they reduce expenditure in one direction and see it piling up in another. It seems to me that some counties are more favourably placed than we are. They havo shown in their balancesheets a very favourable position. "I submit that so long as, we. are burdened with the No. 5 schemejwe are not going to improve our, position ■ to any extent. It involve* expenditure in supervision, transport, etc. We are expected to spend money in other directions, doing work that is not needed at tho present time. We have had. a lot of. good work done, it is true, but it is a costly business, take Whatever view you wish. .. ■■_<• " ■ A NATIONAL OUTLOOK. "I do not know how the problem is to be overcome. We have:had resold tions coming before the council from other local bodies during tho past year, but some of them did not suggest what J-would regard as a. national outlooksmost of them have suggested that'we should put our burdens on to someone else's shoulders, and I am-pleased to say the council rejected some of those proposals for that reason. ". y • "We had anticipated, some time, ago that the farmer ratepayers would benefit aa the result of the higher exchange rate." .. ~- / : . ~"-; " : There is no evidence at the present time that this improvement has happened. It is true that the Prime i Minister asserted that tho increase J would mean the salvation of the farmer, but there is no sign of that salvation. Seeing that it affects tho ratepayers, I thought, this an opportune time of saying thai. "I was never in favour, on principle, of such a step. A scheme that is allegedly going to benefit one section of the. community at the expense of another Is not one we caa regard as having a national outlook, particularly when we take into consideration that in years gone by we have enjoyed the freedom of the British markets which, brought prosperity and enabled us to raise loans through British moneylenders. These loans were supposed,to be reproductive. How much they; have succeeded is open to question. On those grounds I can never support the proposal. Unfortunately -we find now that the farmer ratepayers in partieu-laa--are no better off. ■...'■■■ EOAD MAINTENANCE. "The question of derating has frequently been raised. Some seem to think that it is a fair proposition, but we have got to remember that a great deal of pur local body burden is in fixed charges, and I fail to. see how you are going to shift these charges, even if it were possible to put the cost of Toad maintenance on to road users. I have always been of tne opinion that the road/users should support the t roads. To that extent I support derating." "We have had taxation raised for that purpose, but unfortunately we have it diverted to other channels. Motorists protest that, the taxation has been increased and is not used on road maintenance. It is a rather peculiar coincidence that each .time the petrol tax has been raised the price slips back and today we can buy petrol cheaper than before there was any tax. From that point o fview we have From that point of view we have only wish all our taxes shifted back in the same manner, AN IMPROVEMENT IMPEBATIVE. "It is quite obvious we have a strenuous time in front of us. We were hoping last year, and the year betore ■that things would improve. Possibly from a world-wide point of view there are signs that an improvement is coming. There is no doubt it is sorely needed. If there is .not .an improvement within the next year, liont know just what is going to happen to us as a local body, and no doubt other local bodies will be in a Bimilar position. '' Our own financial position is being gone into in detail as wo consider the estimates today, and we can only do our best; but we realise that in reducing expenditure it very often is an undesirable fact that it reduces^ the people's spending power. Sbmetimes it affects other industries, maybe only on a small scale, but while everybody is doing the same thing it does not tend to improve the trade outlook or business outlook, but we must endeavour as far as possible to balance our budget. That, of course, is a very difficult matter. '■'. '\