Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1939. RATES FOLLOW THE FASHION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1939, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1939. RATES FOLLOW THE FASHION.

T AST year the Masterton Borough rates were increased by 1j annrosimatelv five per cent. This year they have again been increased, by a smaller average about five per cent, in the case ot residential P‘°l’ elt „ „ , ■mnroximately U per cent in that of properties in Queen Street. Comparatively slight as they are, the latest ' N bring joy to the hearts of ratepayers, but they are not obwo . y open to fair criticism. Like other working organisations, the Borough Council is affected by the present all-round increase in costs andHuei o • evidence of careful and prudent. admnns rat.on n he fact t nt the principal administrative services of the town aie be maintained on an even keel without any increase n the genera rate A ten per cent increase m the hospital levy, with an adjustment of the water rate and some not very costly improvements in equipment and extensions ot including the maintenance of a very necessary ladies lest loom —account for the small additional burden imposed on ratepayers. On the showing made by the annual accounts and estimates the Borough Council and' its officers must be credited with having paid due regard to economy m somewhat difficult times, and they have contrived to reconcile this also with the pursuit of a reasonably progressive and enterprising policy. Proton has been made for an increased expenditure on new street construction, kerbing and footpaths and for an extension ot street lighting. , Thanks in part, to the narrow limits within which borrowing has been confined for a number of years past and to the amount of capital work—particularly street-surfacing—that has been paid for out of revenue, the borough is in an eminently stion,, and sound financial position. A considerable amount ot new expenditure may have to be incurred m the comparatively near future, notably in at least maintaining the efficiency ot water-supply and drainage services, but no doubt development on these lines will be contingent to a considerable extent on the trend of general economic conditions. So far as the existing financial position is concerned, it seems clear that the Borough Council could not have reduced appreciably the call at present made on ratepayers otherwise than by a curtailment of services and of employment which would have given rise to general and acute dissatisfaction. . AERO club enterprise. TAKING a very good place among organisations of its kind, the Wairarapa" and Ruahine Aero Club evidently must be credited with performing a useful and very necessary public service. Limited as its resources are, the club has a fine record where the training of pilots is concerned, and in that way and others is playing its full part in the development of a branch of transport service that must assume rapidly-increasing importance as time goes on. In its training of pilots, the club at the same time is making a valuable contribution to the defence of the Dominion. From the last-mentioned standpoint, as the president of the club (Mr A. McDonald) pointed out at the annual meeting on Tuesday evening, the record of Ihe organisation is very noteworthy indeed. Though the club was only established ten years ago. one of its former Pilot-Instructors, Mr J. M. Buekeridge, is~now Assistant-Controller of Civil Aviation. Five of its former members are serving with the Royal Air force, one of them, Air Lennox Lamb, as a squadron-leader, and another is about to join. Five other former members are engaged in commercial airway services in New Zealand. With the training of something like a hundred pilots already standing to its credit, the chib last year trained seventeen under the Civil Reserve scheme and in the coming year is to train another twelve. Adding to this the development of a splendid aerodrome, admirably equipped, the club evidently is well entitled to generous support, from, amongst others, district local bodies and the Government. It is rendering efficiently and with enterprise an invaluable public service. Particularly in the present period of emergency, there can be no doubt about the importance of the contribution well-conducted aero clubs are making Io defence preparation and organisation. Apart from the fact that the circumstances may well warrant more liberal State and local body assistance to aero clubs, heed certainly should be paid to the complaint made by Mr McDonald on Tuesday evening that those organisations find themselves needlessly handicapped and restricted by an ever-increasing volume of rules and regulations and by a system of inspection leaving much lo be desired. Every reasonable provision of course must be made for safe flying, but it is evidently .a condition of the efficient operation of aero clubs and of the whole scheme of training in which they play an essential part that the procedure under which they are controlled should be simplified to the greatest extent that is consistent with necessary precautions.