DE-RATING OF FARMS

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1931, Page 7

DE-RATING OF FARMS

LOCAL BODIES OPPOSED

“NO ADVANTAGE IN PROPOSAL”

CURE WORSE THAN THE DISEASE

MOTOR TAXES WOULD BE DOUBLE

Little sympathy with the recent suggestions made by the Farmers’ Union that farm lands be de-rated and local body revenue made up by means of additional tax on benzine was expressed by Mr. J. S. Connett, chairman of the Taranaki Local Bodies’ Association at the meeting of that body yesterday. He said that while they were entitled to their opinions members of the Farmers’ Union often discussed the matter with insufficient knowledge of the position. He had, therefore, investigated the matter carefully and had asked his elerk to prepare figures relating to public bodies in New Zealand which he would quote. Theoretically the increase in benzine tax might be all right, but there were many other things to consider.

'Tor the year ended' March 31, 1929, there was collected in general rates for road construction: Counties, £1,693,032; road districts, £52,283; boroughs, £l,161,653; town districts, £60,611; making a total of £1,745,316 for rural districts and £1,222364 for urban districts, a grand total of £2,967,580 for the whole country. “There was collected from motorists for road construction and maintenance for the year ended March 31, 1930, the sum of £1,407,226, made up as follows: Duty on tyres and tubes, £155,722; registration fees and motor licenses, £378,135; petrol tax, £873,369. “It was quite apparent,” continued the chairman, “that this taxation would require to be increased over 100 per cent in order to abolish local body rating altogether. The petrol tax would have to be Is instead of 6d and then consumption would be immediately restricted. Moreover, the distribution of the tax revenue would present difficulty. At present there were 6651 miles of main highways and 3757 miles of secondary highways, and 25 per cent, of the petrol tax was earmarked for the secondary roads. For the year ended March 31, 1980, the Highways Board had contributed 72 per cent, of the cost of maintenance, and the local authorities 28 per cent. On secondary highways the board’s contribution last year amounted to £244,481 and that of the local authorities to £102,786, a total of £347,267. “The average cost per mile of maintenance of main highways had increased from £5l in 1924 to £l5l per mile for the year ended March, 1030. The higher standard of road had, of course, been largely responsible for the increase. The average cost of maintaining secondary roads last year was £BB per mile, an increase from £55 per mile for the previous year.”

OVERLAPPING OF AUTHORITIES.

Mr. Connett asked where was it possible to achieve savings in the internal workings of local \ bodies which would compensate for the loss of revenue under de-rating. He reviewed & number of items under which their chief expenditure fell, but was unable to see any great measure of reduction that could be made if roads were to be maintained at a progressive standard of efficiency. The speaker referred to the grqat multiplicity of local bodies as one source of unnecessary expense, / pointing out that there were 67'5 local 'bodies for the Dominion, added to which were 27 college and high school boards, 1125 domain and cemetery boards, and 2100 school committees, making a total of 3927. The 675 local authorities were constituted as follows: —Boroughs 119, counties 124, road boards 19, town boards 68, river boards 42, land drainage boards 63, water supply and city drainage boards 10, harbour boards 41, hospital boards 39, electric power boards 40, education boards 12, tramway "boards 3, fire boards 49, rabbit boards 4fi. “Assuming each board has an average of seven mem'bers we have 27,489 persons engaged in some form or other of local government, or one out of every 52 of the entire white population of the Dominion or, if we take the adult population, one in every IS persons, continued the chairman. “Our system of local government overlaps eight-fold in some instances. Take a county with a road board and town district. They are all levying rates off the same sections of ratepayers. On top of this along come other local government authorities exercising jurisdiction over this same area, viz., hospital boards, education boards, harbour boards, power ’boards and school committees, all of which have overhead management and election expenses. “Of the 124 counties in the Dominion 33 have a rate revenue of less than £6OOO per annum and whose administration expenses run from 10 to 144 per cent, of the revenue. Borough councils seem to be the worst in this respect. Of the 119 boroughs, 23 have a general rate revenue under £lOOO, and 27 between £lOOO and under £2OOO, and whose administration costs vary from 10 per cent, to 21 per cent, of their revenue. “It is quite apparent from the above figures that the multiplicity of local bodies is adding an increasingly heavy load on the ratepayers of the Dominion.

INCREASE IN LOCAL BODY LOANS.

“The rapid increase of interest and. other charges on local 'body loans is another factor that is adding a high ratio of overhead to local bodies’ revenues,” continued Mr. Connett. “The public debt of the Dominion increased from £24,608,293 in 1920 to £62,003,786 in 1920 (exclusive of Government loans;. This is an increase of 30 per cent, during the period under review. The total amount owing by the different local authorities on March 31, 1929, was:—i Counties Boroughs Town districts .001,10 a Road districts 287,550 Electric power 'boards 11,986,707 Harbour boards Other bodies 4,423,504

Total £62,003,786 Mr. Campbell: I quite endorse your remarks regarding de-rating. The cure of the disease is worse than the disease itself. , he In regard to the suggestion for tne elimination of overlapping local bodies members thought that amalgamation would not apply ’ with any advantage in Taranaki where the counties were all working on a most economical basis in road construction and maintenance. It was considered that there was actually better service in smaller areas and even if amalgamated it would not be possible to reduce the total overhead expenses to any great extent. Mr. Knuckey pointed out that they had obtained much better service-since the Eltham County was constituted separate from Hawera. Mr. Long congratulated the chairman cn tfee useful information. had pre-

sented regarding the de-rating question. In reply Mr. Connett said he was glad to know the information had been appreciated. He felt that it was [beneficial for local bodies to meet quarterly and oxchange views on the subjects which must be exercising them alb