CANBERRA’S HANDICAP.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5291, 25 June 1928, Page 1

CANBERRA’S HANDICAP.

LARGE BILL FOR INTEREST. A WRITING DOWN PROPOSAL. Australians are not feeling too sure about their new capital, Canberra. The assertions a chort time ag.o, that Canberra was going l through a period of slump, appear to have been justified even though they may .have been exaggerated. All the land is held under leasehold tenures, and the valuations are unduly high, made high by the householders themselves, who willingly offered high sums because no doubt an impression that Canberra would develop more rapidly than has been the case. Many leaseholders are, forfeiting their leases rather than comply with the building covenant. Because of high rents, and the high cost of living as well as the inconveniences of the place. Canberra is unpopular with the civil servants, and few people other than civil servants have been attracted to it. The costs of establishing the city have been enormous and proposals are being fairly generally made for a wholesale writing down of values,. Mr A. R. Townsepd, a;n accountant, who has evidently given a; great deal of consideration to the position of the capital, says that the governing commission has had no chance of running the capital on a businesslike basis. By the end of this year, he says, the liability of the commission will have reached .£9,000,000, on which interest will be payable at the ra.te 'of 4 per cent. The commission will, therefore, have about £450,00'0 to pay in interest upon its liability. Allowing that by the end of the year, there are 3000 adults in the capital, they would have, to be taxed at the rate of £l5O a year, or £3 a week to meet the debt. COMMISSION’S BIG BURDEN. It was net the fault of the commission, says Mr Townsend. The cost of the Cotter dam for the water supply, for instance, had been transferred to the commission. That work was done 15 years .agp, and the headworks alone cost £250,000. Over 15years, during which the dam was unproductive, the accumulatetd compound interest amounted to £50',000. The commission was burdened with that great charge and who was to pay it other than the public servants, ? Mr Townsend said that the reduction of house .and land values would have to be made under ordinary competitive economic conditions in any city. It would have to be done, sooner or later in Canberra unless the commission or the Government was prepared always to have empty houses on its hands. The cost of the national capital over and above the present, normal cost in a first class inland town should be borne by Australians, generally, and not by an insignificant minority of them. There were precedents galore for writing down values of a city. Trading concerns had no hesitation in writing down values whenever the need arose. EMPTY SHOPS AS DWELLINGS. The Commonwealth Government w ! rote down the value of its steamers, and also the value of the war service homes, Mr Townsend remarked. The writing off of fictitious values made no difference to the real value of the assets. To illustrate his argument Mr Townsend said that sh'op sites in one of the suburbs ,which brought £lOOO to £l2OO in 1924 were now rated on a value of £2500' to £3OOO. Householders in Canberra were being asked to pay just about twice as much in rates as they would have to pay for similar houses in Melbourne. Many m'ore public servants in Melbourne have become agitated because of the threat, of an early transfer to Canberra. There is no housing accommodation in Canberra for the majority of them, and the commissop is converting empty sho’?s 'into temporary flats. Naturally, civil seirvants do not like the idea of giving up comfortable homes in Melbourne for such conditions. Anotheir obstacle to the peace, of mind 'of those who own their own homes is the-fact that they must sell their property in ,a very dull real estate market in Melbourne.