The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1920. ROTORUA

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10716, 9 October 1920, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1920. ROTORUA

Swiftly has th© truth .followed prediction. After the T© Aroha surrender to freehold bluff, we predicted a deluge sweeping away all public property in endowments, with the town of Rotorua first of the submerged. The prediction was made on Thursday, and tb© sub- : merging of Rotorua was, with th© debate on that tragic event, reported on Friday. How soon the whole body of endowments is to follow is a mere question of time. Th© thing that matters is the certainty of the seizure. About that there dan be no doubt. The remainder bulk offers some case.to the vine-and-fig-tree argument. A* these two townships have fallen victims to the bogus pretence of the vine and figtree, the fate of'all public endowments ia sealed. Nothing hut an uprising of public opinion can save them. But what chance is there of that? The attack on Rotorua was preceded by the usual plea of insistence on the part of the leaseholders. The Rotorua leaseholders, like those of Te Aroha, want it, just as much as burglar wanted the lady’s diamonds. Th© burglarious plea was also supported by the statement that the leaseholder was hampered by insecurity of tenure and other inconveniences of his situation. Let us examine this plea. The Rotorua leases are for 99 years; they date from 1883;' and the rent remains the same from th© first day of the lease to the last. And this happy state of things there is nothing to disturb. Nobody can raise the rent on the sections, except in the case of a few education endowments; there is no liability for loans for any purposes; there is even, with a small exception, no rating. The exception is a trinity of small rates—for the library, ,firo prevention, and charitable aid —the latter collected by the Waikato Hospital Board. The'town’s revenue consists of the ground rents, ranging from £4 to £lO per quarter-acre section. Think of these rents at the starting dates, 1883, and think of the gold-mine they can become, and have become in some instances, by process of sub-letting, and judge how much the poor leaseholders are hampered. This revenue aggregates about £IBOO a "year, and it is supplemented by half the revenue from certain baths, amounting to .£llOO a year. Think of this bath revenue, and then -think of the gracious announcement of the commander of the army camouflaged under the broad leaves of the vino and fig-tree, unduly stretched to cover a rotten position, that there is no" intention to take the springs. Why, some of the valuable yield of the springs is taken already, and this Rotorua transaction lives and moves and has its being in an atmosphere of precedent. How much of. the valuable part of the springs will remain in the hands of the Crown in ten years? How much in twenty? How much in fifty? Before answering, remember that in this peculiar atmosphere precedent moves with increasing force. The point is that any demand for somebody else’s property has only to ho insistent to ho successful. Throw the light of a certain complaint now actually hoard. It is that this £3900 of annual revenue ia fixed, while the requirements for maintenance, repair, and formation of streets are growing. The complaint is a finger pointing to the annexation some day of the whole of tho revenue from the springs. As the approaches to tho springs are given away to tho new freeholders, what will prevent these from exacting conditions to suit themselves? But, it is urged, their sections will then, being freehold, bo ratable. Of course, but will they be rated? And, if rated, will the rating bo adequate? All we know for certain at present is that public property has been taken

out of tenderness for the leaseholder, who is exceptionally well off. Here is a town which possesses a fine electric light installation, a splendid water supply, and a drainage sys-' tem partly up to date- —in the inner area—and soon to be wholly so. These are gifts from the Government. Moreover, a vast expenditure has been incurred to attract visitors to Rotorua as the sanatorium of the Pacific world, to the incalculable advantage of the town; and the Parliament has just been reminded of the imminence of further expenditure up to a quarter of a million. And yet we are asked to believe that the citizens of this favoured place, living at low rents not changeable for a century, free from all rating, except for three small matters —library, fire prevention, and charitable and hospital aid—with a substantial help from outside to their general town revenue, are in a most unenviable plight. We are asked to believe that they are so harassed and oppressed by the leasehold system that they are paupers quite unable to improve their holdings to meet the requirements of a great visiting population attracted to the spot without a penny of local co-operation. Therefore, w© are asked to approve of relieving these paupers by giving them the State property on which they live. The argument, surely, points the other way. These people have not don© their duty by the sections they are privileged to hold cheaply. It was naturally understood that they would justify the privilege by building a city fit to receive the myriads of visitors brought by the Government—the city which the Government supplied with the primary utilities. Instead of getting the freehold, these people ought to forfeit the sections. But they insist on the freehold, and they are getting it. Wo are, further, asked to believe that, when they get th© freehold, which they have neglected in spit© of the absurdly easy terms of holding, they will be enoour. aged by the more difficult conditions—of interest charges greater than the ground rents, and the liability to general and other rates—to build at once and sumptuously. Transparencies do not command the beliefs of reasonable men. The only thing they can believe is that the radical change at Rotorua will encourage speculation in the Rotorua town- lands.

But the freehold, we are told, is not being given away. On the contrary, it will he sold at its full present value. Auction might have brought that about, but about valuation—well, the lees said about it the better. But, even if the> full present value is .obtained, the injustice to the community remains. This Rotorua is a growing centre. The ground of its houses will increase greatly in value; there will be a time—it is perhaps in sight even now—when every pound of present value will he worth between fifty and a hundred. With the huge Government expenditure and the growing thousands of visitors, all prodigal spenders of money, the prospective values of Rotorua must bo very large. They ought to be kept for recouping the great expenditure of the nation. They are going into the pockets of a few individuals for no particular reason, except that they want it. Rotorua was planned on State lines, because no municipal authority could have mad© a great sanatorium out of the great national assets around the place, or ought to have been asked to do so. Rotorua grew up under the State, rather as a collection of houses for visitors to com© to than a city developed by local means under municipal government, and was assisted and set going by the State i accordingly. We have now the glaring fact that, still without placing the responsibility on municipal shoulders, municipal principles are invoked to give valuable public property to individuals, while the State adds to the value by huge expenditure. Rotorua was intended as the handmaid of the sanatorium. It is being transformed into its vampire. One reason advanced is that the properties cannot bo rated until they are given away. Then how is it that they are - now rated for libraries, fire prevention, and charitable aidP