The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1930 THE ROCKET OF CITY RATES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 978, 22 May 1930, Page 10

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1930 THE ROCKET OF CITY RATES

AUCKLAND'S municipal budget now tops the million pounds mark—the highest in New Zealand. As proof of expansion that evidence may be accepted as an appreciable fact. The City rates also represent a similar record at a lower level, but not so enviable- So is the general extravagance, and so also the ineptitude of the administration.

That epitomises the unsatisfactory financial position as disclosed at a special meeting of the City Council yesterday to discuss the current year’s estimates and the necessity of increasing the excessive burden of taxation upon too tolerant ratepayers. The disclosure was not a surprise. From the beginning of the present administration’s mediocre career it has been clear that its achievements at best inevitably would and must be poor. The plain truth of the disconcerting situation is nothing more intricate or mystifying than a lack of the right kind of able administrators. And it is about time for the permanent officials to look at their works and make sure that they are earning their relatively comfortable salaries and are able to withstand a general demand for administrative retrenchment. Because of an apathy which always gets the government it deserves, the ratepayers have suffered much, but even the most casual class among them will resent the latest rocket of rates. The manner in which the schedule of estimates was thrown before the council’s meeting and the public alone demonstrated the inefficiency of the executive administration. A mass of figures that would have given expert financiers a financial indigestion was submitted without a word of explanation or comment. There are occasions when silence is golden, but there are times, too, when silence is the currency of stupidity. All that was made clear to the main body of administrators was the stark fact that the City’s financial position necessitated an increase in rates, aggregating on the original estimate £26,100. It was proposed first to impose an additional rate of in the £ This, in itself, may be described as bad enough, but it was known that it would have taken an increase of about sixpence in the £ to place the City Council in affluent circumstances, enabling it to emulate the United Government in achieving a substantial surplus. Fortunately, the multitude of councillors in whom there does not appear to be much -wisdom realised that there is a limit even to apathetic ratepayers’ endurance. It was decided with. becoming haste and a pretentious love of economy to whittlp down the grotesque sum of estimated expenditure this year, and thus contrive to muddle through in the traditional fashion on a ha’penny increase in the rates. Ratepayers now must pay four shillings in the £, instead of the originally proposed 4s 2d, but without any guarantee at all that the modified imposition will lift the council out of its financial morass. Following on discussion the various committees, which had been encouraged to experiment with a new system of preparing estimates separately from the computation of executive officials, were able to reduce the sum of their policy of competitive grab by no less than £21,500. The Parks Committee alone had about £B,OOO lopped off its spreading tree of expenditure. In fairness to the administration, which needs a great deal of sympathy in its inability to make an outstanding success of governing the City of Auckland, it must be emphasised that the record hospital levy, £57,480, an increase of £5,756, for the year, has thrust the council deep into embarrassment. It registered a timely protest, and raised the question as to whether unemployment relief as administered by the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board should be made an extra charge on the City ratepayers. The quicker all the local bodies concerned in a serious business hold a conference on the subject, the better it will be for the whole community. And the time has come for a thorough overhaul of the Hospital Board’s soaring expenditure. It is probable that a great deal of the trouble now overwhelming both the council and the board is due to the staring fact that Greater Auckland has expanded beyond a village standard of administration. New teams of administrators with more efficient methods of business are required. Soon, the people will have to break from indolent apathy and exert a constructive interest in local government reform. As for the City Council, it has proved over and over again that it is lacking in first-class administrative capacity. Proof? Rates are now a Dominion record.