NO INCREASE IN RATES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23996, 20 June 1941, Page 6

NO INCREASE IN RATES

A prurient beginning in (he handling of civic finances has been made by the, new City Council in its decision to adopt the recommendations made by the Mayor, Mr. Allum, for avoiding any increase in rates during the current financial year. The ideal, of course, would lie to lighten the demands on the ratepayers in order that financial strength might be conserved for war purposes, but the Mayor, in his budgetary review, has been able to show that an increase in costs, arising chiefly from salaries, wages and materials, by far outweighs the reduction of £6148 in the hospital levy and the credit balance of £22, Ml carried forward from last year. Indeed, the total additional net. expenditure arising from increased costs is estimated at £58,324 and it is only by

a cutting of the various departmental votes to the extent of £36,000 that an increased demand on the ratepayers has been avoided. As Mr. Alium says, every possible saving should be made in expenditure, and it is an indication of the top-heavy costs structure which obtains throughout the Dominion that the considerable civic savings effected this year will be sufficient only to stabilise the rates. Further avenues of economy may have to be explored in the future, for one of the greatest responsibilities devolving upon municipal administrators is that they should so conserve their finances and so plan their future activities that they will be in a position to play their full part in absorbing labour on useful services during the postwar period of reconstruction.