THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1902. DIFFERENTIAL RATING.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 148, 4 January 1902, Page 2

THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1902. DIFFERENTIAL RATING.

On Wednesday next tho .County Council will meet as a committee to discuss among other things the financial position of the Council, with special reference to the m:t .01 of expending the rates collected in the various ridings of the county. The method of expending rates is laid down by law. The Council must declare certain roads and bridges in the county main roads and bridges: that is, roads or bridges of use to the county as a whole, and not merely to the particular riding in which they are situated, and the upkeep of these is to be debited to the general fund. The office expenses, salaries, charitable aid levy, and other charges on the county as a whole are to be met out of the general funds and the balance allocated to the riding in which it was raised for the maintenance of all its public works. The roads in the Waimate County have always been declared “main’ roads for the purposes of the Act, and so all roads and bridges are kept up out of one general fund. That this system pressed heavily on several of the ridings has been felt for a long time, and Mr Walker in particular has advocated the abolition of this method of expending the rates, in favour of a more equitable one. 'At last • Council meeting Mr Douglas brought this matter up, and as there was not time to discuss it fully on that occasion, it was resolved to go into the matter at

a committee meeting on January Bth.

The system which will likely be proposed on Wednesday as % substitute for the present one will be to declare a certain few roadsin.the county ‘‘main” roads. Each year the cost of the works required along these for i: the codling twelve months will be estimated and.a general-ratal will be struck over the whole county for this purpose, and also.to jdeet a‘ h "

will in each iiding to iiGet the cost of the works •equired within its bounds fot he ensuing year. It is evident it once that this would be a fail nethod of levying rates, as bj his means a riding would paj wholly for local works only and i share of the works required foi he county as a whole. A differmce of opinion might arise as t< which roads should be declared main roads,' but, composed as i is of men from all parts of th county, the Council should hav no difficulty in deciding in *7* matter. The telegraph road / the Pareora to the Waital f be one main road, the ! ) road another, the Gorge i Hook road, and a nur 1

others. A very slight e. tion of the question wi ; how unfairly the present j presses on one riding i 1 Deep Creek. The trafu .' great part of the county conveigei on the town of Waimate, and Deep Greek riding, which lies right round the town, suffers accordingly. The overdraft of this riding ia the direct result of its large traffic, and though this overdraft is debited to all the ridings, it is looked on as a somewhat objectionable way of raising the money. By a system of differential rating the county ratepayers will feel themselves ia a mure settled position. The works of the county would be done just as before, the only difference being that the rating of each riding would be in proportion to the amount of work required. 1