A RIYER TOWN'S TROUBLES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27272, 24 December 1949, Page 8

A RIYER TOWN'S TROUBLES

Sir,—The burden of over-taxation under which the residents of the Balclutha Borough are now labouring, chiefly through the impositions of the River Trust and the Catchment Board rating, bid fair to be lifted now that the Catchment Board has decided to absorb the River decision it should have come to~much earlier, before the current * year’s rates were levied. The River Trust rating has constituted a frightful anomaly from the beginning some 10 years ago, Inasmuch as the extra territorial tax was levied on only a part of the borough, namely the Flat, on which the business section stands. That has been the milk cow for the trust, which has been run by farmers from the Island of Inchclutha.

The legislation that gave rise to the anomalous position was framed at the instance of Mr Parry, the then Minister for Internal Affairs, and it showed a striking want of knowledge of human nature and the ways of men when it comes to spending other people’s money. Mr Semple, Minister of Public Works, to his credit, did try to remedy matters and promised that when the Catchment Board for Otago was formed it would take over the River Trust, lock, stock and .barrel, and close the secretarial office in Balclutha. Now, tardily, the Catchment Board is going to do something about It, according to the latest reports. The Act under which the River Trust was born was inherently bad in that it provided for anly one representative from / Balclutha, . and In consequence he has been In an absolute minority all these years, and'Balclutha has reaped no benefit from the Trust, except the doubtful one of having the river rises In flood time greatly magnified through the operation of the “ datum line" and 72-foot rises above normal cabled throughout the world, so that in some countries to this day the people believe that there is now no Balclutha, only a ruined waste, as If an atomic bomb had exploded over the Mplyneux Valley Mine was as a “ voice in the wilderness’! protesting agalnst-isuch foolishness.—l am, etc., . Old Timer.-. Balclutha.