THE TENURE IN ROTORUA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17148, 30 April 1919, Page 6

THE TENURE IN ROTORUA

The proposal of the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce that the Crown tenants should be allowed to acquire the freehold of their sections and undertake all the responsibilities of a municipal charter may appear, in view of the circumstances, as evidence of a highly developed civic spirit. The land of the town is owned by the State, its affairs are administered by State officials, furnished with funds from the public purse, and its inhabitants pay only £1800 in rents and some £500 in rates f' r hospital, library, and fire brigade. The town presents an example, unique in the British Empire, of nationalisation of land and public services, yet the desire for local control of its affairs and individual ownership of its lands has been repeatedly renewed. Under the constitution of 1907— abolished the dual control of a council representing the State and the inhabitants, and vested the management of the town solely in the Tourist Department—provision is made for the maintenance of streets and footpaths by the reservation of all ground rents, half the fees taken at certain baths, and the revenue from registration and license fees. These sums amount to approximately £5000 a year, and as the rents of the Crown leaseholds are fixed, the local residents are faoed with the peculiar position that for some 75 years the town will have a fixed revenue for municipal needs, though those needs will increase. They complain that already the available fund is inadequate, and added to this is a, longstanding dissatisfaction with departmental administration" of municipal affairs. The widespread objection to the leasehold tenure is confirmed in Rotorua by the difficulties that have arisen through the subdivision of the original sections, without provision ,for the adaptation of the tenure to present conditions. A Royal Commission in 1914 made a sympathetic report on the proposals in regard to the option of freehold and the development of local government, but the question is greatly complicated by the fact that the town relies on the tourist traffic, and that the maintenance of that traffic depends to a considerable extent upon a large annual expenditure by the Government. The problem, however, will become more pressing, and while the scheme formulated by the Chamber of Commerce seems to estimate too lightly the Slate's interests, it is probable that some means will have to be found to strengthen the municipal finances of the town and to concede a more secure tenure to the inhabitants. In view of the large investments of public money in electric lighting, water supply, drainage, and other services, the transfer of the administration to local interests would involve financial adjustments of con- , siderable difficulty. 17 the ne-jph' uf Rotorua. are, prrpjired In iinuVrtflkc J the financial obligations thus involved, their claims are entitled to careful an(3 sympathetic consideration.