BAROMETER OF THE RATES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 73, 28 March 1933, Page 6

BAROMETER OF THE RATES

Times like, these mean heavy pressure through mortgages and other debts, and consequently the passing of properties into new hands. The new owners are sometimes stronger than the late owners, but not always so^ since the new owners themselves may be embarrassed, and may be forced by necessity to' take over properties. After that, they exchange the \ gamble of collecting interest for the gamble of collecting rents; ■; 'or-perhaps." the /property stands -idle.j The" result ~ is'much suffering---suffering-lby.jb.'e. possessed as well ;•;■ as 'the"•:.;dispossessed—-and many, people;:through no. fault.,',of their own fin3- f ; difficulty in paying their way. • In; suet'circumstances, qne;migtt;.^p^'ct;.AH'city:::iatfe's':tQ.ibe hard hit. '•■ yThere-'^ejmany reiitless houses^- and^: "noj;:rentj'; no;. rates"; is regardedy'by some/pebplej as?a fair dispensation.-: ; The'refore,'; ffie/statepient; that city rate-collecting is proteeding not so badly—^compated with the preceding year—is good so far , >as it goes. And it goes far enough to establish that, in the -enforced rearrangement of: ownerships and ownership liabilities the. fatepayer liability has not been ignored to the extent that might have been feared. If it is too much ta say that the rate revenue account is buoyant, at least if is not so waterlogged as might have been thought. Measured by the barometer of the 1932-33 rate collections, the city is showing vitality and the,'will to win through. "■