MUNICIPAL FINANCE.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 86, 28 April 1937, Page 4

MUNICIPAL FINANCE.

In these dys of doubts and differences as to the wisdom of those to whom the conduet of our national finance has been eommitted the jitizens of Hastings afe to be congfatulated on the policy of steady, rather than spectacular, progress- adopted by those entrusted with oaunicipal affairs. The clear and comprehensive statement of accounts for the financial year that ended last month promptly issued by the Town Clerk, accompanied by the Mayor's' forecast for the year just begun, bears ample testimony to the careful way in which the finances of the borough have been and are to be conserved. While there is every prospect that we shall all be saddled with some additional State taxation to make less tOlerable the t apid advance in the cost of living, Mr. Maddison is abie to give us assurance that there will at least be no addition to the burden of local rates so far as the requirements of the borough . itself Ure concerned. There may, he says, be some increase in the rates ixhposed by the Hospital Boatd and Eivers Board, but these are matters outside the Control of the Council, which in respect of them merely acts as collector for the other two bodies. As Mr. Maddison points out, the position thus presented is all the more notable because during the current year a new yearly liability of close on £2000 has to be met in the way of interest and sinking fund on the loan raised for carrying out the much needed but long deferred sewerage scheme now in cotirse Of being constructed. This happy position, too, can. be announced despite the rise that has taken place in the cost of both material and labour during the last twelve months. With all the caution thtts exercised with respect to matters of finance the people of Hastings can see and realise for themselves the steady advance which their town is making both as a business and a residential centre. One effect of tbis is to be noted in the attraction of 'an increase in the population such as no other municipality in the Dominion save oue — aiid that one only Under exceptional circumstances — can show. In all respects, therefore, the residents of Hastings may deem. themselves fortunate in the way in which their municipal affairs are managed. To their Mayor in particular are their thanks due for the devotion he gives to the performance of his many and multifarious duties, and he, in turn, is not slow to testify to the assistance and support he has feceived from his fellow councillors and from his staff.