HASTINGS BOROUGH FINANCE.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 147, 9 July 1937, Page 4

HASTINGS BOROUGH FINANCE.

The figures and explanatory comment on them submitted in yesterday's issue of the Herald-Tribnne by the Mayor, .Mr. G. A. Maddison, rnnst bave provided gratifying reading for the ratepayers and the general body of citizens of Hastings. In them is to be found a record of careful management and judicious expenditure that redound greatly to the credit 01 himself and his council. In the first pjace, while in nearly every other municipality of the Dominion it has been found necessary to malse some more or less substant'ial increase in the rates to be levied for municipal purposes during the now current financial year, in Hastings last year's standard has been praeticaliv maintained. In lact, there is a sligbt, though scarcely appreciable/ reduction in the rate per £ of property valuation. This in itself is a point well worthy of note in these days of increasing impositions, when, for instance, last year s State taxation under our new Government went np by some- - thing like £8 per head of the population and this year looks very much like having to go up by something substantially inore to meet the many fresh obligations incurred by it. It is, however, nnder the law as it stands, the unfortunate duty of the Borough Council to act as collector of levies made by and for the purposes of other local authorities the Napier Parbour Board, the Hawke's Bay Hospital Board and the Hawke's Bay Rivers Board. For these three bodies it has to get in an aggregate amount equal to just abont 25 per ceni, of the total ot he raised for its own requirements. It is in the Harbour and. Hospital levies alone that any increase has been made, that for the Harbour Board being, in faet, the first fonnd necessary to he made for a considerable number of years. Alpart therefore from these outside incidentals, over which the Borough Council can exercise no measnre of control whatever, Hastings ratepayers cannot but regard themselves as being singularly fortunate in finding themselves so lightly rated. This feeling can only be enhanced when they give though t to the many amenities and benefits they enjoy from the spending of the financial resources that have been made available to the Borough Council. It is fairly safe to say that, taking things all round, in no other like centre of population in the Dominion has the ratepayers' mpney been spent to better 'advantage. This, of course, can be fully realised only by^those who are able to cast their memories back for, say, even a score of years and note the progress that has been made in eonverting a country township into a modernised and progressive business centre, with residential surroundings that have yearly been made more attractive. The best evidence of this is perhaps to he found in the fact that the percentage incrase in population during later years has been greater tharl in any other borough in the Dominion save one and that one to which a special fillip was given by the expenditure ofpublic money to fit it as'a workers' residential area. For attaining this enviable positi(fci no little of the credit is due to the prudent but still progressive conduct of municipal affairs that has landed us in no extravagaat or burdensome obligations, while still keeping us well abreast of the times. ♦ But, as Mr. Maddison says, although so much good work has been done in tlie past, there yet remains much to be done. Unless the position htus achieved is to be lost, there can be no, resting on the oars. Changes are so many and so rapid in these days, that any feeling of self-satisfction with conditions as they are is always dangerous. It is this^that the general body of citizens have to tpalise and to get in behind the Maj or * and his councillors to help ii^pushing things along. When we get so much done for us there is always a tendency to regard the advantages we enjoy as being matters of course. This is not as it should be. We have got a town in which each of its citizens should take some personal pride in doing all that is possible for its advancement. We have a Progress League which has quietly been doing good work. but which1* still lacks the general support that would make it a force that would have to be reckoned with both within and outside the borough. As a matter of fact, every ratepayer should recognise it as being his duty to join this league, if only to lend it the power which numbers give, but rather to take an a,ctive part. The Mayor and his council have shown themselves as well worthy of all the backing tliat could thus he given to them.