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I propose to give instructions that this preparatory work should be
commenced.
34. In my broadcast statement I proposed that certain revenues should
from the outset be handed over to the Municipal Council and that further
transfers of revenues or grants in aid would be contingent on the assumption
by the Council of transferred services. I indicated that the Municipality
would be the rating authority and would also be responsible for the
collection of certain taxes, and that the aim would be to ensure that the
Council was supplied with funds adequate for its requirements and, subject to
audit and to the requisite assent of the Legislature in the case of new
taxation, to give the Council the fullest possible control over Municipal
finance. There is no doubt that the public would feel that the shadow and
not the substance had been given if the Municipality were not given a wide
control over Municipal finance.
It will naturally fall within the purview
of the Commission to which I have referred in paragraph 33 to deal with the
question of providing adequate finances for the Municipality pari passu with
the transfer of responsibilities.
In order that there may be no unnecessary duplication of accounting
staffs I should propose to ask the Commission to consider whether during
the transitional stage a system could be evolved under which the machinery of
collection by sub-accountants and by the Treasury could continue as heretofore,
the product of the various sources of revenue assigned to the Municipal
Council being credited to a Municipal Fund in the Colonial Treasury, wherefrom
disbursements would be made by the order of the Council. In some cases,.
such as the licensing of vehicles, the transfer of the collection of revenue
would be simultaneous with the transfer of the responsibility undertaken,
but it would probably be a convenience and saving of expense to the Council
if the actual receipts could continue for the time being to be paid into the
Colonial Treasury.
The same considerations would apply to the actual collection of
rates. Subject to the enactment of the necessary legislation, the
Assessor's Department could readily be transferred to the Municipality but