The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1929 OVERHAULING CITY FINANCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 677, 31 May 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1929 OVERHAULING CITY FINANCE

ADDITIONAL evidence lias been provided by the City Council to prove that it is an incompetent administration. Its annual estimates were introduced at a Gilbertian meeting last evening and rushed through with a general indifference which was anything but complimentary to men of business. Only a few members took sufficient trouble to comment on an unsatisfactory position, and they were so quickly bewildered by lack of essential information that they had to confess inability to understand the clumsy and obscure document. The silent members, even those whose knowledge of accountancy had encouraged the ratepayers who recently elected them to expect notable service in the form of informative financial criticism, allowed the wretched schedules to pass by default. What was made clear, however, left no cause for praise or even moderate satisfaction. The administration is in a bad way financially, and is a great deal worse off than the most disillusioned ratepayers had imagined under a regime that has been pathetically poor and inefficient for the past four years. It has been unable to balance its budget, and is on the wrong side of good business to the extent of rather more than £.36,000. Even the water account has ceased to be a g'enerous fountainhead of aid for other enterprises and municipal activities. It is down by £20,000 and has dropped into such a plight as to necessitate a general increase in rates and charges for a supply of water to consumers. No doubt the administrators could find without difficulty an impressive excuse for the Water Department’s reversed position. Indeed, it is fair to say that the worst of its present trouble has been due to past administration. Two years ago, the then chairman of the Water Committee (Mr. J. A. C. Allum) warned the council plainly that it could not go on much longer taking big- sums out of the account. That warning was ignored and, as was inevitable in circumstances which revealed a steep increase in capital costs of development, the pitcher went once too often to the well. It may also be pointed out as a valid excuse for some of the projected increase on general charges for supply, the heavy expenditure on filtration —equal approximately to one penny for every thousand gallons —hitherto has not been passed on to the consumers. All these extenuating conditions granted, however, the position now is such as to remind the council that it had better take heed lest this service, the only commercial activity left in the council’s feckless hands, may also have to be taken out of the municipal administration’s control and handed over to a competent metropolitan water board. Though the discussion on the Estimates last evening was meagre in value and almost pointless, it at least showed that there is no money at all available for new enterprises. Expenditure during the past four years has exceeded revenue to an alarming- extent, and there is no prospect of any better achievement this financial year. Though conditions really are serious enough to demand a rise in the rates, the council, knowing that such a drastic policy would arouse even a notoriously apathetic community to angry protest, has decided to adjust the existing rates by an unsound process of financial juggling. The general rate is to be increased by ljd, while three others are to he reduced by id each, or precipitated into debt, and retrenchment. This, of course, will put off the evil day of reckoning and remedy, but it demonstrates that the business sense of the administration is not worth an after-meeting cup of tea. What should be done about an intolerable position which probably will be worse before it can be better? If the council enjoyed the right kind of leadership and departmental guidance it would, without delay, decide on having a thorough and searching overhaul of all its business and methods. It has become clear that a system which has been considered good enough for umpteen years cannot he permitted to go on now that it is proved had and grotesquely unprofitable. The council should recognise and compel all its officers and also the ratepayers to recognise that no public body can spend more money than it receives. And the time has come for the Mayor, or for someone else if he won’t do it, to call a conference of the heads of all local bodies for the purpose of determining how far the City Council should go, and how long it ought to suffer, in respect of heavy expenditure on parks, public baths, roads, water supply and other utilities and advantages which are of benefit and service to the whole of Greater Auckland.

A FARCE AND THE SEQUEL

NO success attended the efforts of the anti-Allum faction on the City Council to have the city’s representation on the Transport Board recast. It is true that Mr. Allum only just “scraped in.” In view of the pronounced hostility exhibited toward him by a number of the councillors, that was only to be expected. Had those who were bent on replacing Mr. Allum chosen to organise their votes, they could have eliminated him. But they divided their attack. Though they would not support Mr. Allum, neither would they support each other. Mr. J. B. Paterson, for instance, achieved the grand total of three votes. The fact that the city’s representation finally emerged unaltered is the one redeeming- feature of the grotesque wrangle. Rarely in an age of councils not conspicuous for forensic ability have proceedings fallen to such a farcical level as they touched last evening during an hour and a-half of futile wrestling with an Act of Parliament that few, apparently, are competent to understand. The strategy adopted by Mr. J. R. Lundon can be interpreted only as obstructive. Tlis legal knowledge permitted him to skip nimbly from point to point, and retreat to new positions when successive arguments became untenable. These adroit, manoeuvres unfortunately served no good purpose, other pex-haps than to show that Mr. Lundon is inclined to take liberties that under a firmer Mayor would evoke stern measures. The only doubtful seat on the Transport Boax-d is now that to he vacated “after May 31” by Mr. P. S. Morton. The by-election in the districts concerned may he fought with or without enthusiasm, hut it can hardly fail to result in improved representation. On the board itself the indications seem to he that Mr. Allum will continue in the chairmanship. A vigorous direction of the board’s policy will permit him to vindicate his selection and face the electors with confidence in 1931. For the present he has this much to his advantage, that he has now no City Council ties, and has greater liberty of action than other members who are serving at the same time on their local bodies. Just as well for the success of the Transport Board’s loan policy is the fact that the wrangle about representation is now over. The board can pursue a definite course for two years, and by wise use of its loan authorities may not only improve the metropolitan transport system, but also stimxxlate prosperity through the influence of its expenditure on the unemployment situation. Naturally, small outlying communities will he dissatisfied when applications foxservices ai-e rejected ; but so long as the boai’d reaches its judgments without allowing local prejudices or preferences to affect its views, the general body of public opinion is unlikely to be estranged.