CANBERRA’S HANDICAP.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 20 June 1928, Page 4

CANBERRA’S HANDICAP.

LARGE BI LL Full INTEIIEST. A WRITING DOWN PROPOSAL. Australians' are not feeling, too sure about tneir new capital, Canberra. Tne assertions a sliort time ago that Canberra was going througli a period 01 siiiinp appear to ha.e been weil .iusti.ieu, e en th ugh they may ha.e been a Lttie Ail the land, is lie.d under leasehold tenures, and the

. aluatioiis are unduly higti, made high oy the leasehoide.s' theinseLes, who willingly onered large sums because, no doubt an impression that Canberra itould develop more rapiuly than has -ecu the case.

Many leaseholders are forfeiting their leases rather than comply with the building covenant. Because of high rents and the high cost of living as well as the inconveniences of the place, C anberra is unpopular with the civil servants, and few people other than civil servants have been attracted to it. The costs of establishing t'he city have been enormous, and proposals are being fairly generally made tor a wholesale writing down of values. Mr. A. It. Townsend, an accountant, who has evidently given a great deal of consideration to the position oi the capital, says that the governing commission has bad no chance of running the capital on a businesslike basis. By the end of this year, he says the liability of the commission will have reached £9,(X)3,(X)0, on which interest will be payable at the rate of 4 per cent. The commission will, therefore, have about £450,000 to pay in interest upon its liability. Allowing that, ov the end of the year, there are <3OOO adults in the capital, they would have to be taxed at the .rate of £l5O a year, o“ £3 a week, to meet the debt.

COMMISSION’S BIG BURDEN. It was not the fault of the commission, says Mr. Townsend. The cost of tin Cotter dam for the water supply, for instance, had been transferred to the commission. That work was done 15 years ago, and the headworks alone cost £250,000. Over 15 years, during which the dam was unproductive, live accumulated compound interest amounted to £50,000. The commission was burdened with that big charge and who was to pay it other tban the public servants Y

Mr. Townsend said that the reduction of house and land values would have to be made under ordinary competitive economic conditions in any city. It would have to be done sooner or later in Canberra unless the commission or the Government was prepared always to have empty houses on its hands. The cost of the national capital over and above the present normal cost in a first-class inland town should be borne by Australian generally, and not by an insignificant minority' oi them. There were precedents galore for writing down the values of a city. Trading concerns had no hesitation in writing down values whenever the need arose. EMPTY SHOPS AS DWELLINGS.

The Coxiimoinvealth Government wrote down the value of its steamers and also the value of the war service homes, Mr. Townsend remarked. The writing olt of fictitious values made no difference to the real value of the assets. To illustrate his argument, Mr. Townsend said that shop sites in one of the suburbs which brought £IGOO to £I2OO in I&2T were now rated on a value of £2500 to £3OOO. Householders in- Canberra, were being asked to pay just about twice as much in rates as they would have to pay for similar hoiiscs in Melbourne. Many more public servants in Melbourne have become agitated because of the threat of an early transfer to Canberra. There is no housing accommodation in Canberra for the majority of them, and the commission is converting empty shops into temporary flats. Naturally, civil servants do not like the idea of giving up comfortable homes in Melbourne for such conditions. Another obstacle to their peace of mind of those who own their own homes is the fact that they must sell their property in a very dull real estate market in Melbourne.