Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, APRIL 15, 1907. THE NELSON MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 15 April 1907, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, APRIL 15, 1907. THE NELSON MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

THE CITIZF.NS AND THEIR AFFAIR!}.. A GOOD deal of iiitei-pH (jejjtrgg in the coming municipal giection§ for flip city. Two or thiee public meetings have been held. A "vote of censure" (jas been carried at one of them against the majority in the Council ; at another some of the majority censured have replied ; tiiid there has heen active enrolment of those entitled to vote who had not got on the rolls, J}u{, unless some disposition is shown by candidates to come forward and endeavour to take the places of thoso who have been criticised and condemned by a section of the community, the constitution of th(> Council may be very little changed duiir.a the next two years. The nominations close oil Thursday. It is expected that two of the present Council will not seek election. So far only two or three nei;. n;an,didatns are definitely inthe field. Unless there bjsp mor-j forthcoming — four or five or more — the electors will have little range of choice, and the deplorable disunion that has caused Nelson lo fall into a condition of municipal paralysis and humiliating discord may continue for a pefiod sufficiently long to counter-balance the benefits progress and prosperity have endeavoured to bring. It jg lhe duty of the citizens to come forward, oven at a sacrifice, to look after their own affaire. There should be no lack of suitable candidates if there be real dissatisfaction with the existing conditions iv tho Council. If such suitable candidates hold back, afid permit the present Council to bo reconstituted virtually without material change in personnel, then one may ask whether hostile but resultless criticism at public meeting and street corner is worth while. While fche attention of the ratepayers has been diverted to more or less minor matters — engineering disagreements, amateur interference, apd sqnahbles between a majority and a minority in the Council— the real dangers with which the city is confronted are apt to be obscured. A glance at the Corporation balance-sheets wjll show that although . the revenue from jpates gives an increase of nearly £2000 for the year, the increased expenditure has more than counter-balanced this gain. The expenditure on road maintenance has gone up steadily during the past six or eight years till it is fully a third more than in the past. Last year';) amount is especially high, but the special increment may be regarded as nonrecurring. There is also a heavy charge ioy f^j sanitary services with a reduced credit, ag collection of fees has now virtually ceased— ;i pogpn£ reason why the drainage works should Jie pushed on with expeditiously, instead of being quarrelled over at each minor step. Tho rates, taken collectively, amount to about 3s iv the £, which is as hjgjl as they can be if property values are '/ity fg fecgde. To this must be added Bd'Tor 'drajpage j \m\. against this must be credited" the c.e^satjioh ty the payment <" sanitary foes, which, 'at an average of _Jd a $yeek for each service, counts appreciably'}?) tj.p year's total contributions to the rates, 'fhe basis, therefore, may be ' taken at 3s ld in the £. Over 400 new houses have been erpefed in and around the city in recent yeara, and thfly h.ve all helped to increase the revenue of tt.e oorpoj-iition. Under normal conditions' of bfl- round re-assessment on the Ijasis of improved values, betterment, and increased building the city should have had revenue enough to meet all requirements on a basis of 2s lOd or 3s in tho & rateaßo, anß thafc without recourse to overdraft. Instead, the overdraft has gone perilously near its legal limit, amounting to £19,000 from about £3000 oi- £4606 in tko currency of relatively very few years. Obviously the city cannot afford to entertain any proposal to increase the rates. Already those with fixed aiyl more or less limited in.cgmeip who ?aroe here to reside have

just cause for alarm, and it would-be i calamity if they were driven away, s pi- if their kind were deterred from A -..eking a home here. pppppppptpp*** It should" be the duty of the new i Council to set itself to the task of readjusting rates with the intention of lowering them. This might he done in a variety of ways, and better administration and supervision would greatly assist towards the end in view. At present the "Corporation Stroke" under the day labour system is responsible for a large percentage of leakage. There seems to be the loosest superintendence of men working on the outskirts of the city. Corporation hands ' have been seen in a condition into which they could not possibly have fallen had they been doing their work properly in working hours. It is common "chaff" at street corners that when one man goes out with a pick and shovel it requires two men to follow him and hold him up when "that tired feeling" comes over him. Often, when three men and a horse and cart are at "work" most of the time seems to be spent in smoking and chatting with passers-by, wth short intervals for rest and refreshment — just to take the kink out of the back through long sitting — by means of a little healthy exercise with a pick. Putting aside exaggerations, however, it is obvious that Corporation labour has fallen into a loose and idle way, and the loss to the ratepayers through the proverbial ''stroke" must be considerable year in and year out. ****** Then an appreciable saving, at least more equitable adjustment, might be effected by a fair all-round re-assess-ment, by placing the gasworks on a more business-like footing, and by making the Abattoir entirely self-sup-porting. W 7 ith regard to re-assessment, the general ratepayer has the right to ask why he shou)d be burdened directly or indirectly with a three farthings in the £ rate on the tramway loan of about £1200. It will be remembered that tiie old tramline, from the Port to the junction of Hardy and Trafalgarstreets, virtually lessened the width of the roadway between the points named by several feet. Owing to the weakness of past Councils in failing to insist on the line being properly maintained each rail stood in a trench, traffic across t-be rails wajj next to impossible at many points, and the boundary of the street width was practically the off rail instead of the footpath. At the time the loan was advocated it was pointed out that the districts concerned, by betterment, should bear the whole charge on the rates, and this was tacitly promised. But instead of the betterment assessment enabling ths Council to make the interest and sinking fund a charge on the general rate, a three farthings rate was n»d is being collected from all ratepayers. Now, taking the value of Hardy-street frontages improving by £1 10s a foot, Wai-mea-street frontages by £1 to 15s a foot, Haven-road frontages by 10s a foot, and port frontages by 15s a foot In consequence of the road-width being 1 increased by eight or ten feet, 6ui'ely thore should have Been enough betterment value on re-assessment to meet all charges on the tramway loan from an I unincreased general rate. The tramway I loan rate has been merged in the general rate by increasing the latter — merely hidden out.of sight by it. #*#*»'* * * . > Of the need of plaejng the gasworks . on a businesslike footing we have written ofton. The time has come for the [ appointment of a separato manager, and for the running of the concern, as a purely business enterprise. As Cr. Hampson has shown, no private firm or company could have financed the gasworks ,as the Corporation has done p and escaped bankruptcy. Other gas . iwiiipanjes in ihe colony pay handsome- , ly, and many of them charge no more • to the consumer than is done in Nel- , Son. Why, then, should the works . hero be a drag on the ratepayers rather than a means of easing the rates? Finally there is tho Abattoir. The loau for the establishment of that institution was also obtained on the tacit 3 pledge that it should be self-supporting, 3 if, indeed, not another profit-earning __• eoncei'n. But what are the facts? A f portion of the rates has to to be set a asido yoarly to meet a deficit between __, , outgoings and earnings, and yet the ' fees are less than at any othor abats toir in the colony.' The alleged extra . cost to the butchers who were deprived of their dreadful slaughter-houses was = promptly passed on to the consumer. Why should the consumer now have to (jiy from a portion of his rates for the inaintei)ancu j|j part of ai) instjtus tutlon whose books have shown a steady past and present increase in animals slaughtered there? Then, again, whoro monpy might be made out of by-products the latter aro simply thrown away, and all the talk of setting up a dessicating plant has come to nothing. If the City "Council had set itself to consider and settle these matters of administration instead of wasting time in futile wrangling and discord, more than the extras spent on _ drainage works might have been saved. ***** ; TJu iisiic fhaj- t).;u7rfir.ts the ratepay--3 ers an;!' (iops'eho|_e'rs 'generally bet.w^en i now ailii next Thursday is that while i- "new b! pod" js eagerly desired iii the - City Cr.i'iicil, many desirable and s.lit- - able eitii-:.is are holding back and de- > dining to take their share in civic adi ministration. Unless some of these ; com£ forward, there will be no range ) of choice, op at least thgre will be little I benefit from selection. If municipal > control be left to the "survival of tht t unfit," if the electors be merely hosI tlio and carping critics of (.hose who . do como forward, it stainis to reason I that municipal administratUm will reI main inefficient. Lot the colors look :• to it between now and Thursday that > at least some representative candidates ■ affording a measure of selection are in--5 ( due..d to offer themrelves as members I of the new Council. If all the talk of the last few months is to end in noi thing, if the relations between the mi- - nority and the majority in the Council - aro to remain strained to deadlock i point for a further period of two year* s or so, the citizens must not bo surprised 5 j fstagnation, even retrogression, in pros perty values Bet ill, It is to their , own affairs they are exhorted to ultond. ) The rest is in their hands — and as i business men they should duly look af- > ter their owu interests instead of releF gating control to those for whom they | have not a good word. I ■ - -.-:-,--=