Rates and Ratepayers

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17105, 29 March 1921, Page 6

Rates and Ratepayers

Some time ago we referred to the extraordinary rise in municipal rates at Home, especially in boroughs ruled by Labour councils. The position was so serious that something like an economy campaign was initiated before the municipal elections, • and one would have thought from the interest taken in it that the ratepayers would have effected an alteration for the better in the constitution of the councils. This may have been the result of the elections, but if so it was certainly not due to the public spirit shown by the municipal voters, of whom, it now appears, only about half troubled to vote, the proportion in London itself being actually less than one-third. Under these circumstances ratepayers cannot justly l complain if their rates continue to advance. This, indeed, seems to be what is happening, for according to the Ministry of Health, which keeps a watchful eye on the administration of local authorities, the increase in rates for 1020-21, compared with 1918-19, was no less than 10s 7d in the £, made up largely of increased wages and salaries and the higher cost of materials and of food and clothing for institutions. Some of it, however, was the result of flagrant mismanagement, of which the following may be given as examples. In January last year a borough council adopted an extensive scheme for supplying milk to.expectant and nursing mothers and children under five years. To some degree, especially ,jn the case of a poor district, it could be argued that such a scheme was warranted. But in this case applications for freo milk became so numerous as to involve the borough, in expenditure at the rate of £IOO,OOO a year, equivalent to e rate of lOd in the £. Enquiries by the Ministry showed that shocking waste of the ratepayers! money was , taking place. "No steps had been taken to "verify statements by applicants re"gardins their incomes; there was no " proof that the milk ordered was sup"plied, or that it was pure; or that "if supplied it was consumed by the "persons for whom it was intended." The Ministry thereupon intervened and, insisting on a better Bystem, reduced the expenditure on free milk to £SOOO a year. In another case, in which, for a similar purpose, a borough council was spending at the rate of £20,000 a year, it waß found on investigation that 60 per cent, of the applicants for milk had under-stated their incomes, and that in many cases the private purchase of milk had been abandoned as soon as the free municipal supply became available. There is a lesson in these cases for Christohurch ratepayers. Nothing quite so flagrant could occur here because of the legislative restriction on the amount of the rate that can be levied, but if the "control of the City Council passed into the hands of those who believe in the municipalisation of all services, the financial condition of the Council might easily become worse than it is, and it nothing to boast of now. The ratepayers will deserve the worst that can happen to them if at the coming elections they display the apathy that they havg shown in recent years, and if they do not, in takjng the trouble to vote, vote for men who can be trusted to manage the city's affairs with businesslike ability.