PETONE BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 789, 12 April 1910, Page 2

PETONE BOROUGH COUNCIL.

j ■ THE.YEAR'S FINANCES; • .-! . A meeting of' the Petone .Borough' ifiaunciUwas held last evening, and was attended by.the'-Mayor (Mr. J, W. M'Ewan), Councillors : Short; Southgate,; Tiperi■ Young, Jones, : List,, and .Trnemiuu 1 . "I have to'congratulate -the; coiuicSill Upon'the'fact-that we have, 'during the , past "year, lived within our said. ■ the Mayor, when- explaining the financial! position, of the council.:Hβ pointed out that, owing to illness, among '.the office staffi a complete balance-sheet had not yet been drawn up, but a statement had been, prepared showing/ the position of the general working account. . The total. expendituTe for the year ended March 31 iras shown to be Os. 2d., arid the tolal receipts amounted to JE9G63 18s. ,sd. The * expenditure included the actual debit balance of the general account for . last year, amounting.to .£3305 9s. 3d. The; debit balance,-' on- March 31 last-', was!. .£3591 2s. 9d: If the balance of the: Government. subsidy had been paid before* • the end of the financial year, as was expected when the estimates had beea' framed, the debit /balance would have 'been decreased by £331. The debit balance , would then have stood at i|2354 2s. 9d.. a reduction of .£l4l on the debit balance: for the previous year. On running through the items of expenditure, he had found that, in, almost every department, the council had kept well within their estimates. Under the heading of .repairs: and maintenance, they' had exceeded the actual amount estimated to be spent, as had been'expected: There were reductions, however, in other departments," whicai had more than compensated for.this onei . increase. Next Monday, at the special! meeting of the council called; for the.con-j sideratiori of matters in connection, witty: the sanitary contract; he prop.osedto entecj somewhat fully into the financial position' of the council.- [ ' - ,' :'.'". ! Councillor Piper j remarked that, in. order to convey a /correct idea of ; th» - borough finances, it should be stated that, owing to the depressed state of the labour market last winter, the, council . had--spent almost £200 to help-the.needy, and this had shown itself in the debit i balance. ■'■ \ - : , '.- I -.„ ■ The Mayor corroborated .Councillor Piper's .remarks, saying, "Were it not for the fact that we had to find work for a large number .of men last winter, onr , debit balance would have been decreased by probably JOSO or £200." . ■ Intimation was made that the borough, tngineer, Mr. Iy. H. Cook,'had been off duty owjng to illness, and would not be ablo to return to work for a few days. : Councillor Colquhoun was granted an extension of his leave of absence. •■' . A number of coal merchants-notified that they were petitioning the Minister" for labour to alter the weekly halfholiday from Wednesday to Saturday, a3 from May 1, 1910. The signatories of the petition were'.'King Bros., James Gaynor, W. Hill, G. J- C. Parker, arid Sons, George Jones and Son, G. Brocklehnrst, W. Trueman, F., Angus, G. E.- Aplin," and W. Horsfall. .