TE AROHA SPRINGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 244, 15 October 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

TE AROHA SPRINGS

Prompt endorsement of the National i...penditure Commission’s reconimeudai.ou in regard to Te Aroha .Springs comes from Te Aroha itself. The commission suggested that this tourist resort should be handed over to the local authority or otherwise disposed of. The Mayor ot the town, Mr. K. Coulter, welcomes the proposal and says the Borough Council would quickly cut the losses and make the domain a good payable proposition. This spirit of enterprise is most refreshing, and the local authority is to be congratulated. Seeing that the citizens of Te Aroha bclicv. they can make a bettor job of management than the department has done, It is a great pity that local control was not instituted years ago, for the taxpayers have been bearing an annual burden of loss. J n 1929-30 the excess of expenditure over receipts was £1904 and in 1930-31 £2297. The figures given by the commission for these years arc £3220 and £3572, interest and perhaps a proportion of the administrative ™st of the department accounting for the differences. The department will be well nd of the Te Aroha Springs if it gains” nothing more than the annual deficit in Operating costs. The readiness of the local authority to take over the resort is in itself an indictment of State control. Although the commission says that T e Aroha Springs are now of local interest only, the Borough ouncil secs in them an asset capable under its own direction of brinffinx* great benefit to the town. No time I should, therefore, be lost by the Government in taking the necessary steps to relinquish the costly responsibility. New Zealand Herald.