The Timaru Herald. WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1920. THE SPENDING FEVER.

Timaru Herald, Issue 170269, 14 July 1920, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1920. THE SPENDING FEVER.

The pain professed by the Tiniaru Borough Council when a new turn of the rating- screw'to bringrevenue and expenditure into some sort of approximation was found to be required a 'few weeks ago has been soon forgotten by most of its members. Prom recent discissions of the municipal body one.niig-ht imagine that the majority of Councillors consider their first duty to be not to take care of the finances, in a time of abnormal difficulties and v:Varness, but to find new ways of spending* the public money/ the "more of it the better. If that is not regarded as a duty bv i heaverage Councillor it 'has ever*appearance of being- his dearest pleasure, and the joy might be indulged in without censure if the Council had Fortuna vis's purse to draw upon. It has not even the resources of the general Government, which for its own part, with .strong- reason, preaches economy as : a first need of. the times, and a glance at the proposals for expenditure which the Council has now before it must make people wonder where the process is expected to end. The fact that large additions to the borough's indebtedness threaten to be unavoidable only makes it more important" that expenditure on luxuries should i be shunned. To take the little programme which has already received the endorsement of the Council, though fortunately, the ratepayers will have a deciding voice before the money can be raised. First of all there is the suggested loan of £50,000 for improvement of the water works, including the enlargement of mains, in regard to which, the approval of the Council is conditional on an expert's report. . This may be essential, though, 1 except possibly at committee meetings, the matter has been very little discussed by the Council, and the public may quite well be in the position of knowing ! next to nothing about.the need. , Then there is the loan of £IO,OOO | for new buses, and few will deny that, for some years to come, the bus service must be maintained. The Council has offered £15,000 for the Maori Reserve, and a proposal to ask the sanction of ihe ratepayers for a loan of £BOOO for street widening lias been approved without any discussion at all. Then there is a loan of £SOOO proposed for the Electric Light and' Power Department, and £6OOO has been approved for expenditure on the Bay. A proposal for the .spending of £4OOO oii improvements at the Park, and Anzac Reserve has. been referred back to a, committee. The items enumerated make, a total of close on . £100,000,. and we are not sure that, the Council, may not double it when', it : has had time for a few more meetings.The spending. fever in. which Councillors [. find such enjoyment must be. : restrained. . This "is no time for it,' for", a .scored of;reasons, : of which, the ;state; of the. Council's "finances'' is' the -"-/ least." The rate's .have, justbeen.raised.to bring/the : revenue, ah-d' j

tare together, and increases made immediately thereafter in the: es. timates for expenditure ineaa. tnat, without new charges i'orinterest they will not nieet. this year it .the estimate's are followed/ and, on the expenditure side, they arc more likely to he exceeded than, underspent. Essential works must he prodded for, .' but the Council has taken no pains to distinguish immediately - essential works from those which can be postponed. It is a sad leflechon that the, fullest discussions at the Council frequently " appear to be those on the most trivial subjects, and if more in- • formation is not given about the most important of its loan proposals, the ratepayers will be in danger of 'throwing' them out when the polls are taken, at the same time that thev reject the expense of luxuries. If 'next year's rates, and those of future years, are not a consideration to some Councillors, thev will be to those who will have to pav them. We can wait for asphalt fool - ' paths at the Bay till the Council iias the money to provide them/ out of revenue, and improvements there to the value of £6OOO would-be simply grotesque extravagance. The equipment of the -Bay is not behindhand. Its completeness is the surprise and admiration of larger cities.'" We pity the poor modern'child—and it is for children- that a special soncitude is expressed—blase beiore lus time, who cannot thereen joy himself, with a spade and a bucket and a bathing suit," the* delights afforded by nature and * the extras already provided. He can only be an exception to "the run.of children; he is not. surely, an ideal which Councillors would ' like to develop. The Council at this stage very easily can vulgarise the Bay: it will.not be so easy for it to improve it. As to the proposed expenditure' at the Park, if the Council would be permitted to build gates -with concrete pillars there at the present time, when cement and building labour are all required for houses, the Government's permit system must be of little ' value. Spending should .be a pain now to the Council. .If it . wants refinements, it should save some money for them, and avoid new burdens for the which can be avoided. - No"one rknows what times are ahead, the Council can always spend enough, and its duty now. is. to set "an example of economy. Its members were not elected in a difficult time to find means of frittering the finances, but to conserve them. • - A BEVEBSAL OP POLICY.

Little attention has been given to what ought logically to be 'the chief signincance ot Mr Mac-' Donald's vote on -Mr Stathani's motion, though the •*Doiniiiioh JJdeals with the point. In accord-: ance with precedent the motion was.treated as one of no-confid-ence, but in itself it expressed the principle thut the Ministry should be elected either by the House or b3* the dominant party 1 The two systems would be liable to be much, the same in practice.. By voting- for this motion Mr McDonala and eleven of his followers, making a majority of the Liberal Party, declared tiieir be T lief, in this very questionable reform. Mr Mac Donald . may have been converted to system against which- he voted, logether with Mr Statham and 2.Lr Seddon, present supporters,, when the last previous division was taken on it in 1912. If so", it would be interesting to know what has caused him. to change his mind. A more- interestingquestion, however, is whether Liberal Party now considers itself pledged to the elective txe-. cutive as an article of its polie-v. Wthen the Bill of 1912, to give, effect to .this idea, was brought down in the House, its second , reading was only defeated by one - vote, but the division was not on party lines, and Sir Joseph "Wai<J. : the former leader of the Libera* Party, was one of its most: pi Or, nounced opponents. Sir Joseph expressed his that, with, an elective executive there would be more intriguingin connection with the' formation of a Ministry than it was possible to imagine otherwise. The system would not get rid of pariy.' It would" "simply be jumping out of the frying pan into ?lie. . fiie." If Mr Mac Donald -rver gets into power, w_ill the majority of Liberals". ..wlio voted with him, commit his. party to that jump? . It is unfortim- % _ ate that the elective executive was hardly discussed ...at nil m last week's debate. Mr MacDonald had nothing to say on. iU