CITY COUNCIL’S LOAN DEBT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27396, 8 July 1954, Page 10

CITY COUNCIL’S LOAN DEBT

Sharp Increase Held Likely MAJOR WORKS PLANNED The doubling of the indebtedness of the Christchurch City Council within the next year or so appears certain. The loan debt of the city today is £974,822, and loans exceeding £1,000,000 will soon have to be raised to finance projects. Ratepayers will have to find this year £45,280 to meet interest, sinking fund, and principal repayments on loans.-The total charges are £116,203. Besides the credit balance of £10,538, £58,330 is being transferred from 10 separate accounts to meet their proportions. A doubling of the indebtedness would mean more than a doubling of the charge on rates, because of the higher interest rates and the shorter terms now common with local body Ibans. A doubling only of the special loans rate would mean that ratepayers would have to pay about 1 l-3d in the £ on unimproved value, the general rate now being 6d. Big loans are inevitable. The reading schedule has not yet been presented to the council. Loans will have to be raised from time to time over a period of years for new roads arid reconstruction, and also for kerbing and channelling. The main conversion loan, now standing at £54,200 at £3 12s 6d per cent., falls due next March 31. Practically the whole of the debts of the city, of more than £1,000,000, were covered by the 1935 loan, at 4£ per cent., which was again converted in 1940. A waterworks loan of £200,000 covered by a special water rate, is now in the process of being raised by special order. Other loans under way which will not be a charge on the rates are that of £150,000 for the Municipal Electricity Department, and one of £37,000 for a new chiller and alterations at the city abattoir at Sockbum, the rate charges being paid by increased rental by the lessees, the Canterbury Bye-Products Company, Ltd. Two other loans for which application has been sought, are £10,250 for alterations and equipment at the motor vehicle testing station and £9OOO to complete the new bridges at Swanns road and Dallington. Harewood Development Much bigger loans, however, are under consideration. Besides the first instalment of the roading and kerbing loan, the City Council faces £250,000, fess its expenditure on land, as its share of the cost of developing the Christchurch international airport at Harewood and a very big sum for the cost of a modern overseas terminal building. Further, the completion of the Centennial Baths building, permits for which are to be granted over a period of three years, will necessitate the raising of a substantial loan. The city loans covered by special

Conversion loan redemptions (due 1955); city abattoir loan, 1939, £2OOO (due 1965); workers’ dwelling loan No. 6, 1926, £l5OO (due 1956); housing loan, 1944, Harewood and Sandilands; housing loan, £25,000, pensioners’ cottages (due 1969); housing loan, £25,000, pensioners’x cottages (due 1971); New Brighton conversion loans (due 1960); city’s proportion of Heathcote county’s conversion loan (due 1956); St. Andrew’s Hill sewerage loan, £l7OO (due 1963); Sumner public works loan, £B6OO (due 1959); Sumner foreshore loan, £l2OO (due 1957); Sumner waterworks extension loan, £3900 (due 1959); Sumner conversion loan, £24,400, and conversion loan No. 2 (due 1959); Sumner gasworks extension loan; abattoir improvements loan, 1946, £9OO (due 1957); abattoir improvement loan, 1947 (due 1968); waterworks loan, 1941, £15,000 (due 1962); water supply extension loan, 1947 (due 1970).

Waterworks loan, 1948, £151,000 (due 1979); waterworks supplementary loan, £35,000 (due 1968); waterworks extension loan, £200,000, and additional loan, £l2OO (due 1971); Murray Aynsley Hill water supply loan (due 1966); reserves expansion and development loan, £93,800 (due 1963); housloans, 1952, £49,400 (due 1982); bridges loan, 1952, £35,000 (due 1972); bridges supplementary loan, £7000; Fendalton Park loan; Bryndwr channelling loan; housing loan. 1953, £103,000; domains and parks buildings loan, £20,000 (due 1967); pensioners’ cottages loan, 1953, Elm Grove, £6000; housing loan, pensioners’ cottages. Champion street.