A SELF-DENYING PRINCIPLE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 8

A SELF-DENYING PRINCIPLE

With admirable candour Mr. A. Parlane, a Labour candidate for the City Council, declared at Wadestown: "I do not subscribe to reduction of rales. I believe it would pay to do more work out of revenue and less out of borrowed money. The latter system means two or three times the original cost." We may pass over the question whether this candid statement does not con-| flict with the policy of those of Mr. Parlane's fellow-candidates who are at present members of the council and have supported big loan schemes. We may pass over also the question whether Labour candidates who prefer revenue-spending to loan-raising should not look with friendly eye on the Local Government Loans Board which checks j borrowing but cannot check rateraising. Without considering these present pertinent aspects of the statement we are inclined to be sympathetic with Mr. Parlane's j theory. But what public support I could a City Council hope to obtain for such a self-denying policy, except (and this, after all, is largely | how Mr. Parlane applied it) as an illustration of how past councils have prevented future councils from spending freely? It is one thing to say, as Mr. Parlane said, that if past councils had kept borrowing I down so that capital charges would be half what they are now we could spend more today. It is something j quite different to tell the people who want .works done now that they must wait until they can be done with revenue. That involves either a high rate or a long wait. We have opposed some of the past loans; but we are not prepared now to advocate the sudden adoption of a Spartan regime. Higher rating would check rising recovery and therefore it should be avoided. But if there are works of urgency and value that can be carried out at low cost and on advantageous loan terms the community can prudently pledge a little of the future revenue to gain an immediate benefit. Muchdepends on the value and permanency of the works.