The Evening Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1934. SAVE THE GARDENS.

Evening Star, Issue 21821, 10 September 1934, Page 8

The Evening Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1934. SAVE THE GARDENS.

The first thing to be noted about tomorrow’s issue is that it is not a proposal to abolish rates. In their latest literature—unsigned—some promoters of the poll have come very near to suggesting that. Their imaginations run riot in the concoction of bribes meant to appeal to everyone, or almost everyone. The fact is, of course, that the same amount of rates must be collected under either system. If A’s are to be lessened it can only be at B’s expense, and nobody can say with any certainty beforehand who will be A and who will be B. If suburbs are to be eased at the central area’s expense, there is an old story of the belly and the members.

The other members of the body resolved to starve the belly, which they said took toll of all of them and did nothing in return. But when they oppressed the belly they found that they all suffered with it. In the same .way the health of the business area of a city necessarily affects all its parts. The central area has been having its own troubles. Many firms still are employing staffs in excess of their actual business requirements. If their business is made more costly, many of these “ extras ” must be put off. 01> viously it is no time to increase unemployment or to add to the cost of necessaries. The suburbs would pay immediately for so doing.

From the standpoint of theory, the advantage lies altogether, in Dunedin’s circumstances, with the present system. It is no use forcing building faster than it is required. More is being done now to help building than any c ;er industry. No system of taxation can ever be popular. But the man who pays on his annual, or rental, values pays most nearly in accordance with his ability to pay and in accordance with the services that are received by him. There is no doubt that the unimproved system conduces to jerry-building and the congestion of bouses, ft discourages guldens, In a city like Dunedin that

should be sufficient by itself to condemn - it.

By a decision that has just been reached, “ Melbourne, the Garden City,” is the title to he adopted in all forms of Centenary advertising. “It is felt.” ran a report of the Publicity Committee, “ that Melbourne [which is not rated on the unimproved system] is quite entitled to be called the Garden City, and if the expression is used freely during the celebrations the name may remain for all time.” “ Our England is a Garden,” reads the first line, in largest type, of a propagandist journal designed to attract tourists to Great Britain. Dunedin also is a city of gardens, and her people should be vigilant to preserve them. They will do that best by taking the greatest care to vote to-morrow against a real danger.

We have no fear that more than a small porportion of the ratepayers, allured by a fetish or charmed once again by honeyed words, will troop after the mayor, like another Pied Piper, to-morrow to cast their votes for a subversive fancy; but the danger lies in the apathy of the rest. No citizen who believes in gardens or would think it folly to play uncertain tricks with the financial system of his city at a time when it is just recovering from grave difficulties can afford to take the result for granted. Almost invariably, when the unimproved system has been adopted, it has been on small polls, when most of the ratepayers were asleep. In Wellington it was carried by 1,261 votes to 591; in Christchurch by 596 to 512. The Dunedin poll, by which it was heavily rejected only three years ago, was the ' largest that had ever been taken. But that poll had advantages: it was combined with voting for all the local bodies’ elections, which made it certain that there would be a representative vote. To-morrow, with only one issue, leaves more room for carelessness. But the issue is important enough to make it a duty for every ratepayer (which term includes wife) to turn out to vote. For the best good of this city the proposal to change should not only be defeated; it should be' defeated with such an emphasis as will cause the expense and trouble of contesting it again to be avoided for much more than the minimum time.