NAPIER BOROUGH FINANCES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 91, 4 May 1937, Page 11

NAPIER BOROUGH FINANCES

A Satisfactory Position Outlined SURPLUS OF 14488 The Napier borough'B finaucial position as at . the end of March bas now been properly sulnmed iip by the Town Clerkf Mr F; ,R- . Wattersv who repdtted'to the feoiliicil last night that while a dfehfii&ncy of £1442 had heen estimated3 the bofough afettially Mad a surplus of £4488 — a position which he thought would bd pleasifig to ooliixcillo'rs and ratepayers geiiefaily. In a statelnent read to Oouncillors, Mr Watters dealt ■with the three aecouttts f'or Which Pfttes Ul'e lfeVied— hamely^ the general accoUnt, and Hospital Board account and the iliterest account. His sumanary Of the finaucial position of the bordUgli is as fblloWs i' — "Genetal aeCoufit."-ThiS was estimated before the rates were struck to finish With a dteWit Of £667. Actuaily, there is a credit of £3,677 — an improvemCnt of £4jM4. This iMproVOmeiit is the result of under expenditurej £3,100 j afid thfe surplus receipts, £1,200. "Hospital account.— The estimated debit balanee here was £459/ while there is an actual debit of £513. "IntSfeSt accounts.— These Were estimated to finish up with a deficit of £316 after ttattsferring £6.332 from the electricity account. This transfer has not yCt beett made in the books and the accounts finish this year with a credit of £5,819. Thife apparent large discrepancy is due to the fact that the opening balanee of £10,827 was purpOSCly ignored when framlng the estifnates as it Was desired to finish this vear tvith appfoximately the amount of the openittg balanee in hand to meet ifltciest and Siliking fund dfie Oll Aplil 1. If we deduct this opening balanee, we fiave a dehit of £5,008 wlthout having traliSfeifed the £6,332 of electricity moneys. "To sumtaaHse the position of the rating accounts in toto, we estimated a defieiency of £1,442 while we acttially have a surplus of £4,488 Jf the full electricity transfer is made. The position therefore must be Very pleasing to councillors and tfie ratepayers generally." Bo far as the borough's general finances wero concertted, continued Mr Watters, the total cash haiid as at March 31 was £32,192, while a year ago the figUre was £34,007. However, the Marewa block deveiopment account has itiereased its ovetdraft by £2,500, while the account which proVided for the tar-sealing of Gcorge's Hrlve shows an overdiaft of £1,000 dpe to inability to raise loan mdney at 3| per cent. ' 'There is a reasonable prospect Of getting the tooney at 3J per Cent. and I recommend the Loans Board be asked to raise the Pate authority to this percentageff' he said. "While there has been a large amount of capital expenditure met out of revenue during the year, each year seema to bring its ctop of such items, and as this yeaf Was not exceptionalj I do not propose to particulaPise' Debentures to* the value of £18,000 wefe redeemed during the year. the siuking fund (from which the redemptions were made) closing the year with a balattce of £90,124 as against an opening figure of £88.752. "Our ittoBt healthy account — electricity— must receiv© a paragraph. Its balanee statids at £20,066 after irieeting lnterest and siiiking fund on tramways loans. This figure is an aecretion of £3,330 on the opening balanee but iS subject to the transfer to interest accounts mentioned above. Despite large concesSions to cOttsumers during the y^ar, the sale of current has kept its redord of not going baek in £.S.d. The receipts from this source were £43,181— £100 tnore than last year. Bulk supply cosf £16,354 or £900 more than the previous year. "The total rates levied for the year amouuted to £65,293. The total amount collected was £65,749 including arrears. The current rates oUtstanding lepresent only 5,52 per cent. of the amount levied/5