ELECTEICITY FUNDS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 94, 22 April 1935, Page 5

ELECTEICITY FUNDS

TRANSFER CRITICISED

Mr. P. J. O'Regan writes: "Judging from the report of the Mayor's speech at Newtown, as reported in "The Post" on Tuesday last, April 16, Mr. Hislop is so well satisfied with the transfer during his term of office of £52,500 from the Electric Lighting Department to ■the general account that we are justified in inferring that he may repeat the proceeding if he is re-elected. For my part I adhere unreservedly to the views previously expressed—that the transfer of funds from the trading departments to the general account is irregular finance,: a benefit to the richest ratepayers of the city, and an attack upon the rights of the great majority of the citizens. This city levies its rates upon the unimproved (or community) value, and I dare to say that the transfer of such large sums in relief of rates tends to defeat that system. Let us analyse the facts: There are, in round figures, 68,000 municipal electors. Of that number 22,000 are ratepayers. Doubtless allowance must be made for the fact that many rate-' payers are married, and that the wife of a ratepayer is entitled to have her name on the roll in virtue of her husband's qualification, and vice versa. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the great majority of the citizens are not ratepayers or ratepayers' wives or husbands, but people who pay rent. Accordingly, I repeat that to relieve ratepayers by transferring the profits from the Electric Lighting Department is in fact giving a dividend to the ratepayers of the city at the expense of the people who pay rent. * "It must be borne in mind that electricity is used not only for lighting, but for cooking and heating, and that its use for these purposes is becoming increasingly popular. The plain meaning of the council's policy, therefore, is that people who have no property, but who are compelled through circumstances to pay rent for the right to live, are obliged to pay much more for lighting and firing than would otherwise be the case in order to confer a substantial benefit on the owners of property. Every ratepayer has a statutory right to inspect the rate-book, and if one had time to exercise this right, he would be surprised to find that the great majority of the ratepayers are men .of very moderate possessions. Hence, even though they were obliged to pay increased rates, they would still be gainers by the reduced price of electricity, and thus we are forced to the conclusion that a very small minority are being relieved at the expense of the mass of their fellow-citizens. •

"Mr. Hislop seems particularly proud of the fact that the £52,000 was. used for relief work. To my mind, this is the most objectionable feature of the whole business,'inasmuch as the direct effect of the labour expended by the unfortunate relief workers is to increase the value of property. By every principle of justice, if we are to have relief works, therefore they should be a charge on property, and not upon the earnings of citizens who have no properties. If the practice of transferring profits to the general account is to continue, then it would be far better for us if the Electric Lighting Department were controlled by a private company. That, at any rate, would make impossible the practice I am denouncing, and would ensure an equally efficient service for the city.

"I notice that the trams are decorated with advertisements parading the advantages of electricity. Permit me to say that the very best advertisement the Department could have is cheapness. If the £52.500 applied in relieving a few rich ratepayers were applied in reducing the price of electricity, not only would everybody have cheaper lighting and cheaper heating and firing, but a great benefit would be conferred uoon those industrial concerns in the city who use electricity as a heavy overhead cost."

A collision between two bicycles at the corner of Miramar Avenue and Para Street yesterday afternoon resulted in the rider of one of them, G. Gallagher, a milk roundsman, of 11 Nevay Road, receiving injuries to his left shoulder. The Free Ambulance took him jto hospital, _l-