THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 1927. RATES AND LEVIES.
The report of the Finance Committee of the City Council, in conjunction with that of the Town Clerk, on the estimated income and expenditure for the current year, will be read with more interest than satisfaction by the ratepayers. An increase in rating is never welcome, and the sum and substance of the examination of the finances is that the ratepayers are to be called upon to pay an additional penny in the pound. If this is disappointing they will have to derive such consolation as they can from the fact that the administration of the general account has been attended with results that indicate ’ good judgment and careful procedure. As Mr Lewin lias suggested, the figures show a discreet adherence to the philosophy of Mr Micawber—which that gentleman was so utterly incapable of carrying into practice in his own transactions—in respect of living within one’s means. It is a fortunate upshot that it has been possible to reduce the general rate by a penny in the pound for the current year. Against that stands an increase of a halfpenny in the drainage rate, and an increase of a penny and a half in the hospital rate. The Drainage Board is involved in necessary works that arc entailing a somewhat heavy expenditure. “This can be met only by borrowed money,” observes the
Town Clerk, “it is being incurred at a rate which increases the yearly charges on the borrowing at a much greater pace than can be covered by the yearly accretions to the valuation of the city, and the only possible course is to obtain the increased income by an advance in the basic rate.” This is sufficiently conclusive, no doubt, and there is no particular solace in the thought that the position might be much more satisfactory to-day were it not for what Mi Lewiu characterises as “the pernicious method of finance' employed by the Drainage Board in the earlier years oi its existence.” The outstanding feature of the examination of the financial requirements is the revelation of increased hospital expenditure. An increase ol £8359 as compared with last year in the call made by the Hospital Board upon the ratepayers of Dunedin is certainly somewhat startling, representing as it does an advance of practically 4C per cent, upon the average figure at which the Hospital levy has stood duriug the past four years. The Hospital Board has apparently been adopting the Micawber practice rather than the Micawber philosophy. Last April the Board discussed the not unfamiliar question of an increase in the levy on local bodies, the ground for a proposal in that direction being that it had failed to make ends meet to the extent oi about £BOOO. The increase was not made and the local bodies breathed more freely. But that was only a postponement of the evil day. So far from redeeming its position, and wiping ofli the deficit of twelve months ago, the Hospital Board has made further financial Teeway. According to the Town Clerk, “apparently it spent during the current year at least £13,000 more than it rightly had to spend.” In view ol tho clear need for economy facing the Hospital Board when entering the financial year now ended such a result is not a matter for any congratulation. It is to be granted that in such. an institution as a public hospital it is essential that a high standard of efficiency should be maintained, but a suggestion that so long as a Hospital Beard gives the efficiency demanded the public does' not mind footing the bill will not quite reflect the actual position. Twelve months ago the Chairmau of tho local Hospital Board affirmed, vciy properly, that “tho greatest economy with efficiency” must be practised in various directions. It is unfortunate that the results do not afford evidence of success in the carrying out of that policy more calculated to please tho local bodies upon whose revenues tho. levy is made. In his address at the recent Hospital Boards Conference the Minister of Health commented upon the fact that hospital expenditure was still going up, but offered no very helpful suggestion respecting its possible curtailment, or the better adjustment of revenue to expenditure. But he did remark that money was spent to better purpose on prevention of disease than on remedial institutions. And wo may couple with that the recent observation by Sir James Barr, in his presidential address at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary, expressive of the hope that huge hospitals would soon be regarded ns relics of a decadent age. In tho meantime, however, the large public hospital holds its place as a stern necessity.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 20069, 8 April 1927, Page 8
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787THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 1927. RATES AND LEVIES. Otago Daily Times, Issue 20069, 8 April 1927, Page 8
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