DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 174, 24 July 1929, Page 6

DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE

FINANCIAL SUPPORT ASKED CITY COUNCIL HEARS DEPUTATION. A deputation from the Wanganui and district Development League waited on the City Council last evening seeking financial support. The outcome was a resolution referring the application to the finance committee for favourable consideration. A letter was read outlining the aims of the League and stressing the fact that other councils, such as Invercargill and Christchurch, made contributions to Leagues in existence in those centres. Invercargill, it was stated, made a subscription of £llO. The letter also pointed out that the League was aware that Parliament would have to sanction authority before local bodies could subscribe.

On behalf of the deputation, Mr John Coull said that the League knew that they had the Council’s moral support; now the wanted their financial support. A capable organising secretary would have to be found a good man, who would have to be paid commensurate with his ability. The City Council had problems, Mr Coull continued, and it was felt that when the League got ahead it would help the Council to solve them. They knew Wanganui was all right and the future was all right. The ccuntry behind the city was second to none. The League represented all shades of public opinion. “We want your support to help us solve your problems,” Mr Coull concluded.

Cr J. Robertson said that, personally he believed in a Development League and he felt that everything they had done and intended to do was for the benefit of the city and the district. But there was a depression beind felt. He would ask his hearers to recall the recent industrial conference when evidence was taken from workers and employers and professors of economics had given opinions One professor, to big knowledge, had stated that the depression in the country was not due to high wages but to inflated land values. His (Cr. Robertson’s) opinion was that the land values were solely due to the activities of private land agents, or as he would call them, “land boosters,’* men who boosted the land not for the people or the country but for their own private gein. These men were licensed, the speaker went on, and they were legally entitled to carry out their work, but what he wanted to know was whether the cutting up of land, as proposed by the League, would mean that private land agents would handle it, or did they believe that the State should attend to that!

Mr Coull, replying, said that the areas to be cut up would be submitted to the Government and if the price was right then the Government would take them. There was no intention to have land agents. The Hon. G. W. Forbes had said that he would thank the League for bringing information of the land before the Government.

Mr J. Siddells said as far as the League was concerned it was far from their minds that land agents should act. Communications for the Government would go direct to the head of the Government and all for the City Council would go direct. Mr F. Webb-Jones a'dded that a deputation had waited on the Hon. Forbes and the secretary of the Lands Department and the very question raised by Cr. Robertson had come up then. The Minister and th© Secretary said that they would welcome the League. Cr. J. J. Scott asked if the councillors were in any danger of being “flogged.” if he might use that word, if they rose to the occasion and spent some of the ratepayers’ money. He recollected that one of the speakers had castigated the City Council for not exercising economy. Of course he realised he was not there in his official capacity. There was a danger, Cr. Scott continued. He might support £llO as Invercargill gave, but he had a neighbour who had had no footpath for 40 years and £llO would just about give him as good a footpath as he could wish to have.

Mr Webb-Jones replied that he thought the ratepayers would support the Council in such a matter. The chief aim in the League was land settlement and every house that went up meant more work for the carpenter, the plumber, the bricklayer, the painter. The Mayor said it was a question of ways and means and the matter was referred to the Finance Committe for favourable consideration. Mr Coull thanked the Council for its indication of support.