The Evening Star THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1930. THE CITY COUNCIL.

Evening Star, Issue 20592, 18 September 1930, Page 10

The Evening Star THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1930. THE CITY COUNCIL.

It is surprising to learn that five city councillors favour the Town Hall being turned into a ' skating rink. These five comprise the chairmen of the more important committees and an ex-chair-man. Their names—Crs Begg, Marlow, Scott, Shacklock, and Wilson—are far more suggestive of business than of pleasure. And that* wo assume to be the reason why they spoke and voted as they did. Revenue, perhaps intermittent, at the rate of £6O per week, is their one and only consideration. In this respect they were perhaps more accurate than the six councillors who opposed them. For it cannot be said that all the objections raised against the skating rink proposition will hold water. Neither the Tow.ii Hall, nor its furnishings, nor the organ would be likely to sustain damage. Nor .would skating monopolise the citizens’ property to the exclusion of other more conventional purposes. Should the hall bo required for these latter precedence would unquestioningly he conceded by the would-bo lessees. It is not even likely that there would bo permanence about thb arrangement, for long experience shows that the popularity of roller skating ebbs and flows in rather longperiod cycles, and it is quite an exceptional craze which persists through the summer months. Nevertheless, wo should regret to see in this case yet one more reversal of a council decision, as is confidently prophesied by those advocating such utilisation of a fine hall. Sentiment is our chief reason for holding such a view, and in brief explanation it is only necessary to reiterate Cr Tapley’s protests that the Town Hall was never intended for such a purpose. Nor does it seem particularly consistent that councillors who are suggesting economy to other people should encourage the spending propensities in this direction of a population which has often been described as “amusement-mad” since the war. Possibly a little economy might be urged on the council rather than that it should seek revenue in this way to avert any decrease in the rate of expenditure. Equally questionable is the latest device of the council for advertising on the corporation trams, another form of amusement. No other plea than need of revenue can be urged as an excuse for' the astonishing mobile offence to the eye let loose in the streets this week, by the tramways department. The City Council can and does put its veto on many hoardings in our streets until it has this form of advertisement very well disciplined from most points of view. A recent episode in the Clyde-Cromwell Gorge illustrates how such a policy coincides with at least a section of public opinion. Yet the council itself breaks out in a stylo which moved some astonished spectators to levity and more to anger. Are these sporadic displays intended to remind ratepayers how enormous is the growth of municipal expenditure, involving resort to any and every means of turning an honest penny tc enable the city treasurer to make ends meet? The position can be sedately absorbed by perusal of Cr Clark’s iu some respects important speech in the Council Chamber last night on city finances. Ho reminded ratepayers that in the last ten years the valuations have gone up, the rates have gone up (from Is 9d to 2s Id in the £1), and the loan indebtedness-has gone up (from £250,448 to £930,470). In view of tho approach of the last quarter of the year, in which most people pay their rates, tho reminder was only necessary in the case of the thoughtless. Cr Clai’k seemed to bewail how largo a proportion ■of the proceeds of tho rates have to bo devoted to payment of loan interest to tho moneylender. This is an unusual form of gratitude to those citizens who have availed themselves of the cordial permanent invitation to invest in City 'Corporation debentures, besides being not in perfect harmony with tho perpetuation of that appeal. It may even be hinted that borrowing has become rather too easy for the City Corporation, and that, if it wore rather a more difficult process than selling scrip over tho counter, more,' effort might be made to get fuller value for expenditure. Indeed, it may not bo wide of the mark to insinuate that the diversion of investment money in this direction may have .been in part at tho cost of an industrial development which would have added to tho total rateable value of tho district and to the production which is tho source from which all rates and taxes are derived. - .