MARTON’S MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, 10 November 1950, Page 4

MARTON’S MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

r JTIE town of Marton is at last taking its municipal polities a little more seriously than it has done in the past. That there is a lack of municipal amenities is not to be denied, but it would appear that this is due not so much from a desire to avoid the expenditure which would be involved in making such installations, but in a'n effort to pick the most suitable time for engaging in such activities. Water supply and drainage are a community’s first necessities and as a town grows in size a large-scale expenditure becomes inevitable. If the municipality can saw up this work until the demand for labour and materials is slack then municipal investment can have a very helpful effect upon employment and business activity generally. Those who have studied the trade cycle and its consequent up-and-down movement in employment have stressed the desirability of saving up municipal and national expenditure programmes so that they may be launched in times of slackness in employment. 'Marton’s effort in this direction seems to have been unfortunate in that the demand for municipal amenities has been given stronger expression in a time of wry high prices. If the current stock-piling for war purposes were to ease off the chances are that a much lower level of prices all round would result, and if Marton can manage to hold off a little longer the cost of muchneeded installations might prove to be much less costly. But again who can say whether an enclosed economy such as New Zealand is now “enjoying” will allow prices to recede and the high costs and low standards of comfort will remain with us for some decades?