The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1921. PAUPERISING THE CITIES.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 694, 20 December 1921, Page 4

The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1921. PAUPERISING THE CITIES.

It has long been patent that in the cost of the maintenance of public hospitals, and in the distribution of charitable re)i'ef, the rural ratepayer is being exploited for ithe benefit of the inhabitants of the city, and heavily rated to save the pockets of the city ratepayer, but it is doubtful if people realise the extent to which this is being done.. .Therefore it will probably surprise .the ratepayers of Franklin County and Pukekohe town to discover that out of every £IOO that is levied upon them by the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board; no less than £BS is spent for the benefit of the people of Auckland. Speaking last week in ithe House of Representatives to his new Biil, the amendment to the Public Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act, the Minister for Public Health., the Hon. C. J. Parr, .complained about the increasing cost to the Government —that is the general taxpayer, including the rural ratepayer equally with the city one—the Government subsidy having risen from £IOO,OOO in 1914, to £420,000 in 1921. At first sight this appears to be a very considerable increase in seven years, but it fades into insignificance when compared with the increase of cost to ‘the rural communities. In the case of th* franklin Ceu-utv—-the reader will bear in mind that the figures we are using include the Borough of Pukekohe and the town districts o,f Tpaikau and Waiuku with the County—the levy rose from £1276 in 1914 to £5187 in 1921. Thus, while during the seven years the cost to the general taxpayer has a little more than doubled, the cost to the Franklin ratepayer has quadrupled. And the levy in other rural districts m t v Auckland H< ;»ratal area has increased in much the same manner, as it has in Franklin.

“We nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice.”

Now let us examine the position as regards Auckland. One would naturally expect to find the levy increased in the same ratio as Franklin, but that.is very far from being the case. As a matter of .fact/it has just about kept pace with the Government’s contribution, having a little more than doubled during the period under review. In 1914 Auckland and its suburbs paid £12,155, and in 1921 £27,143. To be in line with Franklin it should have paid £50,000.

But escaping its fair share of the levy is not by any means the only, or even the principal way in which it scores at the expense of the country ueople. As we pointed out, Franklin is paying to the Hospital Board the

sum of £5,187. Last year it received back £777 in the shape of hospital treatment and charitable aid. The balance of £4410 went to relieve the the ratepayers of the city of the liability of the care of their own sick and indigent.

We say nothing at this juncture regarding 1 the fairness of a system which puts the bulk of the Cost of Hospital and Charitable Aid upon the shoulders of the ratepayer's, although we have strong views on that subjecit* but to lay on the backs of struggling farmers, hundreds of whom have not made an income this year from their holdings sufficient to meet their rates, the burdens of the city people in addition to their own, is a most intolerable example of the unfairness of the incidence of taxation.