The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. THURSDAY, MARCH 28. 1918 COUNTY RATES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 364, 28 March 1918, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

THURSDAY, MARCH 28. 1918 COUNTY RATES.

"We nothing extenuate, nor tet down auaht in malice."

Now that the time for striking the rates over the various ridings of the Franklin and Manukau Counties is approaching we feel it would be only right on our part to make an appeal to members of the Councils to take into the fullest consideration the whole circumstances of the times, and to bear in mind how absolutely necessary to our continued welfare the most careful economy is.

We hope that we shall not be accused of being unprogressive if we point out that there are many arguments in favour of reducing further expenditure to the very lowest point compatible with efficiency. The heavy demands made upon the general tax-payer by the war-expen-diture, and the still heavier burdens certain to be laid upon him in the near future, make it imperative that he should be bled as little as possible in other directions. We know pretty well how the war is going to end, but we have no idea when it is going to end, and if we are wise we will shorten ex penditure, private as well as public, in every possible way. During the last two years there has been serious of the ratepayers' money on account of the inefticiencv as

well as the extra cost of labour. As the war goes on this position becomes accentuated rather than relieved. Any work that is done is costing half as much again as it did in pre-war times, and it would be surely very bad policy to undertake anything beyond necessary maintenance until circumstances alter. We notice that at the " Good Roads Association " conference last week Mr J. S. Montgomerie said that in travelling through the country districts most of the farms were only partly tive, and the greatest cause of this was bad roads. Does it not occur to Mr Montgomerie that the difficulty of obtaining adequate labour may have something to do with it ? He further went on to say that local bodies depended upon the increase in land values and productiveness for an increase in their revenue. It is true they depend upon the value the Land Department places upon the land for revenue, but he cannot for a moment contend that this valuation bears any ratio to either production or the income made from the land. In his own riding a railway is being constructed, and the result has been an enormous increase in the Government valuation of land in the ntighbourhood, but there has been no increase in the profits derived from the land, and the owners are in no way in a better position to pay the largely increased rates imposed upon them last year by the Council.

We are as strong advocates of good roads as any member of the "Good Roads Association," but we would choose the most propitious and not the most unsuitable time for making them. We are also firmly of opinion that far too much of the cost of construction and maintenance falls upon the land-owner, who commonly uses them much less than many who pay no rates. Is it reasonable that the owner of a motor car should be allowed to tear over the roads, loosening up the metal and raising clouds of dust to the annoyance and often injury of those who have to make the roads, and yet pay nothing towards their upkeep ? Many of the members of our Councils are beginning their first term of office, and it is only natural they should feel that they would like to show the public how much more up-to-date and progressive they are than their predecessors were.

but we trust that in spite of their very proper desire to excel they will look the whole matter squarely in the face. and. in view of the excessive expenditure the country is irretrievably committed to, refrain from talcing from the ratepayers a single shilling they can by any possibility do without.