The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1945. WANGANUI RATES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 270, 15 November 1945, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1945. WANGANUI RATES

THE decision of the Wanganui City Council not to call a public meeting at present to discuss the rating question in Wanganui was the right one. No public meeting should be called until the council Jias a plan to reduce the rates. Everybody in Wanganui knows the rates are high. Publicising the fact, discussing the past at a public meeting, bemoaning the present, none of these things will get the rates down. This problem is one which docs not affect Wanganui alone. The incidence of local body rating is becoming a burden all over New Zealand, and the increasing pressure of that burden is added to by rising costs. Every hour less work done, every penny more paid in wages, every step taken to better the lot of men and women must be paid for, and the issue in Wanganui is very little more pressing than it is anywhere in the Dominion. If the city of Wanganui was a privately-owned business, its directors would be careful to see that each department paid its way. If it failed to pay, then it would cease to operate, because the resources of private individuals would not run, each year and every year, to losses. But the civic body corporate differs from tlie private firm, in that it has power to strike rates and make up for loss of consumer revenue. But that does not impart to the council a duty less onerous than that of the directors of a private company. In fact the ease with which a council can raise revenue should make its duty even more exacting than that of a board of directors of a private firm. It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that the city should look to its councillors for some lead as to how the rating problem should be dealt with. It is true one suggestion has already been made-—that the system, on which rates arc levied be changed; but that will have one effect—it will take a burden from the shoulders of one section and place it on the shoulders of others. It will not reduce the total which is required for financing the essential undertakings in the city. What other ways are there of reducing rates? First, is the obvious, sometimes very much debated method of dispensing with services which, no matter how well they are appreciated, how great their need, are beyond the resources of the people to pay for—a simple matter of economy. A man can run a motor-car on his income of to-day. Something happens to his income and he has to lock his car in a garage, perhaps sell it, and ride a bicycle. This is an unpalatable type of approach to the problem under review, however, never mind how much logic is behind it. Loan charges would still go ou even on a scrapped gas-works or tramways. Apart from that, public opinion demands those services, the city cannot exist as a city without them. Any councillor who, for instance, said that Wanganui could not afford a gas works or a tramway system would be condemned by his own family, let alone his neighbours. There was one aspirant to Mayoral honours in Wanganui who, years ago, said that the Wanganui tramways were fast outliving their usefulness. That was a true statement, but it was a false move politically! How sad it is to see men well grounded in economics crucified on the altar of politics!

Another way to reduce rates is to lower costs. How can cost’s begjedueed? Is there one man game enough to say that wages should come down, or should remain stable? Is there one who would recommend longer hours for the same rate of pay as today? These things are unpalatable to the average worker, to the average human being who, looking for progress and comfort, accepts both with open arms but, being human, grumbles when lie has to pay for them. These issues are faced up to and conquered by human beings in times of emergency, as witness the belttightening in Britain to win the war. They must be faced up to again, grim though they may be, to win in time of peace. Another way to reduce rates, or at least keep them within bounds, is to adopt a negative policy—do nothing in addition to what is being done now, and allow sinking funds to redeem the indebtedness of Wanganui. What then would happen to the capital assets of the city—its water-works, its obsolete tramways, its gas works, its streets? The poor old streets (works and services) have been the “Cinderella” of the city for years and years. They have gone back and back, while social security and hospital services have mounted and mounted, hours have become shorter and wages higher! It is well, before any public meeting is called, to look into these things impartially, to forget political leanings and think as citizens, frame a plan! There is one practical solution available—reduction of costs. And that applies to the whole Dominion. But is there a councillor game enough, let alone a politician, to forget that he is a party man and tell the people frankly that unless costs are stopped many of the services they own and cherish, take for granted, may be denied them in the future? One councillor said that it would be difficult to get a public meeting. Call the public meeting- to decide whether or nllt the gas works should be closed, and the meeting would be packed by housewives from St. John’s to Castlecliff, from Aramoho to Putiki, and there would be an overwhelming vote against the councillors who suggested such a thing. But housewives, being reasonable, might agree to pay more for gas. That is an aspect worthy of considerable thought, whether the degree of contribution by consumers of gas, riders in trams and users of our city services is as much as it ought to be in comparison with the contribution made by the ratepayers. Paying more for gas and less for rates, to the average household, would be merely paying money to one department in preference to another, but would not lessen the outgoings. Its incidence, however, might be fairer. One other matter is deserving of investigation—has Wanganui lost anything by the removal from city control of the sale of electric power, and can anything be done, that is in no way detrimental to the wide district affected, which will give back to the city its loss? This is a matter which should be lifted above the parochial, even to the extent of examining whethet the City Gas Department would be better administered by the Power Board rather than the council.

All these aspects, most of them not of a happy nature, must be gone into by the Mayor and the team the citizens have placed with him—the city’s board of directors! Then, having found a plan, unpleasant though it may be, the citizens should be taken into the council’s confidence and if the matter can be put right, it surely will. 'lime enough then for a public meeting! If there is no need for alarm, if the leaders of to-day think that the rising spectre of costs is not endangering the future, then they will do as one would expect—put heads in the sand and trust to luck that they will not be seen. The pity of it is that they will be judged by a future generation, not by the people of to-day!