RATING VALUES.

Evening Star, Issue 21006, 21 January 1932, Page 8

RATING VALUES.

In a report which was placed before the City Council last night, based on the valuer’s assessments for the incoming civic • year, the town clerk submitted figures and comments that will attract immediate attention. The payment of rates, like other forms of taxation, is a burdensome duty at all times, but in periods of stress like the present the conscientious citizen finds it particularly embarrassing. The hard times that we are passing through are clearly indicated in Mr Lewin’s summary. The total rateable value of the city is shown as £1,342,703, a decrease of £24.539 on the figures for the current year. The authorities do not easily admit a decrease. Such a thing has not happened since 1899. In the thirty-two years that have elapsed a progressive increase in the rateable value of the city has been shown annually. Under these conditions, which applied fairly generally to the dominion, it is little wonder that local bodies, like the Government itself, were lulled into a sense of false security, which was reflected in their budgeting operations. Now a halt has been called as a result of financial, economic, and industrial conditions, and the tightest rein has to be kept on expenditure. According to Mr Lewin’s report new buildings and additions to existing buildings give an increase of only £8,749 in the total, which is a heavy shrinkage in comparison with past years. Decreases in rental values, impelled by depressed trading conditions, amount to a considerable sum. The significant fact that emerges is that if the rateable value of the city is maintained at £1,342,703 after the sitting of the Assessment Court, and the basic rate on property is fixed by the council at the same figure as last year, the corporation will suffer a decrease in its income of £5,500. In the circumstances there is only one path to follow —that of economy. The council has seen the necessity of this, and in the current year £14,000 has been saved on various economies, including the amount accruing from the 10 per cent, salary and wage reduction. That money was used, together with a spe al allocation from the trading accounts, in providing work for the unemployed up to March 31 of this year. If the council had not had the foresight to take this prudent course its financial position would have become acute, and an increase in the general rate for the year would have had to be imposed. Like the Government, the City Council has had to work on a diminishing income, with increasing demands because of the .stress caused by unemployment. The need for administrative economy is selfevident, for the only alternative would be to increase the rales, which under

existing conditions would produce results that would defeat the object desired. Property owners, because of the non-payment or belated payment of rents due to them, the trading community by reason of diminished returns, and a large section of the people not included in theso categories find the city dues an impost quite as much as they can carry, and it would need a much greater emergency than that which exists to justify an increase. Thrift and economy in the face of the problems that have to be met in 1932 Impose an obligation in civic administration that is occasioned by the unwelcome conditions that have arisen.