OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 65, 10 December 1926, Page 12

OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS

WATER, DRAINAGE, STAFF ORGANISATION CIVIC LEAGUE’S ATTITUDE

“There are certain outstanding problems with which our city is faced,” states the annual report of the Civic League, “and the question of reorganisation of the City Council’s functions and business methe’is is one of these. It lias been tentatively spoken and written about for some time, but has not yet been approached in any comprehensive way. We have no desire to deal with the matter in a dogmatic fashion, or on a theoretic basis, as it is too complex a problem for any such handling. At the same time, we are impressed with these facts —that methods which were good enough years ago, when the city was smaller, have outgrown their usefulness, and should be reviewed on that account. That the policy of increasing the functions and services to be administered by the City Council (contrary to the practice of some other cities where control is more decentralised) has made the offices of Mayor and councillors over-burdensome. We hope _to see this question of reorganisation taken in hand, and ask our associations and members to give sympathetic support to such public representatives and officers who are called upon to deal with the problem. “Two other issues we have in mind are those of general transport and the supplying of water and drainage to those districts not yet served. The question of transport has several sides to it, and is one which, we think, ought to be approached on lines of a general plan, rather than being dealt with in isolated sections. The other question is largely one of finance, entailing, probably, if all requirements are met, a cost approaching £lBO,OOO. It is, at the same, time, a matter so vitally affecting general health that a definite policv is required in respect to this problem, which becomes more pressing on account of the city’s rapid growth.” ______