CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 39, 15 August 1945, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE

CITY IMPROVEMENT -

(To the editor.) Sir, —During the last municipal elections t,he Mayor and Councillors of Wellington promised to submit a master plan to citizens, embracing the whole of the city. This has not been done, and they have recently announced that they have let a contract for a new municipal building at a cost of £35,000. The highest authorities in the wellmanaged cities in different parts of the world insist on working to a plan, and there should be a scientific administration between municipal departments and other controlling authorities in the city as a whole, such as the Harbour Board, Railways Department, Lower Hutt City, Public Works Department, and others. As far back as 1918 Sir Charles Norwood, ably assisted by Mr. Morton, city engineer, proposed to turn Te Aro flat into one of the finest residential areas in New Zealand, which could have been carried out without one penny cost to the ratepayers. This can be done at the present time, and the city will incur no financial loss. Te Aro flat should not be turned into an industrial area.' I could give many similar instances of what the City Council proposes to do, but before large sums of money are expended, we should insist that all future work should be well planned and carried out by town planners and engineers.—l am, etc., W. STUART WILSON. EARNING POWER Sir, —In support of "Pensioner" I agree that the old people who can should be allowed to earn extra, or keep what they have saved since the age of 60 above the £500 at present allowed. The conditions now are quite different from those existing when the pension first came into force, due to ;he high rates and the cost of living — I am, etc., HELP THE OLD PEOPLE. SUPERANNUATION RIGHTS Sir, —I notice the Government proposes to amend the Superannuation Act. As it stands, the Act is unfair to those who have come forward during the war years to assist the country by re-entering Government employment. The. reward they receive is to have the amount of their superannuation benefit deducted from the amount they may be receiving for their services. Thus a person whose wages are £6 and whose superannuation benefit was £4, has £2 per week, less social and national security tax, as his net return. It has to be borne in mind that contributions to the superannuation fund are compulsory. Another injustice that cries out for redress is ,the case of those who join the service at an advanced age. A person joining after 45 years of age pays almost double the percentage of a similar person who has joined as a youth and receives only half the amount in superannuation .paid to the latter.—l am, etc., ONE OF THE VICTIMS. LOCAL VALUATIONS Sir, —In a recent issue of the "Evening Post," Mr. E. R. Toop endorsed the editorial view of "The Post" that there is a sound case for revaluations in Wellington. The fact is that there is a sound case for revaluations everywhere, for values are changing up and down all the time, according to the interplay of many factors. There is only one practicable solution, and it is that referred to by Mr". Toop—local valuations. The late Mr. Frederic Pirani, M.P. for Palmerston North, the first place in New Zealand to rate on the unimproved values, pointed out that the local assessors, because of their local knowledge, were more competent than itinerant State valuers to do the valuing. The Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. W. E. .Parry., in a recent address, admitted that, without the help of the local bodies, the patriotic campaigns could not have been successfully' undertaken. I would suggest to the Minister that the same now applies to valuations. The State valuing is backward, and has been so under all Governments. Power should be given here, as in Victoria, for local bodies to do their own valuing under any rating system, and the State could put its rule over the results periodically for the sake of checking^and uniformity of practice. And the local bodies should rate on the only scientific and just'form of annual values known to political economy—the annual rental value attaching to the land, properly known as social rent, because it is the value, not of land 4 but of social service, private and publicly rendered. —I am, etc., t. e. McMillan. Matamata, Aug. 11. 1945. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. jl_f r .—We have no exact figures. Suggest you ask any established drapery firm. W..T.8. —Regret we cannot answer. "Homeless": It would be better to supply the particulars to the Labour Department which administers the rent restrictions. The council of the North Island Motor Union placed on record at its meeting today its appreciation of the services of the late Mr. B. L. Donne, formerly chairman of directors of the N.I.M.U. Insurance Co.