MUNICIPAL BUSINESS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 32, 7 February 1941, Page 4

MUNICIPAL BUSINESS

the current year the local body elections will be held, and the question of popular representation on these important bodies will have to be decided. A very large sum of money has been spent in and around Wanganui, but very little has been said about the value of the work which has been achieved. The public is entitled to be informed as to how much Governmental and municipal money has been spent, how much is now being spent, and how much it is pioposed to spend in the future. There is a general feeling that an unwillingness exists on the part of those responsible for the City’s management to-day to discuss the amounts which have been spent on the various works in the City and adjacent thereto. There is a belief sustained by general observation, that if the money which has been spent had been used wisely, and the administration had been efficient, Wanganui to-day could be the City Beautiful. Has a splendid opportunity to improve the City been missed? Until it is known what money lias been spent it is not easy to say that it has, but the tempo of the work done, and now being done, is very substantial evidence that municipal incompetence has cost Wanganui very dearly.

It is not enough to say that the Government is providing the major portion of the money so spent. The Government is not doing anything of the kind—the taxpayer is providing the money—and all that the Government docs is collect the money and distribute it. Nor can it be said that by such a process does the Government “create” work, for it does nothing of the kind: all it does is to change the channel of demand from what the public would ask for if left to decide for themselves, and compels them to accept park stones instead of bananas and crockery and furniture and clothing.

Seeing that the present policy deprives the public of their spending power, in order to provide the money which the Government spends in conjunction with the municipalities, the public has a right to know how that money has been spent. The Mayor and the City Council of Wanganui has now had ample time in which to prepare such information, and this should now be forthcoming. The ratepayers should press for the immediate release of this information.